Being a reporter is jokingly called a dangerous job because journalists engage with the public or could get in trouble for more in-depth investigative writing, but the joke no longer builds off an imagined reality.
Journalists have a difficult job that depends on people’s willingness to expose themselves to the world. Some reporters are turned away from public reporting at the request of elected officials, such as the AP being barred from most White House events this year, and others are simply ghosted by interview subjects. While society oftentimes respects these writers, there’s an endless number of struggles journalists face when reporting the facts.
Taking on the role of journalist today has a different implication than it used to though. There have always been reporters who venture into wars or devastation to document atrocities, but their sacrifice used to hold value. With the increase in desensitization to death, the loss of reporters has less of an impact on the public than ever before.
The National Union of Journalists reported that in 2024, 122 journalists were killed around the world, most of whom died in the Middle East. This number is only seven people short of 2023’s run for one of the worst years for journalists since the annual Killed List started in 1990. Around 516 journalists were imprisoned in 2024 as well.
Of these 122 journalists, 58% of them died as a result of the war in Gaza. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that as of since the war in Gaza started, at least 154 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed, several have been injured and others are missing as of the end of March this year. It is difficult to collect exact statistics, however, since Israel has made efforts to distort death tallies. A peer-reviewed statistical analysis conducted by academics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Yale University and other institutions reported earlier this year an official Palestinian tally of direct deaths in the Israel-Hamas war has likely undercounted the number of casualties by around 40% in the first nine months of the war.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent and nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, has been tracking the deaths of journalists caused by the war in Gaza. Between all the losses in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon, the war waged against Palestine has become the deadliest period for journalists since the CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
“Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price – their lives – for their reporting,” CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said at a press conference in New York. “Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth. Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law and another before history’s unforgiving gaze.”
So why are more people not aware of this increasing death count? Why hasn’t more action been taken to stop it? The lack of empathy for reporters dedicating themselves to uncovering truths is far more concerning than any report highlighting the dwindling journalism field. People are losing their own lives to tell the stories of people killed and (both literally and figuratively) buried, but the never-ending stream of violence put on display has dulled the emotions people feel towards loss.
A study published by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health researched the consequences of exposure to war. The researchers found people more likely to have anxious reactions to violence are less likely to become violent themselves. Those who are less likely to have anxious reactions may be desensitized to tragedies and therefore may be more likely to become violent individuals.
“According to the theory of emotional desensitization, with repeated exposure to violence people become “numb” to the violence, i.e., they experience less anxiety with each new exposure,” the findings read. “This “numbness”, in turn, is thought to make people more accepting of violence and even more violent … It is because people exposed to persistent violence then do not “feel bad” about the outcomes of aggressive scripts that they consider (consciously or unconsciously) using. In contrast, experiencing anxiety repeatedly in response to seeing violence generalizes to experiencing anxiety when considering using an aggressive script. That anxiety at the thought of behaving aggressively then inhibits both the encoding and use of aggressive scripts to solve social problems.”
Distrust in the media continues to grow while politicians lie about outlets to hide their own secrets, and misinformation keeps finding those too mindless to fight for justice or fact-check officials willing to let people die for unimpaired power. Desensitization will most likely maintain its grip on society until communities restore their sense of unity, a journey that hopefully will not cost too many more lives.
Journalisms is an increasingly dangerous job, one people can support and fight to protect. More information about how to protect reporters can be found at https://cpj.org/campaigns/.
