I ran across my wife’s iPad on the kitchen counter, and a bright sticky note she had placed on the stand caught my attention.
“Stay off the news!” it read.
Naturally, as someone who works in the news, I wanted to know why my partner was intent on staying away from the thing that pays our mortgage.
She told me the note was her therapist’s suggestion, a way to “balance news consumption from a perspective of limited time and brief exposure to it.”
My wife, Jennifer Elkins, is a mental health therapist. She said it’s easy to experience compassion fatigue from her work. “So when I see the news,” she said, “it affects me deeply — adding to the weight and knowledge of what my clients are dealing with on a regular basis.”
“It’s a serious dilemma,” she said. “I can remain informed, but traumatized, which significantly impacts my ability to sustain this kind of work, or stay willfully underinformed. But then, I have no idea of what all has happened in the last week, day, or even hour, leaving me alarmed when gas prices suddenly double out of the blue, for example. I believe I need to be kept in the loop, but increased consumption of news puts me in a hypervigilant, easily startled, mistrustful and suspicious state of mind that’s not sustainable for me.”
She’s not alone. A Pew Research Center study released last month showed 80% of Americans feel like they should stay informed, yet 52% say they feel worn out by the amount of news.
I’ve wrestled with this myself over the past year.
I’ve spent my entire professional career in journalism. I’ve always been an avid news consumer, flipping on CNN Headline News first thing in the morning, curating all types of RSS feeds and following social media lists and subscribing to independent creators. Managing the flow of information felt comfortable. I liked being the person who knew what was going on, from local board races to international conflicts.
But now, it feels impossible.
The 24-hour news cycle has turned into a 24-second news cycle. Every refresh of a browser, app or notification screen brings another wave of headlines — heartbreak, destruction, corruption, misinformation, confusion, or a plea to subscribe or donate just to keep journalism alive.
It’s too much.
Even journalists who work to make the news more approachable are feeling the strain.
In a recent newsletter, journalist and video producer Dave Jorgenson — known for his playful takes on current events, first as The Washington Post’s TikTok guy and now independent — wrote about his own experience of news overload. He described “the stress and pain it (news) elicits” and how he took a short break to reset before continuing to produce Local News International’s content.
Around the same time, a set of newsroom memes from Poynter audience engagement producer TyLisa Johnson struck a nerve with readers — including Jorgenson — capturing a feeling many journalists quietly share.
A Poynter Instagram post about news overload drew reactions from followers. This screenshot has been cropped to show a single comment. (Screenshot/Instagram)
If the news often feels like too much, but it’s our job to help people stay informed, how do we create a media diet that doesn’t traumatize or burn us out?
New survey results from The Media Resilience Network suggest that dilemma is widespread across the profession. Nearly 80% of respondents reporting experiencing burnout and chronic stress —— the most prevalent work-related challenges cited in the survey.
The network, led by Luisa Ortiz Pérez as part of a Vita Activa initiative funded by Press Forward, supports journalists and newsroom leaders working in underresourced and underserved communities across the United States. Its new report “From Crisis to Care” offers a worrying look at the burden journalists carry.
While burnout and chronic stress are the top concern (81.3%), financial instability or income insecurity (62.5%), stress or trauma within the newsroom (60%), trauma exposure through reporting (46.3%) and isolation or lack of peer support (43.8%) are also top concerns.
The survey describes the emotional toll this way:
“Behind every headline lies a body and a mind under strain. Journalists witness war, natural disasters, and violence; they endure harassment, financial instability, and social mistrust. Yet the culture of journalism still celebrates endurance over self-care. Ignoring hunger, skipping sleep, or minimizing trauma have become professional habits. Over time, these coping strategies collapse, manifesting as anxiety, panic, depression, or physical illness.”
I’ve heard similar feelings from fellow journalists during leadership workshops, training sessions, conferences and even over dinner conversations. Journalism can feel like a calling, and that mindset pushes people to skip meals, miss time with loved ones or sacrifice their own well-being to do the work.
