“You have to do that for your own sanity”: Digital disconnection as journalists’ coping and preventive strategy in managing work and well-being

The article draws on the concept of digital disconnection in unpacking the motives, strategies, and perceived obstacles to effective management of risks associated with digital connectedness among journalists, particularly as these relate to optimisation of work and safeguarding well-being to avoid stress and burnout. Semi-structured interviews with British journalists reveal that their approach to digital connection is ambivalent. They consider the efficient access to information and ease of communication enabled by digital technologies both a resource in work as well as contributing to impaired mental health and job performance. Given the latter, journalists report applying a range of, primarily temporary, disconnection strategies to manage work and well-being. These patterns are similar to those observed among other knowledge workers. However, the study also points to several drivers and obstacles to digital disconnection that seem specific to the industry. These drivers include work in hostile social media environments and embeddedness of smartphones in daily work routines. Role conception, overidentification with work, and the lack of understanding and support from peers and employers regarding the need to disconnect have been identified as common obstacles to managing risks from digital connectedness

Teaching emotional intelligence for enhancing resilience in journalism

The article outlines an evidence-informed approach for enhancing resilience, one of the key personal resources in labor, and explores the viability of this training for increasing journalists’ ability to manage everyday work-related stressors. The suggested pedagogy is in the form of a microintervention, informed by literature on psychological capital and primary research based on interviews with British journalists. The test of concept is based on 13 workshops carried out with journalism trainees and professionals. The postworkshop survey (n = 80) suggests that the proposed pedagogy has the potential to contribute to development of participants’ resilience as well as their wider psychological capital

(De-)personalization of mediated political communication: comparative analysis of Yugoslavia, Croatia and the UK from 1945 to 2015

This article explores the ways in which the personalization of mediated political communication developed since 1945 in an authoritarian, transitional, and established democratic system. Findings from a longitudinal content analysis of Yugoslav (authoritarian) and Croatian (transitional) daily newspapers are compared with those from Langer's (2011) study of personalization in the United Kingdom (established democracy). The comparison of the data related to the personalized media reporting from Yugoslavia and Croatia with that from the UK shows that the trends observed in the transitional context are counter to the existing personalization scholarship and that they run in the opposite direction from trends found in established democracies. Consequently, two new theories are formed that may help explain the personalization trends in transitional societies. These are continuation theory and democratization theory

From a leader-centred to a party-centred system? The curious case of media (de-)personalisation in Yugoslavia and Croatia, 1945–2015

It is often argued that the politics of Central Eastern European countries revolve around political leaders. This can inhibit the development of fragile political institutions and the process of democratisation in general. This article examines patterns of media representation of political actors in the transition from a communist to a post-communist setting in the case of Yugoslavia and Croatia. The results show that, although there are significant similarities between the prominence of leaders in the communist and early post-communist eras, in the process of democratisation media attention has shifted significantly from leaders to parties as collectives

Monitoring political independence of public service media: comparative analysis across 19 European Union member states

This paper examines risks for political independence of public service media in European Union Member States by examining legal safeguards for guaranteeing independence of public service media’s governance and its funding mechanisms, and also the extent to which these are implemented. The analysis was conducted in 19 EU countries through a questionnaire-based method. The questionnaire was completed by a local team consisting of national media scholars. Results point to differences in media policies concerned with PSM’s independence among EU countries, with many risks associated with these policies and their implementation. Specifically, significant risk for PSM’s political independence has been identified in more than half of the EU Member States included in the sample (n=11), most of these being countries of Southern and Central Eastern Europe

Political leaders, media and authoritarianism in Croatia: the media strikes back?

