Mindfulness and Compassion in the Training of Journalists and Politicians
Research project: How does mindfulness and compassion change in the careers of journalists and politicians?
Where are young journalists and politicians in life? How mindful and compassionate are they with themselves, their bodies and their environment? What insecurities do they feel in the professional context and how do they react to them? What influence does a mindful and compassionate approach to themselves have on their understanding of their profession? And last but not least: can there be a mindfulness journalism? Or even a mindfulness politics? Or: what could characterize a mindfulness journalism or a mindfulness politics?
A long-term scientific study is to provide information on this. Discussions with young journalists and politicians are planned, which will be open-ended and deliberately non-standardized. In each case, the aim is to get to know the interlocutors in depth. With their ideals, their feelings, their motives. At work, but also in life as a whole. The conversations are structured in such a way that through honest and sincere sharing, a kind of introspection takes place. The journalists and politicians are asked, for example:
- Why did they choose this training, this path?
- What is important to them at the moment?
- What values guide their individual orientation?
- Do they feel self-determined or were there perhaps expectations of others that they followed?
- Are they aware of any patterns and imprints (stably learned stimulus-response processes) that might play a role in your decisions?
- To whom do they feel responsible and are they aware of the impact of your thinking and behavior?
- How are they generally doing as a person and how do they feel?
Through the sum of the interviews, we get mindfulness profiles and fields that we can pay special attention to in each profession. Through the special form of questioning, we want to observe whether, in addition to introspection and reflection, the questioning itself has an effect, towards mindful journalism and mindful politics. We follow the development of the protagonists annually in order to be able to trace changes due to social, professional or private events.
A second study directs the focus on the recipients of journalistic work: how does information reach people and what impact does the quality and information content have on the recipient.
The project started in the summer semester of 2023. A course on the topic “Compassion and journalism – how do they fit together?” is regularly offered at the TU-Dortmund. Lively participation can be reported.
Here is the link to the project:
https://www.journalismusstudie.fb15.tu-dortmund.de/compassion-und-journalismus/
The photo book with the title: "Journalism and Compassion" fits the theme:
Listen to our new podcast on the topic: "What compassion can achieve in journalism"
PARTNERS
Institute for Journalism
Technical university Dortmund
THEME
Mindfulness and compassion in the training of journalists and politicians
YEAR
2021
