Photojournalism among the most stressful jobs
The pressures of working on the front lines in a news-gathering and producing role have been recognized once again.
The pressures of working on the front lines in a news-gathering and producing role have been recognized once again.
American job-search website CareerCast.com ranked the most stressful jobs for 2012, and photojournalism was among the top 10. Walletpop.ca, a Canadian finance website, also put the occupation in its most stressful jobs list.
For what reasons did photojournalism make the list? Among low salary and long hours, CNBC gives the following reasons that the job induces stress:
[node:ad]Photojournalists are another group that, at first glance, appear to have it all — they get to travel the world taking photographs of beautiful places, historic events and famous people. But they also make the list of most stressful jobs primarily because they’re always on deadline. Photojournalists are not just out for a stroll taking photos like a tourist. They get called on a moment’s notice to go where the fire is burning, where war is waging, or where the car accident is being cleaned up.
Also among the list are perennially stressful jobs such as solider, firefighter and policeman. What many of the jobs have in common is that those working in them are subjected to constantly being on-call to respond to potentially dangerous or gruesome situations. And when they arrive, they’re often on the front-line, giving first response and immersing themselves in it — or in a photojournalist's case, trying to get to the action to capture it.
Last year, CareerCast ranked newscaster at number five, and photojournalist at number four on their most stressful jobs list. This year, even with more deaths and kidnappings of journalists and photographers than the previous year – due in part to the Arab Spring uprisings – photojournalist moved down the list to number 9 and newscaster was not included.
