One of journalism’s attractions is its fast-paced environment and dynamism. But in recent times journalists have found themselves wilting under the weight of emails, push notifications and strategic pivots. This is set against the backdrop of macho news environments, redundancies, online harassment, disinformation, vicarious trauma and now Covid-19.

Compared to other industries support structures are patchy or non-existent. But a growing number of journalists are calling on the industry to hold itself to a higher standard. This panel will look at what this means for journalism graduates entering the sector and the critical role they can play in changing the conversation. The panellists will also offer up positive solutions and discuss how journalism can be reconfigured in the post-pandemic age.

Panellists

Hannah Storm

Hannah Storm is the CEO of the Ethical Journalism Network, and the former director of the International News Safety Institute. She is also a consultant in gender, media safety, mental health and newsroom leadership, and has co-authored several publications on related issues. Hannah has recently shared her diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder in an attempt to tackle some of the stigma around mental health in the media. She now convenes industry-wide conversations around collective solutions to better support journalists’ mental well-being.

Pamposh Raina

Pamposh Raina writes on policy, politics, gender, and child rights. She has been a staff reporter and a deputy editor with The New York Times and Special Correspondent, South Asia, for AFP. She has also written for international publications including Foreign Policy Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, News Deeply and Women in the World. Pamposh’s recent work has focussed on analysing misinformation and disinformation on social media and closed messaging apps in India. She has been trained on trauma literacy by Dart Centre Asia Pacific. She has also attended seminars on resiliency and trauma at UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center. She is interested in training fact-checkers, newsrooms, and journalism students on trauma literacy.

Shayan Sardarizadeh

Shayan Sardarizadeh has been a journalist for 17 years. He joined the BBC in 2013 and has been investigating disinformation, conspiracy theories and online extremism for the last four years for BBC Monitoring and BBC World. His work also includes explainer videos for the corporation around how to spot so-called ‘fake news’ stories online.

John Crowley – moderator

John Crowley is an editor and trainer with 20 years of journalistic experience managing newsrooms and budgets across a variety of titles. At the end of 2020, he co-published a report entitled, Journalism in the Time of Covid, which explored the impact of the pandemic on journalists’ mental health. John is a trained Mental Health first aider and is developing a newsroom wellbeing training programme.