Fact-checkers may come across traumatic content and graphic imagery during the course of their work, while contending with online attacks and the challenges of maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
Nurudeen Akewushola, a fact-checker at FactCheckHub, shared how one particularly gory video he fact-checked led to nightmares and flashbacks. “I don’t like watching graphic content. It is disturbing. I try as much as possible to avoid it, but because of my job, I cannot,” he said. “I had a nightmare because I watched one of these gory videos of people carrying dead bodies, claiming it was because of the flooding in Borno, Nigeria, but it wasn’t related to the event.”
Compounding the mental health toll, he has also been on the receiving end of online attacks. Following an article he wrote about how former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari made false claims about the country’s economy, one of Buhari’s supporters targeted Akewushola on X. He elected not to engage with the troll so as to avoid the threats as much as possible.
“When people attack you like that while doing your work, it affects your mental health and creates some kind of fear over one's safety,” he said. “When you want to write on issues like that, the challenges you encountered come back, and you feel intimidated to do stories of that nature because you know the mobs are going to attack you and start cursing your family if you do it.”
Viewing a traumatic video for her fact-checking work took a similar toll on Lois Ugbede, assistant editor at Dubawa. “[The video] was cringeworthy, with all the dead bodies — babies and adults — improperly kept on the floor, but as much as we want to avoid such triggering content, we can’t completely escape it in our line of work,” she said.
Ugbede coped by listening to music, taking walks, watching movies, and sharing her thoughts with trusted friends or family. “[I had] fear of field reporting since the last time I went to cover primary health care in Nasarawa, Nigeria, and saw a dead body brought out. It took months of sharing with my spouse and other journalists the experience before I could stop reliving the moment.”
Investigative journalist and fact-checker at the Media Foundation for West Africa, Philip Teye Agbove, once contended with mental health challenges when unable to verify the origin of a false claim that spread widely in Ghana.
"I was mentally drained and deeply disturbed because it took a chunk of my time and effort," Agbove explained. "I poured hours into researching and verifying, only to realize that although I had completed the report, it couldn’t be published because I failed to locate exactly where the picture was taken. The realization was crushing—it felt like all my hard work was in vain," he said.
This experience affected his confidence and illuminated the mental toll that unresolved investigations can have on fact-checkers. As the claim continued to spread, he stepped away from social media and did not respond to comments he was tagged in.
Tips to maintain mental well-being
(1) Speak up about the problems you are facing
Seek help when dealing with mental health challenges due to fact-checking work, suggested Ugbede: “When the work gets overwhelming, open up to your managers [so that they can make sure you are] getting more hands to assist you with your reports.”
(2) Build a support system
Having a community to lean on when your work starts to be too much and talk to about the problems you’re facing is paramount. “It could be a WhatsApp community where you talk about work to ease the mental effect,” said Ugbede.
(3) Take a step back
Fact-checkers should occasionally step back from the weighty stories they’re working on, suggested Marina Modi, team lead at DefyHateNow.
“During these breaks, fact-checkers can schedule frequent meditation or yoga to relieve stress that may have been acquired from dealing with rough content,” said Modi, as one example.
If an incident hits especially close to home, for instance if it involves family, community or beliefs, it may be best to let a colleague take the subject up.
“If one particular story is causing you too much stress or mental strain, maybe you need to step back and let others handle it,” said Kwaku Asante, team lead at FactCheck Ghana. “If it’s too sensitive, perhaps it’s better to drop it entirely because we need you to stay alive, healthy, and strong to tell the next story.”
What media organizations can do
(1) Encourage staff to unwind
Newsrooms should encourage their staff to take breaks from work when needed, even amid pressures to meet tight deadlines, said Opeyemi Kehinde, editor and lead of the FactCheckHub. They could also organize social events to help their teams unwind, and have physical spaces at the office to do so, as well.
“Fact-checking organizations should have dedicated green spaces or recreational areas where their staff can relax and unwind briefly during work hours so they don’t become sedentary, which might negatively impact their health,” he said.
(2) Facilitate professional support for staff when needed
Kwaku noted that If fact-checkers need to take a break or require support from a psychologist, therapist, or someone else who can help them cope, organizations should facilitate this.
“The work we do can cause a lot of distress — sometimes from the details, sometimes from dealing with the sources,” he added. “Typically, if colleagues come closer to let us know about their challenges, or if I conduct a morning check and observation, and notice any changes, we try to first engage in discussing exactly what the challenge is.”
Photo by whoislimos on Unsplash.
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