New Books Network Mark Deuze, "Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick" (Intellect Books, 2025)
Dec 14, 2025
Mark Deuze, a Professor of media studies at the University of Amsterdam, dives into the paradox of passion in creative careers, revealing how it can lead to burnout and mental distress. He discusses the lack of research on wellbeing in media work, the structural issues contributing to worker health problems, and the need for collaboration with occupational medicine. Deuze emphasizes the importance of transforming workplace culture through concrete strategies like transparent leadership and check-ins, ultimately offering hope for healthier creative environments.
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Past Interviews Hid Wellbeing Signals
- Mark Deuze realized many past interviews with media pros were implicitly about wellbeing.
- He found a gap: academic labor studies rarely integrated mental-health literatures for media workers.
Passion Can Coexist With Harm
- Creative work often inspires deep passion while simultaneously causing harm to wellbeing.
- The paradox arises because passion and harmful workplace structures coexist in media jobs.
Three Predictors Of Work-Related Illness
- Occupational medicine predicts work-related illness from lack of reciprocity, organizational injustice, and high workload with low autonomy.
- Deuze argues these elements define how many media companies are managed and explain high churn.
