This author spoke to dozens of journalists on how they managed emotions. Here's what she learnt

Maja ?imunjak is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Middlesex University London and the author of Managing Emotions in Journalism, a newly published book based on interviews with more than 30 British journalists. The book raises awareness of emotional situations and stressors journalists may face?and provides a framework for reporters to use in their work.

Our colleague Marina Adami spoke to ?imunjak about her book. They discussed what makes managing emotions important for journalists, and how they can practise emotional resilience in their work.?Here are four key points from the interview, which you can find here in full:

1. On why emotions in journalism matter. "Unlike other professions, what makes journalism different is that it's very public. All of your triumphs and all of your mistakes are likely to be well known. That situation contributes to both enhanced positive and negative emotions. Another thing about this job is that it never stops thanks to social media. There's additional labour when you have to deal with audiences [on social media]. And on top of it, journalists I speak to often feel that they need to be constantly informed about what's going on and constantly available to cover a story. Working under those circumstances can evoke feelings of anxiety, frustration, and nervousness. However, the industry seems to struggle with the fact that these working conditions are difficult and can be emotional. To me, it sometimes feels like we don't allow journalists to be human."

2. On how to protect yourself when reporting on trauma. "Journalists are likely to resort to what is called an attentional deployment strategy. It means that you're focusing on the routine of the interview: asking open and neutral questions, actively listening, taking notes, and paying attention to potential sound bites. This practice can preoccupy the mind enough to enable behaviour to remain to a large extent unaffected by emotion. But there are boundaries. There is a story in the book about Metro journalist Sian Elvin crying in a car after a trauma interview. She's not the only one who had this experience."

3. On managing your own emotions on social media. "One of the things that journalists in this situation reported doing is to set boundaries that work for them. You can make decisions on when you're accessing social media. You can make a boundary that you’re going to go to Twitter [now known as X] during your official work hours, but not in your private time. You can remove apps from your phone. A lot of people said it just revolutionised the way they work, so they have to consciously log into Twitter on a browser and they are doing that for work. Turning off notifications and muting conversations are also boundaries you can set. Finally, what some journalists said is that it's vital to talk about it. If you feel like you have to be there, and you're having a horrible time of it, just having a conversation with peers can release a lot of the pressure that you feel."

4. On a three-step method to cope with emotions. "It’s called ‘Stop, think, choose’ and it’s a model of emotional intelligence that I came across when I was trying to find solutions to the issues of work-related stress. If you are in an emotional situation, first stop and try to recognise what you're feeling. Can you put a name to it? Sometimes it's quite evident. But we're not always aware of our emotions. ‘Think ’ is understanding why you feel what you're feeling because emotions are subjective and people in different situations might experience different emotions. And this can sometimes be tricky because our emotions are based on our interpretation of what's going on. They're not based on facts, they're based on what we think is happening. This brings us to the final stage: to choose or manage those emotions. Only when you know what you're feeling and why you're feeling like that, can you make a conscious choice about what you can do in order to manage the situation to get the most positive outcome."