An examination of psychological distress and moral injury in journalists exposed to online harassment

Studies show that journalists face repeated, intense online harassment. While data reveal this is distressing to the profession, no detailed psychological study has been undertaken defining what this distress entails. To undertake a descriptive study examining the emotional wellbeing of journalists...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of psychotraumatology Vol. 16; no. 1; p. 2522501
Main Authors: Feinstein, Anthony, Storm, Hannah, Mead, Jillian, Sharkey, Andrea
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Taylor & Francis 01.12.2025
Taylor & Francis Group
Subjects:
Adult
anxiety
Anxiety - epidemiology
Anxiety - psychology
Basic
Canada - epidemiology
Depression
Female
Humans
Internet
Journalism
Male
Middle Aged
moral injury
Morals
Online harassment
posttraumatic stress disorder
Psychological Distress
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - epidemiology
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology
Surveys and Questionnaires
Canada
anxiety
malestar psicológico
Online harassment
ansiedad
Acoso en línea
daño moral
depresión
trastorno de estrés postraumático
depression
psychological distress
moral injury
posttraumatic stress disorder
ISSN:2000-8066, 2000-8066
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Studies show that journalists face repeated, intense online harassment. While data reveal this is distressing to the profession, no detailed psychological study has been undertaken defining what this distress entails. To undertake a descriptive study examining the emotional wellbeing of journalists subject to online harassment. Data from 246 journalists working for a Canadian news organization were collected via a secure study website. Information collected included demographics, harassment metrics (frequency and reasons for harassment); level of organizational support rated on a simple analog scale (0-10, with low scores indicating poor support); psychometric symptoms (anxiety: GAD-7; depression: PHQ-9; posttraumatic stress disorder: PCL-5; moral injury: Toronto Moral Injury Scale for Journalists). The mean age of the sample was 43.07 (  = 11.83) years. Fifty per cent were female. Harassment occurred at least weekly in 65 (26%) of the sample. Anxiety scores in the moderate to severe range were reported by 74 (30.1%) journalists while 34 (13.8%) had PTSD symptoms above the PCL-5 threshold for potential PTSD. Frequency of harassment correlated significantly with anxiety (  = 0.16,  = .014), depression (  = 0.15,  = .022), PTSD (  = 0.2,  = .002) and moral injury (  = 0.3,  < .002). Moral injury correlated significantly with anxiety (  = .40), depression (  = .41) and PTSD (  = .44; Spearman's rho,  = .001 for all) scores. Organization support was rated as modest (  = 5.80,  = 3.01). Frequency of online harassment is associated with a range of emotional responses. While anxiety is the predominant emotion, clinically significant symptoms of PTSD affect a substantial minority of journalists. Moral injury is linked to other indices of emotional distress. News organizations should do more to address the challenges posed by harassment and better support their journalists.
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ISSN:2000-8066
2000-8066
DOI:10.1080/20008066.2025.2522501