“The Body Has a Lot to Do with the Actual Journalism”: A Phenomenological Analysis of Embodiment in Journalism

Embodied presence and sensory awareness are central to the everyday performance of news work. From interacting with sources to navigating complex social spaces, journalists rely on their bodies to gain access, interpret information, and build trust. Yet, journalism research often overlooks or problematises the body, particularly in professional discourses of objectivity that exclude sensory and emotional engagement. This paper investigates the embodied practices of Australian journalists through interviews with practitioners. It considers existential phenomenology’s complex of ideas about the body alongside journalism’s beleaguered notion of objectivity which excludes the senses and emotions. The findings reveal a significant tension between the lived experience of news work and its professional ideals and that journalists regard sensory perception as integral to their reporting. Building on emerging work that calls for a re-bodying of the journalist and deploying phenomenological perspectives, a conceptual framework based on embodiment, connectedness and culture is proposed to scaffold the meanings, values, and practices surrounding bodies in journalism. In a media landscape marked by declining public trust, this study argues for embodied approaches to journalism that embrace sensory awareness and relational engagement as a means of fostering more authentic connections with audiences.