Abstract:
Emotion is one of journalism’s biggest dilemmas. The ideals of objectivity and neutrality
impose emotional labor on journalists. Alternative newsrooms in Lebanon question
notions of objectivity, neutrality and detachment, and open up a space for an alternative
ethics of emotion in journalism. However, emotional labor persists in these newsrooms.
In this thesis, I argue that journalists in Lebanon’s alternative newsrooms shoulder the
emotional burden of their labor individually, due to the absence of structural and
institutional attempts to address the problem of emotion. Through in-depth interviews
with five journalists working in alternative newsrooms, I found that questioning
objectivity does not automatically ease the tension towards emotion. Tactics of emotional
management impact the well-being of journalists in alternative newsrooms, while a
structural rethinking of emotionality is yet to be established.
