Emotions become the industry’s superpower

Has there ever been a rougher time to be a journalist? Maybe. Probably. But that doesn’t make the present day any better. As the news industry experiences mass layoffs (yet again), and the threats of artificial intelligence and democracy’s collapse, journalists are struggling. In 2026, newsrooms, journalism schools, and the industry at large will be forced to contend with the mental health impacts of it all.

I’ve been a journalist for over 10 years. Every year, the work grows more difficult. It’s painful covering the climate crisis and systemic oppression. That’s my beat — imagine what my therapy sessions look like. Well, every journalist needs a space to vent or explore their feelings. Not everyone covers environmental issues, but we all cover the day-to-day realities of society. And lots of that is ugly. We carry the weight of the world on our shoulders while simultaneously confronting newsroom leadership that tells us our feelings have no place in our stories or the newsroom. None of that even touches on our personal burdens: bills, family trouble, addiction, or other health issues.

2026 must be the year the industry builds an alternative approach to newsmaking that empowers journalists and provides them with the tools they need to stay in the field for the long haul. I know too many talented people who have walked away from journalism entirely for myriad reasons — but, namely, because their jobs were making them unwell. It’s past time newsrooms implement new programs, trainings, and ideologies that not only prepare journalists for the challenges they’ll face on their beats, but also show them how to wield the craft to heal from the traumas of our work.

In 2023, I started building the bones of the CARES Media Initiative with Rebecca Weston, co-executive director of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America. The acronym stands for connecting audiences, reporters, emotions, and sources. We provide trainings and resources to journalists, newsrooms, fellowship programs, and journalism schools that help journalists understand the psychology of how they and audiences are affected by the news, as well as how their emotions can serve as a tool for stronger reporting that makes us feel better, not worse.

Preliminary results from a survey we’ve completed this year with the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma underscore that there’s a significant appetite for such instruction. After every training, many journalists we meet share that they wish they had learned this information sooner. They also express fear over how to push their newsroom leaders to do better in supporting them.

With the industry in such an unstable and chaotic state, newsrooms need to be intentional in how they support their staff. They need to let reporters chase the story that matters to them personally, not the one that’ll garner the most clicks. They need to give staff enough time to process traumatic events, whether that’s covering a wildfire or a violent homicide case. They need to see a journalist’s vulnerability as a superpower. After all, we are just reflections of our reporting. How can newsrooms tap into their staff’s emotions to better connect with their audiences?

We can no longer pretend journalists don’t have feelings. We can’t hide behind the curtain of “objectivity.” We can’t bring in a trauma counselor a couple of times a year and think that’s enough.

Our readers deserve better — and so do the storytellers at the front lines of an unforgiving field.