A small crowd of people look on as a young journalist speaks to a recently bereaved woman kneeling on the ground and weeping.

The tears are real, as is the nervousness of the young journalist. But the scene is simulated. The crowd is made up of some of the UK’s foremost journalism educators, gathered at London’s Frontline Club to discuss the place of trauma training in the field of journalism. The woman is an actor working with EffectiveArts—a Seattle-based company specialising in ‘training professionals to be effective in emotionally intense interactions’.

The June 15 event was the first in Europe to introduce the trauma training pioneered at the University of Washington in Seattle by Dart’s Executive Director Roger Simpson and his colleagues, using actors to give journalism students a real taste of what it’s like to interview trauma survivors and victims.

The day began with a discussion of management approaches to trauma in the workplace and a critique of practices well-documented in the United States and Britain of young journalists being asked to cover emotionally sensitive interviews with little or no prior training.

Jim Boggs, left, speaks with students during a training session at Pierce College, in Washington State, USA, 2004. Photo by Jeffrey Cantrell

The represent-atives from universities, news agencies and media institutes later observed a workshop demonstration run by Jim Boggs, head of EffectiveArts. Four actors played individuals involved in a fatal fire incident and journalism students were then invited to interview the actors while the educators looked on.

The workshop aimed to simulate the level of intensity that exists for journalists when they cover traumatic events, and prompt questions about the sensitivity of reporting—such as the need for a journalist to recognise the trauma experienced by interviewees, how to judge their informed consent to an interview—and how to understand the impact on themselves of the trauma they are witnessing.

“I think the point of the day is to get the issue of trauma training—which is something that traditionally has been completely ignored—on the agenda for educators everywhere,” said Ros Toynbee, a BBC journalism trainer, adding that “seeing what happens when you work with actors and how actors can be integrated into training exercises—that was really useful”.

Using actors to train students is a powerful tool, but it isn’t cheap—an issue of concern for many of the UK’s cash-strapped universities represented at the workshop. However, the authenticity and intensity which the actors brought to the exercise was evident.

Joost van de Loos was one of seven City University students taking part in the workshop. “The value of a journalism course like this is that you can practice in a safe environment,” he said. “And that you can practice the skills you need if you are working as a journalist. It is really good to have situations that are very similar to what you will experience.

“When it’s professionally run, and you have an audience of your fellow students, you will also feel a realistic pressure and benefit from feedback. This workshop is really good for teaching you how to do it and not just how to write or teaching you how to analyse information.”

Aaron Swartz from Brighton led the group of actors simulating victims of an apartment fire. “It was an extremely satisfying experience for all four of us actors,” he said, “primarily because we feel like we’re really contributing something.

“Actors are used to doing role-plays for training in organisations—how to deal with customer relations or whatever—but I do think a lot of role-playing is deeply driven by profit. Whereas this workshop was not—it was motivated in a very pure way.”

Ros Toynbee described some of the positive effects of journalists also acting as interviewees: “If you can experience what it is like to be interviewed and to feel that terror and all that anxiety, then it will make you more sensitive and more accountable when you are interviewing.”

The workshop prompted a wide-ranging discussion, as the value of displaying empathy in different journalistic scenarios was put under the spotlight. The interviewing of a recently-bereaved woman in an obvious state of distress was observed to be likely to run counter to BBC editorial guidelines.

A constructive discussion, however, recognised that this could be factored into the teaching. For example, an actor playing someone who should not be interviewed could be included in the simulation to teach that very point.

Charlotte Barry, Associate Director of the media pressure group Mediawise and a journalism educator, questioned just how caring reporters should be, noting that a culture of empathy can be dangerous if it is used to hide some of the more brutal fact-gathering objectives of journalism.

The appropriateness of displaying empathy on screen was also discussed in the context of the BBC’s decision to air reporter Ben Brown’s consoling of an Indonesian survivor of the South-East Asian tsunami (click here to read about Ben Brown's report).

The day, in many ways, raised more questions than were answered—perhaps a fitting teaching outcome for a gathering of journalism educators. It also demonstrated the timeliness of integrating trauma awareness into ground-level journalism training.

Magda Walters, an adviser for International Media Consultancy, said that ways of handling trauma will inevitably be discussed differently in different journalistic cultures. This workshop was clearly an important and constructive step forward for British journalism.