State of health and stress factors in occupation: the mass media profession.

The phenomenon of stress is analysed in terms of work conditions and work behaviour of a heterogeneous cross-section of journalists, publicists and media professionals in Western Germany. The enquiry revealed several interdependencies between professional status and job satisfaction. Stress factors in communication occupations, of psychic and physical origins, and their effects on the state of health and on the life expectancy of the people affected, of whom there are estimated to be 25,000 in the Federal Republic of Germany, are discussed.