A QUT journalism academic says the current freelancer-heavy market for media professionals could be preventing photographers and video journalists who report on traumatic news events from accessing the support they need.
The results of TJ Thomson’s peer-reviewed study Mapping the emotional labor and work of visual journalism has been published in Journalism.
"People understand exposure to media content impacts audiences but we often forget about the people behind the creation of the content," Dr Thomson said.
"The study shines a light on the often-unacknowledged emotional work and labour that visual journalists experience in the field that often extends into their homes and personal lives, too."
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Dr Thomson said the study’s findings also showed female journalists reported more emotional investment and management strategies compared to their male counterparts.
"Men tend to end contact with those they depict once the story is published while women reported continuing the relationship independent of the work," he said.
"Men were more pragmatic and noted the limited resources they had in terms of time and emotional energy, whereas women reported feeling obligated to maintain connections."
The research was based on interviews with 23 journalists from eight countries, including Pulitzer-prize-winners and recipients of World Press Photo awards.
Participants represented major media organisations from the United States as well as international agencies.
Dr Thomson said visual journalists regularly suppressed or enhanced their emotional displays while also dealing with
