The pandemic exposed not just ordinary citizens and medical frontlines to health risks, but also journalists, who reported mental health concerns alongside the expected physical health risks associated with covering and reporting about the global crisis. Thomasian researchers Felipe F. Salvosa II, MA and Christian V. Esguerra, MA joined fellow scholar Sara Chinnasamy in the book chapter “Managing mental health risks and safety: Practical experiences and challenges faced by Global South journalists,” published by Routledge in the 2024 book “Ecologies of Global Risk Journalism.”
The mixed method study documented how journalists negotiated “the impact of COVID-19 coverage on their mental health” through surveys and in-depth interviews uncovered how journalists balanced doing their jobs and trying to avoid contracting the dreaded disease and possibly infecting their loved ones. Only 47% of the interviewed journalists in the Philippines and Malaysia said they were given protective gear, and some experienced companies’ refusal to cover the cost of testing—something that the Philippine government strictly required especially during the time when vaccines were not yet available.
Exposure to the virus was not the sole source of mental health strain, though, as the sustainability of the journalism outfits was also a concern—especially in the Philippines. With the Philippines counted as one of the countries with the strictest mobility restrictions, lockdown-induced business losses forced community newspapers to close. Journalists likewise juggled both in-person and virtual news coverage, resulting in heavier workload and the need to always be ready to report.
Salvosa and Esguerra are academic researchers of the Research Center for Culture, Arts, and the Humanities. Salvosa is a co-adviser of the Varsitarian and is the incumbent Chair of the Department of Journalism.
