Burnout in Journalism: Evidence from Regional Television Stations in Ethiopia

Abstract

The international evidence base shows that the mass communication industry is characterized by elevated levels of employee burnout while there is scant research addressing parallel situations in Africa and more specifically Ethiopia. Accordingly, the objective, of the present study was to determine the prevalence and magnitude of burnout among journalists working for Amhara TV, Oromia Broadcasting Network and Tigray TV using the Maslachburnout inventory and a sample of 123 journalists. The aim was also to determine the contribution of job control, job demands, organizational support and biographical factors to burnout using hierarchical regression methods. A two-step hierarchical regression procedure was employed to determine the best fit to the data. Results indicated that biographical predictors failed to qualify as significant explanatory factors, but the model explained an improved 32 % of the variance in burnout. ANOVA tests showed no significant scores in burnout were attributable to gender, job level, age or work experience differences except for region. Implications are discussed.