By Sheeva Azma
This blog post is the second blog appearing on the Fancy Comma blog about the neuroscience of journalism. Read the first one here.
The fields of journalism and neuroscience would benefit from a deeper scientific investigation of the effect of newsgathering and consumption on the brain. Few neuroscientific studies have investigated the neuroscience of journalism, especially when reporting adverse circumstances such as war, whether from the perspective of reporter, interviewee, or consumer. Below is a review of research compiled from journalists and the scientific literature, including neuroscientists, discussing the need for a greater understanding of the neuroscience of journalism, a greater impetus for trauma-informed journalism, and the “vicarious trauma” that can cause PTSD in journalists and even consumers of news media. Chalin Askew of The Delve Podcast (2024) says it best when he opines, “The death, destruction, pain, and trauma are passed from the victim to the journalist, and then onto us in a constant barrage of terrifying content.”
What’s known about journalism’s effect on the brain
Studies of news consumption and mental health suggest an impetus to examine the effect of journalism on the brain. In one study by Dyar et al. (2024), exposure to COVID-19 news was linked to greater depression and anxiety, more stress about COVID, and greater use of drugs to cope. “Findings suggest that individuals should balance the need to remain informed about the pandemic and their own mental health when considering how much COVID news to consume,” the authors wrote. Dan et al. (2020) write that clickbait’s allure stems from curiosity stemming from both urge and interest. Li et al. (2021) examined clickbait using electroencephalography, and found that clickbait headlines evoked EEG waveforms N2b and P3a, both associated with novelty and thought to be localized to the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which is involved in decision-making, emotion, and cognition. These effects may also vary by gender; Marin et al. (2012) conducted a study that showed that bad news increased stress reactivity in women more than men, and that women were more likely to remember bad news than men were. While preliminary, these studies suggest that there’s more to creating good journalism than words on a written page; understanding the effect of journalism on the brain can help create more person-centered journalism, contribute to our understanding of the brain, and help inform aspects of journalism that focus on mental health, such as trauma-informed journalism, which centers an interviewee’s traumatic experience when interviewing them for a news story.
“Trauma-informed reporting” seeks to understand the trauma of people who are the subject of news stories, as well as the trauma of journalists working with content that may be at the edges of humanity, like war reporting. It is a way to optimize newsgathering for the human experience and buffer the effects of trauma passed on from victim to journalist to media consumer.
What’s known about news reporting and journalism
A few studies have examined the neuroscience of news reporting and journalism. Stephen Jukes writes about “affective journalism” – “the affective processes, behaviours and practices that lie at the heart of journalists’ work when covering traumatic news stories” (Jukes, 2017). Affect is rooted in neuroscience, Jukes states. He quotes several journalists covering wartime news stories, who state that they have to work to actively distance themselves from the traumas that are occurring.
Despite the fact that journalists in war zones often face daily threats to their and their coworkers’ lives, just seeking to report wartime news, only a scant body of research comprises the body of research on journalism and PTSD. The vicarious trauma in journalism remains woefully underresearched. A handful of studies have, however, investigated PTSD in journalists, including war journalists, and especially wartime photographers, who are often confronted with – and capturing – gruesome wartorn scenes. A study by Marais and Stuart (2005) actually noted that that studies of PTSD in journalists were few and far between and hypothesized that journalists’ temperament plays a role in the development of PTSD. Feinstein et al. (2002) found that PTSD rates in war journalists are similar to those of combat veterans, and that war journalists’ major depression rates are higher than the general population. A 2023 study of journalist PTSD in East Africa stated that trauma visuals play a significant role in escalation of traumatic symptoms and PTSD (Radoli, 2023).
The link between fear processing and journalism consumption
Post-traumatic stress disorder is multifaceted and has many features. While its diagnosis requires experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, many of the symptoms and associated comorbidities, such as anhedonia, emotional numbing, and substance abuse, are not directly associated with fear (Azma et al., 2022a). Substance abuse is also a coping mechanism for dealing with the symptoms of PTSD (Azma et al, in press). Brain regions and networks are altered in PTSD patients. A feature of PTSD is hyperarousal, or the feeling of being constantly on edge; this is thought to be due to hyperactive cognitive-appraisal networks which create exaggerated sensitivity to context cues related to past trauma (Azma et al, 2022b).
