Wright provides recommendations to improve mental health of early, mid-career scholars
Professor and Director of Communication Science Paul Wright recently published an essay in Health Communication, the first scholarly journal to focus specifically on health and wellbeing in the communication discipline.
Wright’s essay, “Improving Mental Health Among Communication and Media Scholars: Four Structural Suggestions,” builds on Thomas Hanitzsch and colleagues’ recent Journal of Communication article, “Publish and Perish: Mental Health Among Communication and Media Scholars.” Their data suggested alarmingly high rates of mental health issues among communication and media scholars.
In his essay, Wright provides four structural recommendations aimed at improving the mental health of early and mid-career communication and media scholars:
- Value scholarship, teaching, and service equivalently to grant acquisition
- Adopt a long view perspective on early career productivity
- Privilege internal over external early career scholar review
- Allow for mid-career agency and growth