This study focuses on the media representation of political leaders in Croatia, the newest Member State of the European Union, with an aim to capture the extent to which and ways in which political leaders have been portrayed in the media in periods characterised with varying degrees of illiberalism. A longitudinal content analysis of three daily newspapers from 1990 to 2018 reveals that in spite of the fact that media freedom decreased in the last decade, and the society became more authoritarian, there is little evidence to suggest that the press is increasingly demonstrating illiberal tendencies in the era of illiberal drift

Comparative analysis of risks for political independence of public service media across 19 European Union member states

This paper examines risks for political independence of public service media in European Union Member States by examining safeguards for guaranteeing independence of public service media’s governance and its funding mechanisms. The analysis was conducted in 19 EU countries through a questionnaire-based method. Local experts from each of the examined countries evaluated media policy on the appointment procedures for management and board functions in the PSM, and mechanisms of providing funding to the PSM by the government. In addition to examining media policy related to these issues, local teams also evaluated the extent to which these are implemented. The results show that in five out of 19 analysed countries local experts have described media policy as insufficient in providing fair, objective and transparent appointment procedures for management and board functions in PSM. Furthermore, more than half of the countries which considered national media policy on appointment procedures to be well defined in safeguarding PSM’s independence, declared some degree of risk in the implementation of this policy, pointing to situations in which the government or other political groupings have in the past few years tried to interfere with the appointment processes. Also, results show that there are large differences in the mechanisms of PSM funding. Overall, results point to differences in media policies concerned with PSM’s governance and funding among EU countries, with many risks associated with these policies and their implementation

Pride and anxiety: British journalists’ emotional labour in the Covid-19 pandemic

This study aims to identify and explore forms of emotional labour, i.e., efforts to manage emotions which labourers perceive as experiencing in their work life, that British political journalists experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic and the perceived consequences of this labour. It is argued the examination of journalists’ emotional labour matters as it can impact journalists’ workplace wellbeing and mental health, but also work commitment and quality of journalism. In order to answer the research question, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 British journalists covering politics in the spring of 2021. The findings indicate that journalists experienced a range of negative emotions working in the pandemic, with anxiety and frustration being among the most commonly reported ones, but also important was the feeling of pride in their work. The inability to access established, albeit informal, support systems, tied primarily to a physical newsroom space, but also other socialisation spaces, such as working on location, removed opportunities for emotion management and induced new, and often persistent, emotions of anxiety, frustration, loneliness and nervousness related to work

Twiplomacy in the age of Donald Trump: Is the diplomatic code changing?

This study employs digital methods in conjunction with traditional content and discourse analyses to explore how the US President Donald Trump conducts diplomacy on Twitter and how, if at all, diplomatic entities around the world engage in diplomatic exchanges with him. The results confirm speculations that Trump’s diplomatic communication on Twitter disrupts traditional codes of diplomatic language but show little evidence that new codes of diplomatic interactions on social media are being constructed, given that other diplomatic entities around the world mostly remain within the confines of traditional notions of diplomacy in (not) communicating with Trump on Twitter

Workplace well-being and support systems in journalism: comparative analysis of Germany and the United Kingdom

Contemporary thinking of journalism as a high emotional labour profession calls into question the systems that are, or should be, in place to support journalists with this labour and in this way mitigate any of its potentially negative consequences, such as those on well-being, mental and physical health, and job performance. By drawing on organisational and social support theories, this article examines the perceptions, expectations, and support needs of journalists in Germany and the United Kingdom, the two European countries with the biggest bodies of practising journalists. Qualitative interviews with 32 German and 34 British journalists reveal important similarities but also differences between the two countries. Specifically, in both countries journalists reported primarily relying on their psychological capital to deal with emotional labour, although many were unsure what exactly constitutes it or how it has been developed. In Germany the social and supervisor support were often mentioned as effective, while in the UK social support was at times found to be hindered by newsroom culture and supervisors’ lack of understanding of the job pressures. Finally, it has been suggested by journalists in both countries that organisational support could be improved by an offer of training in emotional literacy for both journalists and managers, establishment of a point of contact tasked with pastoral care, and fair, transparent and formal structures that encourage and enable journalists to effectively deal with emotional stressors in the job