Exploring the psycho-social wellbeing of journalists in Kashmir within the context of neoliberalism

Abstract

Journalists from India-administered Kashmir have endured the psycho-social brunt of living in a militarized zone. Restrictions imposed on the media by the governing class in a neoliberal milieu function to regulate the narrative on the conflict with the help of agenda setting. This analysis identifies themes of direct, indirect and structural violence, and shows how psychological symptoms such as anxiety, alienation, hypervigilance, helplessness, depression and trauma emerge from them. Employing thematic analysis coupled with a deductive approach, the author highlights how working conditions of the journalists shape their psycho-social wellbeing. In-depth interviews with Kashmiri photojournalists, journalists and editors (print and digital) and secondary sources, such as local and international studies on the psychological wellbeing of the population in general, demonstrate the psycho-social wellbeing of journalists in the Kashmir Valley.