#MediaStrong

Craft with Care
A Mental Health Symposium for Journalists



Leona O’Neill

Leona O’Neill is a former news reporter from Ireland. Working with national newspapers such as the Belfast Telegraph and the Irish News, she covered life
in Northern Ireland for over 25 years as one of the region’s most
established journalists.

She is currently Head of Undergraduate Journalism at Ulster University, a world-renowned institution delivering the region’s only Journalism degree and Masters programme. She also works as a weekly newspaper columnist for the Irish News and a Field Producer for the likes of Vice News, Al Jazeera, ABC, CBC, and other international media outlets

In 2019 she witnessed the murder of her journalistic colleague Lyra McKee at a riot in Derry and in the aftermath was targeted by conspiracy theorists and other malicious groups in person and online. These traumatic experiences left her with PTSD.

Contact:
leona.oneill@ulster.ac.uk
+44 07582959051


She has spoken on the world stage about her own experience and on the importance of recognising that journalists are first and foremost human beings, not robots, incapable of being impacted by the traumatic incidents that they cover. She was asked to do a TedTalk on the topic at Stormont – the Northern Ireland seat of government – to mark 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and the peace accord. She has worked tirelessly to elevate the conversation around newsroom mental health.

She has written a book called Breaking, Trauma in the Newsroom which features the stories of dozens of media workers impacted by trauma, both in local newsrooms and warzones. She has written and contributed to Journalism Safety Strategies for the National Council for the Training of Journalists and Reach Plc in the UK.

She has given guest lectures on the issue of newsroom trauma, resilience and the importance of self-care and newsroom support at universities and media outlets across the UK.

She developed and delivered the first Newsroom Mental Health Symposium -#MediaStrong – in Northern Ireland in May 2023, bringing together experts from the fields of media and health to discuss strategies to help support media workers.

She is currently undertaking a PhD in Journalism and Trauma and is developing a Newsroom Well-being Programme, alongside Northern Ireland Health Trust Clinical Psychologists, that will help change the traditionally toxic mindset in newsrooms and improve and nurture good mental health in our media workers.

Here are some links to Leona’s work:

Leona O’Neill – Ted Talk – Stormont 2023

Introducing the MediaStrong Conference – Belfast 2023

Leona O’Neill – Breaking, Trauma in the Newsroom book

‘Traumatic stories chip away at our mental health’ – Journalism.co.uk

Northern Irish journalist Leona O’Neill says that reporters need supportive newsrooms, rather than dealing with the repercussions of their reporting in retirement

https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/traumatic-stories-chip-away-at-journalists-mental-health/s2/a977661/

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