S Asia’s media orgs played key role during COVID-19 outbreak
City Desk :
Across all countries in South Asia, it became apparent that the organizations they work for played a significant role in determining journalists’ levels of happiness at work and in life during the COVID-19 outbreak, according to a new study.
Almost all the South Asian journalists who shared their experiences during the COVID-19 outbreak admitted that they were stressed and depressed during this period.
They report that this was mainly due to the paradoxical situation they had to confront, said the report published recently.
The majority of interviewed journalists were happy that their monthly salaries had not been cut in spite of the financial difficulties faced by their organizations.
The study titled ‘Workplace Happiness, Journalism and COVID-19 in South Asia’ was jointly conducted by Achala Abeykoon, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, Archana Kumari, Central University of Jammu, India, Mohammad Sahid Ullah, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh, Pallavi Majumdar, Royal Thimphu College, Thimphu, Bhutan, Sajjad Ali, University of Malakand, Dir lower, KP, Pakistan, Mou Mukherjee Das, Maulana Abdul Kalam University of Technology, Kolkata, India, Santosh Kumar Biswal, Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar, India, M. C. Rasmin, Media Development Specialist and Academician, Sri Lanka, Shilpa Kalyan, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India, Mohd. Shahid, Journalist at The News International, Peshawar district, Pakistan, Mamunor Rashid, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh.
Senior media professionals from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were interviewed to explore how they were treated by their media institutions during the pandemic.
The authors found that journalists were not heavily dissatisfied with their employment during the pandemic.
However, interview participants stated that media organizations could have played a significant role in extending emotional and psychological support to their employees during this period.
These practices can become exemplary, allowing journalists to better cope with future traumatic events and enhance well-being in the journalism profession.
“We are lucky that we were paid a salary every month and had the opportunity to work from home. There has been no major job cut during the pandemic,” said one of the Bangladeshi journalists interviewed as part of the study.