Hyperarousal is not a feature unique to PTSD. One can feel on edge reading news stories, which can prompt them to gather more information or doomscroll, which exposes them to more news and keeps them in this state, according to Allen Arthur of Solutions Journalism Network (Azma et al, 2023). Indeed, this statement from a journalist is borne out in the scientific literature. Researchers in Israel found that people who watched war coverage more often “reported anxiety reflected in uncontrolled fear, physiological hyperarousal, sleeping difficulties, and fearful thoughts.” (Bodas et al., 2015). In PTSD patients, hyperarousal symptoms are mediated by functional interactions between the anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala (Azma et al., 2022b). However, it is unclear what brain areas are involved in watching and processing wartime journalism.
If the goal of producing news broadcasts, then, is to inform and empower, journalism, especially wartime journalism, has failed to achieve that. Instead, it makes viewers nervous and anxious, and puts wartime journalists at a significantly elevated risk of developing PTSD (Azma et al., 2013).
Why neuroscientists should study the effects of journalism on the brain
Studying the neuroscience of journalism can help shed light on fear networks and information processing involved in PTSD and help wartime journalists better prepare by merging the practice of journalism with the neurobiology of trauma, perhaps leading the way to interventions that can reduce PTSD in wartime journalism, and in other spheres as well, including in war itself. Understanding the neuroscience of journalism can also help illuminate the idea of “vicarious trauma,” which impacts people that read the news, even if they did not experience or witness the news directly. Vicarious trauma is analogous to secondhand smoke – it can create health effects just from exposure.
Understanding the role of hyperarousal in news consumption also has a place in the journalism industry. It can also help newsrooms build trust with audiences and minimize doomscrolling and clickbait and other gimmicks to boost pageviews and rather, work to write stories that can inform and keep audiences engaged and interested.
References
Azma, S., Arthur, A., and Villanueva. K. (2023). Your Brain on Journalism: A Chat with Allen
Arthur and Kristine Villanueva. Fancy Comma, LLC. URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk_WPGU8500&ab_channel=FancyComma
Azma, S., Thompson, R., Bermudez, D., Renton, R., Adeyemo, A., Meyerhoff, J., Amdur, R.,
Green, B., Dutton, M., VanMeter, J. (2022a). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptom sub-
cluster severity predicts gray matter volume changes better than overall symptom severity. ScienceOpen. URL: https://ucl.scienceopen.com/document_file/c58d6652-499c-4501-b7da-383acd507d88/ScienceOpen/sfn.pdf
Azma, S., Thompson, R., Bermudez, D., Renton, R., Adeyemo, A., Meyerhoff, J., Amdur, R.,
Green, B., Dutton, M.A., VanMeter, J.W. (2022b) Post-traumatic Stress Disorder symptom sub-cluster severity predicts gray matter volume changes better than overall symptom severity. medRxiv. 2022.07.26.22278078; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.26.22278078
Bodas, M., Siman-Tov, M., Peleg, K., & Solomon, Z. (2015). Anxiety-Inducing Media: The Effect of Constant News Broadcasting on the Well-Being of Israeli Television Viewers. Psychiatry, 78(3), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.2015.1069658
Dan, O., Leshkowitz, M., Hassin, R.R. (2020). On clickbaits and evolution: curiosity from urge and interest. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 35, 150-156.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.09.009.
Delve Podcast (2023). The Mental Impact of War Reporting. Vantage House Media. URL:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5TCADh6HgaZDBWJwXjqb0l
Dyar, C., Crosby, S., Newcomb, M. E., Mustanski, B., & Kaysen, D. (2024). Doomscrolling:
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Feinstein, A., Owen, J., & Blair, N. (2002). A Hazardous Profession: War, Journalists, and
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Jukes, S. (2017). Affective journalism – uncovering the affective dimension of practice in the coverage of traumatic news. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Li, X., Zhou, J., Xiang, H., & Cao, J. (2022). Attention Grabbing through Forward Reference: An ERP Study on Clickbait and Top News Stories. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2022.2158262
Marais, A., Stuart, A.D. (2005). The Role of Temperament in the Development of Post-
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Marin, M.F., Morin-Major, J.K., Schramek, T.E., Beaupré, A., Perna, A., et al. (2012) There Is
No News Like Bad News: Women Are More Remembering and Stress Reactive after Reading Real Negative News than Men. PLOS ONE, 7(10): e47189. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047189
Radoli, L. (2023). Courting Trauma: An Unspoken Mental Health Crisis Among Journalists in East Africa. Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (RAIS) Conference Proceedings, August 3-4, 2023. URL: https://rais.education/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/0292.pdf
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