Comparative Study of Psychological Wellbeing among Media Professionals’
Dr. Varsha Sharma
Assistant Professor
Department Of Psychology,
Mohanlal Sukhadia University,
Udaipur, Rajasthan, India,
email-drvarshasharmamlsu@gmail.com ,
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8613-4082
Abstract
Media has always been an agent of strength builder for democracy in the country like India. While performing their jobs media officials are required to perform many prescheduled and sudden events with perfection. The 24*7 alertness of the job sometimes initiate a tension cycle for the media officials. During the health emergency state, it was the media officials who were doing exceptionally well in order to strengthen the voice of the needy. The present research paper is an effort to assess the level of psychological wellbeing among the on roll and off roll (contractual) media officials during the COVID. For collecting the primary data Wellbeing Index developed by Prof. V.L. Chouhan and V. Sharma was used. The statistical analysis indicated that there is significant difference between the level of wellbeing index among on roll and off role (contractual) media officials.
Keywords: Frontline Workers, Media Professionals, Psychological Wellbeing, Covid.
Introduction
Media is being considered as one of the most stressful jobs among the other jobs. Media professionals have to deal with the crucial job demand, which requires every time alertness, the need to be updated, need to be perfect etc. In order to meet the deadlines the journalists have to work hard as their job schedules are very sudden.
Journalism by definition is a stressful profession as when reporters deal with deadlines, work on the conflicts related to the covered news, related to crime or to face the live programs sometimes initiates the stress. (Pandey, 2011)
In order to meet out the busy schedule journalists and other media officials really need to employ their sincere efforts. Media professionals work for the upliftment of society. They try to give voice to the weaker section. Their untiring efforts are admired always. They always try to bring to the light the voice of individuals who are exploited in any sense. During the covid-19, the unexceptional work of media professionals cannot be denied in any way. But just like the other professions, media professionals also faced so many after effects of the global pandemic. This resulted into to low levels of salary reduction, loss of incentives, loss of jobs, overburdened work schedules. From last few years there was a significant increase in the researches related to the psychological issues among the journalist.
Occupational stressors are aspects of the work environment that causes strains, poor psychological health and well-being of the individuals. (Beehr, 1995) In addition to technical and economic factors impacting in organization employee’s face and number of other challenges including greater workload, decreasing job security and lack of role clarity. (Johnson et. al. 2005) Perceived support from the organization is associated with the low level of stress among workers. (Aldamman et. al. 2019)
Wellbeing indicates individual satisfaction in different domains of one's life. It includes both the objective and subjective parameters the objective components include education, employment status, financial responses and comforts of modern life. The subjective components include the overall satisfaction and sense of wellbeing. (Jain, 2010) Psychological wellbeing include meaning in life, absence of somatic symptoms, self-esteem, positive affect, daily activities satisfaction, absence of suicidal ideas, personal control, social support, absence of tension and general efficacy. (Bhole and Prakash, 1981)
According to the Cloniger (2008) wellbeing can be assessed by four methods:
Presence of positive emotional and absence of negative emotions, (ii) mature character traits including self-directed, cooperativeness, self-transcendence, (iii) life satisfaction and quality of life, (iv) character strength and virtues such as hope compression and courage. The issue of job stress is not new among media professionals but the COVID era has added new dimensions to the existing issue. Which has resulted into the requirement of more effective strategies of work life balance in order to have a overall wellbeing. Journalist of young age and female journalists felt significantly higher level of stress associated with pandemic coverage. (Hoak, 2021)
Relevance of the Study
It is the need of the hour to initiate the efforts to understand the after effects of this new normal condition. The present research paper is an effort to draw the attention towards the need of psychological assistance among media professionals.
Objective
To do a comparative study of psychological Wellbeing among media professionals.
Variables
Independent Variable- Media professional (On roll and Off roll- contractual)
Dependent Variable- Level of Psychological Wellbeing
Hypothesis
H0= There will be no significant difference between the levels of psychological wellbeing among media professionals.
Methodology
Locale- The locale of the present study was confined to the Udaipur division of Rajasthan.
Sample- The sample of 228 respondents was selected including 107 On Roll media officials and 121 Off Roll (Contractual) media officials including 128 males and 100 females workers.
Sample Distribution
|
On the basis of nature of job |
On the basis of gender |
||
|
On- Roll (N=107) |
Off- Role(N=121) |
Male (N=128) |
Female(N=100) |
|
Total= 228 |
Total=228 |
||
Figure: Sample Distribution On the basis of nature of job
Figure: Sample Distribution On the basis of Gender
Introduction of Test / Tool used
Wellbeing index was used to collect the primary data. This scale is developed by Prof. V.L. Chouhan and Dr. V. Sharma. This scale consists of 50 statements related to emotional wellbeing, social well-being, psychological wellbeing, spiritual well-being, self-awareness and physical wellbeing. Out of which 32 statements are positive and 18 are negative. This is a Likert type scale having five alternatives of responses ranging from strongly agrees to strongly disagree. Test- retest reliability of the scale is 0.71 and the validity is 0.85.
Result and Discussion
Result Table
|
Media Officials’ |
N |
Mean |
SD |
SEM |
t- value |
df |
|
On-Roll |
107 |
199.13 |
25.10 |
2.426 |
13.60* |
226 |
|
Off- Roll |
121 |
160.10 |
18 |
1.636 |
*Significant at 0.05 level
Figure: Mean values of Wellbeing Index of On Roll and Off Roll (Contractual) Media Officials
Result table indicates that the mean value of On- Roll media Professionals is 199.13 and Off-Roll media Professionals is 160.10, the t-value calculated is 13.60 which is p>0.05, the analysis indicates that there is a significant difference between the level of psychological wellbeing of On- Roll media professionals and Off- Roll media professionals.
The results indicated that there is a significant difference between the level of allover wellbeing which is indicative by the wellbeing index. The on roll media officials are on higher level of wellbeing in compared to the off-roll (contractual) media professionals. The reason may be the onset of global pandemic has adversely affected the economy which ultimately resulted in to loss of job, low level of salary, insecurity etc. As the media officials need to perform their job tasks into the field so sometimes it is very difficult to work effectively due to the emergency situations. As far as off-role (contractual) media officials are concerned it is more problematic for them due to the uncertainty regarding the job incentives, salary etc.
Conclusion
Hence it can be conclude that the present study puts forth the psychological perspective of the media workers. Their need for psychological assistance should be addressed at the early stage. The occurred null hypothesis for the study is being rejected as the significant difference between the level of wellbeing is being recorded.
References
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