Well-Being and Creative Careers
Product details
- ISBN 9781835951927
- Dimensions: 148 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 01 Sep 2025
- Publisher: Intellect
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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The media and creative industries thrive on passion, but that passion often comes at a cost. Behind the glamour of journalism, filmmaking, games, music, advertising, and online content creation lies a growing crisis-one of burnout, anxiety, substance abuse, and exhaustion. Why do so many creative professionals report feeling both deeply fulfilled and profoundly unwell?
Mark Deuze investigates the systemic issues that make creative work both exhilarating and unsustainable. Drawing on extensive research and in-depth interviews with media professionals, he notes the hidden downsides of doing what you love and offers a candid analysis of how workplace structures, high workloads, and perceived injustices contribute to mental and physical distress.
But this book is not just about what's broken; it's about what can be done. Deuze provides a roadmap for rethinking the culture of creative industries and offers strategies for balancing passion with sustainability. A practical resource for media scholars and those navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, this work challenges us to imagine a healthier future for our labour of love.
Mark Deuze is a professor of media studies at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Humanities. Publications of his work include over 150 academic papers and 14 books, including Well-Being and Creative Careers (Intellect, 2025), Happiness in Journalism (Routledge, 2024), and Life in Media (The MIT Press, 2023). Professor Deuze has held honorary appointments at the Faculty of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia, the School of Arts and Humanities at Edith Cowan University in Perth and the School of Communication of the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, and the Department of Communication and Media Studies of Northumbria University, United Kingdom. He is also band member of Skinflower, latest album Kaduc
(Record Union, 2024).
