Stress at Work due to Media Coverage Considered Unfair within the Organization: An Analytical Examination

This study investigates the impact of perceived unfair media coverage on job-related stress among public sector employees in Romania. Amid growing media scrutiny of institutional performance, it examines how such exposure affects employees’ well-being. Using a structured survey administered to 400 civil servants from public institutions in the South Muntenia Region, the study employs an ordered multinomial probit model and non-parametric correlation techniques to explore the associations between perceived media-induced stress and key socio-demographic and job-related variables. The results indicate that perceived stress is significantly influenced by employees’ age and job type, with operative staff and older employees reporting higher stress levels. Gender differences were also found to be statistically significant, suggesting differentiated stress responses across demographic groups. However, interest in institutional media image and participation in internal meetings did not significantly predict perceived stress. These findings contribute to the occupational stress literature by extending job demands–control models to incorporate media exposure as a contextual stressor, particularly within public institutions in Central and Eastern Europe. The study suggests that targeted organizational policies are necessary to support operational staff, including enhanced internal communication and media literacy training, to mitigate the psychological burden of media scrutiny. The research design is cross-sectional and geographically limited to one region of Romania. Furthermore, constructs such as “unfair media coverage” are based on subjective perceptions and were not corroborated through external media content analysis. The novelty of this study lies in its empirical examination of media-induced stress in public organizations, integrating socio-demographic predictors with perceived institutional vulnerability to media narratives.