Symposium 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

The Impact Of War In The Middle East On Journalists: Navigating Compassion Fatigue, Resilience, And Constructive Media. (#346)

Milad Hadchity 1
  1. HUMANSHIP, Beirut, BEIRUT, Lebanon

Compassion fatigue has gone unnoticed by journalists in the Middle East as they are exposed to high levels of war and violence.  They are amongst the highest rate of burnout in their profession. Unfortunately, due to their fieldwork, they rarely have the opportunity to express their emotions which has become challenging in recent times and created a lessening of compassion and moral dilemma depending on the conflict stimulus. We conducted three workshops for 30 journalists in two geographical areas in Lebanon. These sessions focused on strength-based resilience, mindfulness, emotional awareness, self-regulation and self-care. These sessions aimed at helping journalists identify compassion fatigue and learn how to avoid it through various methods. The effectiveness of the session was notable among the journalists who expressed the importance of such topics in their training. Compassion fatigue should be a part of the journalism curriculum to prepare future journalists on the different traumatic events they may encounter; this may eventually enhance their wellbeing and professional quality of life.