title: Ethical dilemmas, work-related guilt, and posttraumatic stress reactions of news journalists covering the terror attack in Norway in 2011.
abstract: News journalists working on crisis-related assignments may experience dilemmas with regard to how to conduct their work without causing additional harm to first-hand victims. In this study, we investigated how exposure to journalistic ethical dilemmas during the Oslo/Utøya terror attack in 2011 and subsequent work-related guilt were related to the development of posttraumatic stress (PTS) reactions. Norwegian journalists (N = 371) covering the terror attack participated in a web-based survey 8-9 months after the incident. We found that females reported more ethical dilemmas during the assignment than males (n = 356, d = 0.51). We also found that being on the scene was not related to more exposure to dilemmas (n = 311, d = 0.01). Moreover, we discovered that work-related guilt had a significant indirect effect on the relationship between exposure to ethical dilemmas and severity of PTS reactions (n = 344, completely standardized indirect effect size = .11, 95% CI [.04, .19]. The results showed that exposure to ethical dilemmas may affect the development of long-term psychological impairment. We concluded that media organizations can prevent postcrisis impairment by preparing employees for possible exposure to dilemmas during crisis-related assignments.
authors: Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies, Åbo Akademi University, Vaasa, Finland.
authors: Klas
authors: K
authors: Backholm
authors: Trond
authors: T
authors: Idås
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D004644:Emotions; D004995:Ethics, Professional; D005260:Female; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D020452:Journalism / Q000941:ethics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000209:etiology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D023481:Terrorism / Q000523:psychology*; D014937:Work / Q000941:ethics* / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult