By Isabella Mooney
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
At a news conference, Kaitlin Newman watches through the lens of her camera as the families of shooting victims cry and console each other. She listens for the rhythmic click, click, click of her shutter.
In her viewfinder, Newman sees the sister of squeegee worker Timothy Reynolds who was shot and killed July 7 in downtown Baltimore. Becky Reynolds makes eye contact and smiles through tears. She knows the face hidden behind the camera.
After the conference, Reynolds approaches Newman and gives her a hug. This isn’t the first time that Newman has taken pictures of this woman crying, and it won’t be the last.
Through it all, Newman is forced to remain objective. It’s not that she doesn’t want to join the families in grieving for the loss of their loved ones. Newman is a journalist, and she has a job to do.
Whether it’s attending conferences like this or capturing the start of a of a violent riot, or witnessing the beginnings of a war, a journalist’s job is to remain present, grounded and objective. But, while handling all of this death and devastation, how do these three journalists avoid news burnout?
“I compartmentalize like crazy,” said Newman, a photojournalist for the Baltimore Banner. “Which is probably not healthy.”
Newman’s beat is breaking news and crime. In a dangerous city like Baltimore, that often means violent death. When Newman goes on assignments, she is often taking pictures of people grieving.
“On my Instagram, everyone is f—ing crying,” Newman said.
Newman always tries to connect with her subjects, because she is meeting them on some of their worst days. This helps her maintain her emotion while still remaining objective. Plus, she feels better, she said, when she is treating her subjects like people rather than sources.
But connecting with her subjects often means that she feels their emotions more deeply.
Newman processes these emotions within a close-knit journalistic community. It is hard to find people outside of the industry who understand the tougher aspects of the job, she said.
Even if they have a solid support system, journalists often struggle with the knowledge that their best work will come from tragic events. Like Julio Cortez, an Associated Press photographer who accepted the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography awarded to the team of AP staff photographers who covered protests nationwide responding to the murder of George Floyd.
His accomplishment often comes with an odd feeling, Cortez said. On the one hand, receiving the industry’s highest award is a huge honor. On the other hand, he snapped those pictures because a community was in pain.
“I’m not the only one getting rewarded for taking pictures of something terrible,” he said.
Just Google Pulitzer Prize winners of the last 10 years. The pictures and stories are overwhelmingly negative. While happy stories are fun, they don’t typically make headlines. A part of maintaining his mental health is remembering why he is covering these stories.
“I can’t prevent a fire, earthquake, police officer killing an innocent man,” he said. “I report what happens.”
The power he has to elevate stories to national news is what brings him solace with his job, Cortez said. At the end of the day, these stories have the potential to effect change. And that change can help people.
But even when their work helps people, being constantly surrounded by death, sadness, and devastation can be too much at times.
“Corporate work allows me to escape, so I’m not constantly consuming horribleness,” said Tim Wolfer, a freelance reporter and videographer who most recently produced a story in Ukraine for NPR.
He tends to only report on breaking news because he chooses what he covers as a freelancer. These stories are often dramatic, Wolfer said.
Take his most recent story in Ukraine. Wolfer knew something was brewing when he got an apartment in Mariupol. He was in a new country, didn’t know the language, didn’t know anyone and a war was about to break out.
Must be terrifying, right?
“You choose to be there,” Wolfer said. “By picking the job as a journalist, you choose to be there.”
Like Cortez, a lot of Wolfer’s mental clarity comes from knowing that his stories can make a difference. While he said he loves his job and the change that he can make, he said he often finds it frustrating to see which of his stories get picked up, and which stories are left in the dust.
“Journalists have power,” he said. “But they don’t have control.”
Wolfer likes to maintain his corporate job, so he has an income that isn’t geared around world changing events. It gives him a break from the intensity.
Despite the intensity—and the likelihood of experiencing burnout at some point in their career—these journalists say they love what they do.
“Fulfilling your role as a journalist is what keeps the sadness at bay,” Newman said.