Recently the effects of compassion fatigue have been studied in numerous professional fields whose role involves witnessing human or animal suffering.
[9] Significant symptom overlap exists between compassion fatigue and other manifestations, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
[3] In an effort to reduce and minimize the impact of compassion fatigue, many organizations have begun implementing compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress prevention training which educate workers on the occupational risk[11] in helping and protecting professions, raise awareness about symptoms, and teach skills such as coping tools to apply before and after stressful situations, working with integrity, and creating a support system that includes individuals and resources that can provide understanding and are sensitive to the risks of compassion fatigue.
[14] Even if the photographer creates sympathy, they also cut it off; they stir the senses but their 'realism crates a confession about the real', which, in the long term has the inevitable analgesic effect.
"In his book Human Rights Journalism, Seaga Shaw explains how there needs to be a bigger shift away from the familiar to the unfamiliar to provoke a reaction in audiences.
Shaw advocates "It will promote a better understanding of the undercurrents of the events and issues at stake, which will in turn provoke a more adequate response from the audience and live up to the expectations that journalism can influence the future direction of society.
"[16]Though formal studies have not been conducted on this population of professionals, psychological distress in a social media content moderators[17] has been recognized by courts in the 2020 ruling against Facebook which resulted in a $52 million USD settlement paid out to content moderators developing PTSD as a result of trauma exposure on the job.
With all of the resources made available by the online world, most of its users tend to see tragic articles and stories on different social media on a daily basis.
[21] According to a research made by Keith Payne and Dayrl Cameron, psychologists at UNC Chapel Hill, the more victims people see (getting hurt or killed) online, the more they shut their emotions, for fear of it becoming too much.