The (Dys)function of Anxiety in Journalism: A Workplace Disability or a Tool in News Element Selection? A Study of Working Journalists in the United States and China

John E. Newhagen*, Bu ZHONG, Wenjing Xie

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conferenceConference paperpeer-review

Abstract

This study is an experiment analyzing the sources of anxiety reported by journalists in China and the United States. It discovers that journalists’ anxiety comes from both workplace and news content. Sources of workplace anxiety deemed dysfunctional fall into five categories – cultural and political pressures, competition from other new organizations, pressure from supervisors and peers, and pressure from within the journalists themselves. Anxiety generated by problematic news elements can be used as a functional heuristic to support and enhance best practices enumerated by the canons of journalism. The same anxiety may serve to raise an intuitive “red flag,” warning editors to pause and take a second look at their work. Two proscriptive outcomes are suggested by these results: First, journalists should distinguish between the two sources of anxiety and understand one may be functional while the other dysfunctional. Second, they should be encouraged to learn to integrate anxiety stemming from news content into work routine and to use it as a tool to support the canons of journalism and enhance the news quality.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 21 May 2009
Event59th Annual International Communication Association Conference, ICA 2009: Keywords in Communication - Chicago, United States
Duration: 21 May 200925 May 2009
https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/ica/ica09/ (Link to conference online programme)

Competition

Competition59th Annual International Communication Association Conference, ICA 2009
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityChicago
Period21/05/0925/05/09
Internet address

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