Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

A Sri Lankan newspaper editor's murder was followed by a powerful posthumous editorial in which he defended his criticism of the government even as he predicted it would lead to his death: "There is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience."

Newspapers report a plane's "controlled landing" near New York City, while TV networks call it a "plane crash." The first pictures of the event were taken and posted to the Internet by passengers, begging the question of how microblogging program Twitter is redefining spot news.

An American television report portrays the lasting effects of Agent Orange from the Vietnam War, while the show's anchor blogs about his first experience covering Gaza, and the bravery of a cameraman facing down a tank.

The International News Safety Institute launched a running update of safety information for those reporting on the current conflict.

A story on spouses of soldiers shows a growing understanding that the traumatic effects of war aren't confined to those who experience combat firsthand. Nor, of course, is war the only or even the primary traumatic experience; a story on traumatic childbirth points out that post-traumatic stress afflicts as many as 9% of new mothers.
 

“Birth trauma is in the eye of the beholder,” [says Cheryl Tatano Beck, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Nursing at the University of Connecticut.] “A majority of the time, if clinicians looked at a woman’s labor and delivery charts they would never dream that the labor and delivery would be so traumatic that the woman would develop post-traumatic stress disorder from that birth.”

Yet, Beck says, “If a woman perceived her labor and delivery as that traumatic, even though it didn’t reflect it in the charts, it’s the mother’s perception that is most important.”