ArticleJRSM open2014
Witnessing images of extreme violence: a psychological study of journalists in the newsroom.
Article in JRSM open, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Media Exposure and Vicarious Trauma: Italian Adaptation and Validation of the Media Vicarious Traumatization Scale and Its Impact on Young Adults' Mental Health in Relation to Contemporary Armed Conflicts.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Low emotional contagious behavior induces PTSD susceptibility in observers and is related to the regulation of oxytocin receptor in mice.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- The effects of social media usage on vicarious traumatization and the mediation role of recommendation systems usage and peer communication in China after the aircraft flight accident.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2024Article
- Site-Specific knockdown of microglia in the locus coeruleus regulates hypervigilant responses to social stress in female rats.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2023Article
- Workplace Trauma in a Digital Age: The Impact of Video Evidence of Violent Crime on Criminal Justice Professionals.Journal of interpersonal violence · 2023Article
- Associations among traumatic experiences, threat exposure, and mental health in Pakistani journalists.Journal of traumatic stress · 2022Article
- News Journalists and Postruamatic Stress Disorder: a Review of Literature, 2011-2020.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2022Review
- Mice Cohabiting With Familiar Conspecific in Chronic Stress Condition Exhibit Methamphetamine-Induced Locomotor Sensitization and Augmented Consolation Behavior.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Article
- Post-traumatic stress, personal risk and post-traumatic growth among UK journalists.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2021Article
- Understanding and supporting law enforcement professionals working with distressing material: Findings from a qualitative study.PloS one · 2020Article
- The contribution of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system in the emergence of defeat-induced inflammatory priming.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2019Article
- Ethical and Regulatory Considerations for Using Social Media Platforms to Locate and Track Research Participants.The American journal of bioethics : AJOB · 2019Article
- Terrorism and post-traumatic stress disorder: a historical review.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2019Review
- Essential Role of Ovarian Hormones in Susceptibility to the Consequences of Witnessing Social Defeat in Female Rats.Biological psychiatry · 2018Article
- Journalists covering the refugee and migration crisis are affected by moral injury not PTSD.JRSM open · 2018Article
- Physical versus psychological social stress in male rats reveals distinct cardiovascular, inflammatory and behavioral consequences.PloS one · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issuedErratum.2015
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveUser Generated Content - photos and videos submitted to newsrooms by the public - has become a prominent source of information for news organisations. Journalists working with uncensored material can frequently witness disturbing images for prolonged periods. How this might affect their psychological health is not known and it is the focus of this study.
designDescriptive, exploratory.
settingThe newsrooms of three international news organisations.
participantsOne hundred and sixteen journalists working with User Generated Content material.
main outcome measuresPsychometric data included the re-experiencing, avoidance and autonomic arousal indices of posttraumatic stress disorder (Impact of Event Scale-revised), depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II; BDI-II), a measure of psychological distress (GHQ-28), the latter comprising four subscales measuring somatisation, anxiety, social dysfunction and depression, and mean weekly alcohol consumption divided according to gender.
resultsRegression analyses revealed that frequent (i.e. daily) exposure to violent images independently predicted higher scores on all indices of the Impact of Event Scale-revised, the BDI-II and the somatic and anxiety subscales of the GHQ-28. Exposure per shift only predicted scores on the intrusion subscale of the Impact of Event Scale-revised.
conclusionsThe present study, the first of its kind, suggests that frequency rather than duration of exposure to images of graphic violence is more emotionally distressing to journalists working with User Generated Content material. Given that good journalism depends on healthy journalists, news organisations will need to look anew at what can be done to offset the risks inherent in viewing User Generated Content material. Our findings, in need of replication, suggest that reducing the frequency of exposure may be one way to go.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.