Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Covering Trauma: Impact on Journalists

By River Smith and Elana Newman

An overview of current research on the occupational hazards for journalists covering traumatic events, the risk factors that aggravate those effects and some suggestions for mitigating those factors.

PTSD 101

By Frank Ochberg

Young journalists will often encounter violence among their first reporting experiences. The effects of catastrophe and cruelty are newsworthy, particularly when victims are numerous, are famous or are symbolic of something that we all relate to and hold dear: a child killed in a schoolroom; a nurse held hostage in a hospital.

Self-Study Unit 2: Covering Terrorism

IV. Interviewing

By Elana Newman and Chris Bull

Journalists take no Hippocratic Oath. There is little question that tackling a difficult story is a hazardous process for both journalist and source. In times of international strife, stories chronicling suffering and loss, and exposing injustices, are the stock and trade of the profession. The issue is how to minimize the risk.

Self-Study Unit 1: Journalism & Trauma

I. What is Traumatic Stress?

Traumatic stress, as defined in this module, is the pressure, force or strain on the human mind and body from a specific event of major dimension that shocks, stuns and horrifies.

Covering Children & Trauma

III. For Editors

By Ruth Teichroeb

The single best way for editors to improve coverage of child trauma is to create beats where reporters regularly do stories about kids. That means expanding beyond the traditional education beat and assigning journalists to specialize in social policy, child trends or family issues. Those reporters will become experts at interviewing and writing about kids. They will know whom to call when a 13-year-old boy is charged with killing his parents or an infant is found abandoned on a sidewalk.

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Children's Issues

A list of academic publications that deal with child and adolescent psychology and psychiatry.

Breaking Bad News

IV. What to Do When You Get There

If the family doesn't know you, identify yourself and ask if you can come in.

Self-Study Unit 4: The First 24 Hours

I. The Scene

In Littleton, Colorado, scene of the worst school shooting in U.S. history, a number of news organizations began suspecting that something was amiss when they noticed heavy communications traffic over police scanners. There were rumors of a shooting, but at first nobody knew the extent of the casualties.

Tragedies & Journalists

III. Your Community

By Joe Hight and Frank Smyth

Understand that your coverage of a traumatic event will have an impact on your readership, viewers or listeners. Remember that the tone of your coverage may reflect the tone of the community's reaction to it. Thus, you should establish policies that affect your coverage: For example, consider coverage of public memorial services for the victims, instead of private funerals. And, if you do cover private services, call the funeral home to ensure that you will not intrude.

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Self-Study Unit 4: The First 24 Hours

IV. Coping Strategies for Victims

The first 24 hours after a traumatic event can be a time of extremely high psychological stress for everyone involved — victims, their families, rescue personnel, medical staff and others. Often left out of this picture of sufferers, however, are the journalists who give witness to tragic situations so that others who are not on the scene have a sense of what happened and what impact it has had (and will continue to have) on the community.