As a practitioner, now teaching on a writing programme, I would like to air an issue that I believe may have an impact on the emotional life of journalists, but which doesn't get discussed very often.

When you are writing "for hire", you have to adopt the tone and voice of the organisation paying you. Although people have criticised the conventions of 'objective' reporting, it does have at least one clear advantage for the journalist, who can write in a neutral voice, and keep a distance from both the story and audience. Nowadays, many media demand something that sounds more emotional, personal and subjective. If you have some control over what you write about, and how you do it, this is not a problem. But if the feelings being demanded of you are not authentic, it takes much more out of you. When that happens over and over, across the years, it can create conflictual feelings which are hard to live with.

It would be interesting if someone were to explore this more fully, perhaps relating it to the issues raised by Arlie Russell Hochschild, in her books, "The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling", and "The Commercialization of Intimate Life"

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