Safe and Sane: Resilience in the Age of Hyper Information and AI
To stay safe and sane, we need to take actions - for the sake of ourselves and especially future generations.
Journalism and the information industry is in a deep crisis around the globe. Too much of people-generated content, informational fatigue, confusion, and lack of clear strategies and resources are some of the challenges within this crisis, to mention a few.
Instead of looking for someone to blame, we propose to look at the challenges that exist in the industry, analyze the needs, and jointly generate solutions.
The growth of information, technology, and artificial intelligence is difficult for us to cope with, because when we received the first fine tuning 70 thousand years ago during the cognitive revolution and began to develop as homo sapiens, there was no Facebook or ChatGPT to tell us what to do. This is not a problem of one industry. Everyone faces these challenges.
The world has changed, but the principles of doing business have not yet. Our approaches are often outdated: we do things the way we did a hundred years ago and protect the past instead of adapting to the future, which is becoming the present extremely fast. Resisting change is a failed strategy.
As the journalist and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa said, “Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without all three, we have no shared reality, and democracy as we know it—and all meaningful human endeavors—are dead.”
We’re adding: without mental health and safety awareness, you can’t be a resilient person who is able to defend boundaries, adequately assess risks, and deliver important information to those who need it. These skills are essential for anyone who holds important information in their hands and makes decisions that affect people, nature, resources, or the planet as a whole.
That's why we created Safe&Sane - to explore, learn more, and understand how we can help you navigate challenges and become more resilient. Also, because we know that people need it even though not always conscious about it, and we have some useful strategies and tips to share already.
We believe successful change comes from three factors that need to work together: 1) identifying the needs 2) sharing experiences 3) looking for solutions to help meet the needs. That's what we'll be talking about in this publication.
What is Safe&Sane?
Safe and Sane is more than just a newsletter; it’s a resource hub and community dedicated to promoting resilience, mental health, and safety among information professionals. Our mission is to empower you with tools, insights, and support to help navigate the mental challenges of your field, build a culture of safety, and foster sustainable well-being. We believe that when information professionals thrive, the integrity of our shared narratives and the strength of our communities thrive as well.
Safe&Sane is driven by 2402 Foundation (Daily Humanity)
Want to co-create Safe&Sane? Reach out to us via this button:
🔍 Resilience in Action
Studies show that preparing for stressful events increases confidence in situations where action is needed and helps to make better judgments about risks and threats. There is already an example of a study of the long-term impact of safety training on media workers in Ukraine – trainees note that they became more confident, have better self-control while working in dangerous conditions, and cope more effectively with psychological pressure.
A few months before the U.S. election, a group of professionals dedicated to protecting journalists' rights and press freedom have teamed up to prepare reporters for challenging times. International Women’s Media Foundation developed the News Safety Cohort - U.S. election safety sprint to provide basic safety knowledge to those who would not normally be able to afford it: safety trainers traveled to 19 cities in 11 states and held one-day sessions with journalists from local communities. They focused on risk assessment, personal safety, legal protection, and mental health care.
IWMF’s Deputy Director Nadine Hoffman shared with us that the main impetus behind this safety tour was that they could predict possible difficulties in covering the US election campaign based on the experience of January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. It was fairly easy to foresee that journalists and civic actors, especially women, would face opposition to journalistic work from the authorities in “red states” and civil unrest closer to the election day. When designing the program, they took into account the local context, such as the possibility of gun violence in Texas.
The assessment of IWMF showed that most of the trainees were not prepared for such scenarios and had no experience in conducting a proper risk mitigation plan. Most local newsrooms do not include security in their budgets and do not have security managers or even journalists with such qualifications on a regular basis. It is important that the initiative was supported by philanthropist Craig Newmark, who systematically funds the development of journalism at the institutional level. “Our country cannot survive without the presence of quality local news – and local news cannot survive without its journalists”, Craig Newmark said.
Now that Donald Trump has occupied the Oval Office, this knowledge, gained by >600 journalists across the states, will come in handy.
According to the IWMF, 36% reported threats of physical violence. The Chilling report by ICFJ and UNESCO conducted in 2020-2022, shows chilling figures: 73% of women have experienced online violence because of their work in media. 20% have been attacked or abused offline in connection with online violence, and another 20% have experienced harassment ranging from physical assault to legal problems like SLAPPs. Existing data shows that media workers experience increased levels of anxiety and are at high risk of developing depression. Add to this the huge problem of underfunded newsrooms.
This means that we need to be much more proactive than we are now.
The challenges ahead
The countries of Eastern and Central Europe are experiencing a major crisis that began in 2024 with a series of local and EU elections.
Governments in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Georgia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina have adopted or are about to adopt legislative measures eerily reminiscent of Russia’s 2012 “foreign agent” law. These laws target CSOs and media organizations receiving foreign funding, branding them as agents of external interference.
For instance, in Slovakia, the situation has deteriorated rapidly under the new government. Prime Minister Robert Fico’s rhetoric against “political NGOs” has been matched by action: proposed laws to label foreign-funded organizations as “foreign agents,” restrictions on access to information, and public attacks on CSOs in the media. (learn more through WarzoneUA Substack).
The experience of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine and the war between Hamas and Israel, which was complicated in 2024 by Iran and Lebanon, should give us a lot of examples of what is useful and what’s not. The least prepared organizations have been trapped, wasted a lot of resources, and some have not survived to this day.
Safety can no longer be perceived as an add-on to the social activities of organizations - it must be the basis on which organizations, institutions, or networks are built. If a person does not know how to act adequately in a threatening situation, there is a high chance that he or she will make a fatal mistake.
📚 Resource Hub
Looking for sources of inspiration and self-development? Each issue contains a selection of books, articles, podcasts, or videos to be inspired or informed by.
💡 Resource center: Self Investigation - nonprofit catalysing a healthy work culture in the media industry globally by placing well-being and mental health as a core business strategy and value.
💡 Inspiration: “If journalists want to revive independent journalism, they cannot rely on people in power. They have to rely on the public,” - Rasmus Kleis Nielsen via Reuters Institute.
💡Data to process: Journalists Under Fire: U.S. Media Report Daily Threats, Harassment and Attacks
If you have something to share for this section, please write us: hi@dailyhumanity.dk
What's next?
Each issue of Safe and Sane will be easy to read and filled with what really helps. We want you to come back here as a source of inspiration and support. So stay tuned - we are working to make Safe&Sane your space for self-healing and growth.
Thank you for being with us!
War regards,
Safe&Sane team