Exhausted and Under Pressure: Emotional Labor in Portuguese Journalism

Journalism is a demanding job that requires extensive emotional labor, i.e., work-related emotional management in order to meet professional requirements. Adhering to professional norms, dealing with news sources and themes, or covering traumatic events are some of the challenges journalists face, while being subject to long and irregular hours, precarious job conditions, and constant availability. We conducted semi-structured interviews with Portuguese journalists (N = 50) in order to understand the daily stressors that promote emotional labor. Results indicate that Portuguese journalists emotional labor stems from different factors: journalistic routines; the challenges promoted by digital environments; and journalists' working conditions. Some of these forms of emotional labor were accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought an additional layer of emotional management. Our findings could inform media guidelines and policy recommendations to prevent emotional labor amongst journalists, thus promoting their well-being.