For me, the best solution has been creating clear boundaries around when and how I consume news. I started by changing a few habits:
- I turned off nearly all app notifications. I don’t report on breaking news, and at some point the red dots became noise and clutter I felt a need to clear, rather than understand.
- I stopped listening to news podcasts and watching most video coverage. Reading works best for me. It slows the pace and helps me understand the context.
- I replaced the constant stream of news with things that bring me joy. In my woodshop, for example, I’m turning on Mazzy Star radio instead of loading up another news podcast.
- I try to be mindful of upcoming priorities. If I have training, a workshop or coaching ahead, I do my best to avoid news that is too upsetting. The news will be there afterward and my clients pay me to be present, attentive and focused on their needs.
I’m not the only one experimenting with ways to keep the news from becoming overwhelming. I asked other Poynter staff how they manage their news consumption and tips that might help.
Here’s what they had to say.
Create buffers around news.
“I do not start or end my day with news. I start with coffee and New York Times games. Once I hit Queen Bee, I’ll start reading a few of the newsletters in my inbox. At night, just before bed, I’m reading fiction. It really helps my brain to have those two cushions.”
– Kristen Hare, faculty, director of craft and local news
Choose a few trusted sources.
“Pick a real news organization to start your day with and subscribe to it, one with a track record of evidence-based news gathering and a corrections process. (Willingness to make corrections is non-negotiable.) I recommend people choose from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, The Washington Post or USA Today, but there are arguably others. You really only need to pick one if it’s a good one and you like it. Then you can supplement with more opinionated sources or your social media feeds.”
– Angie Drobnic Holan, director, International Fact-Checking Network
Start the day grounded.
“My answer is having my go-to reliable news outlets, having strong boundaries, and being intentional about consumption and grounding myself after. I’ll start the work day with something that isn’t news (honestly it’s usually meditation), then I move to newsletters, social, Google Trends and direct news sites. On weekends, I try to touch grass and do unrelated hobbies to stay balanced. I try to take it easy on myself, because between social media and the news cycle, there can be a lot to keep up with. I try to give myself permission to slow down.”
– TyLisa Johnson, Audience Engagement Producer
Use audio to catch up without overload.
“In the morning on weekdays (when I’m working) I always listen to news podcasts: NPR’s ‘Up First,’ The Washington Post’s ‘The 7,’ ‘The NPR Politics Podcast’ (from the day before), and sometimes I’ll add in Vox’s ‘Today Explained’ or the ‘BBC Global News Podcast.’ These podcasts help me catch up on the news without making me feel overwhelmed. At night or when I’m not working, my phone is in ‘personal’ mode so I do not get news alerts or email notifications. This helps me stay off my phone more and set boundaries between work/personal life.
– Sara Swann, research editor, PolitiFact
Check the news on your terms.
“I’ve created a focus setting on my phone that silences alerts from news orgs. I still get the notifications, but I have to actively check them, which I do a few times a day on my own schedule. This prevents a firehose of panic hitting my central nervous system all day in favor of something I’m actively participating in.”
– Megan Griffith-Greene, faculty
Don’t look away from the stories that matter.
“I turned off notifications for pretty much everything. I check on the news on my schedule, not the platforms. Three sources shape my morning: The Morning Dispatch, The New York Times and The Guardian. I get a variety of newsletters, but always read the AP, Politico Playbook, Axios AM, First Watch from Oklahoma Watch, Just Security. For war coverage. I don’t allow myself to turn away from stories about civilian deaths, woundings and dislocations. They can become repetitive but it’s not that they tell us something new, but that they tell us something true.”
– Jon Greenberg, faculty
Editor’s note: If you are in crisis, The Media Resilience Network offers support on Signal at +973-626-7394. Poynter faculty Kerwin Speight leads a mental health reporting project for Poynter and The Carter Center, and maintains a full list of resources for journalists and their reporting.
