Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Yesteday's issue of The Australian carries the headline: "Crash Course in Dealing with Trauma." It's the story of journalist Mike Walter, an accidental firsthand witness to the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. More »

The newly formed Emergency Media and Public Affairs group in Australia held its annual conference in Melbourne, Australia May 24-26. Network Nine news reporter Brett McLeod, who produced Dart Centre Australasia’s "News Media and Trauma" DVD, and Ochberg Fellow Gary Tippet both represented the Dart Centre at different presentations at the two-day conference. More »

A code to protect the safety of media professionals was launched yesterday at the "Reporting Wars: Challenges and Responsibilities" conference in Sydney, Australia. More »

We’re pleased to announce that Tragedies and Journalists — the Dart Center's 40-page guide for journalists, photojournalists and editors reporting on traumatic experience — has two new Chinese-language editions, one for mainland China and one for Taiwan. More »

One year ago, a massive earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale killed tens of thousands and displaced millions in the Sichuan province of China. In the immediate aftermath, the Chinese government permitted journalists unprecedented access to the devastation. Stories of collapsed schools and miraculous survival brought the world closer to the rural villages of China, but the work took its toll on the storytellers. More »

The deadliest soldier-on-soldier incident among U.S. servicemembers since the beginning of the Iraq war occurred yesterday. Sgt. John M. Russell has been charged with five counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault after opening fire upon staff at a combat stress clinic at Camp Liberty, Iraq. More »

Earlier today, former New York Times reporter Tim Weiner visited the Columbia J-School to give a talk to students billed as "All you ever wanted to know about TORTURE but were afraid to ask." Given the recent ambivalence of many American news organizations on the T word, we were curious to hear Weiner's take. More »

Editing video from last week's panel with winners of the 2009 Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, one moment stood out. Dart Center's executive director, Bruce Shapiro, was asking how the panelists selected details to include and to exclude when Russell McCrory, designer for The Honolulu Advertiser, made an insightful comment from the audience. More »