Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Does this mean I have to watch it again?

That was my first thought when asked for my reaction to “the Neda video.”

I had watched it early on, before its provenance was clear, and felt I had already grappled with its horror. I remember forcing myself to face the screen, as if watching every second would admit me to some global community of the grieving. More »

A young woman, with her stunning eyes wide open, dies on the pavement, taking her last breath and muttering, “I am burning.” Depictions of graphic, bloody, and often senseless street violence hardly serve a constructive purpose as they are brought into our living rooms each evening. But the image of Neda Agha-Soltan dying in a street in Tehran presents something radically different: visual evidence of the passing of a significant moment in Iran’s tumultuous history. More »

Last month in Bonn, Germany, news media, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, politicians, artists, entrepreneurs and scientists from all over the world came together to discuss conflict in a multimedia age. The Dart Center organized panels on "The Trauma Factor: The Missing Ingredient in Conflict Journalism" and "Surviving Kidnap"; You now can download or listen online to the audio. More »

What else is there to do amid a crisis that has been cordoned off from view? Hypothetically, the question could have applied to a situation where a variety of other material — graphic and non-graphic — was equally available and then a journalists had to struggle with the notion of which to choose. More »

In Baghdad, Chancellor Keesling, a 25-year-old soldier from Indianapolis, shot and killed himself. In Tehran, Neda Agha Soltan, a 26-year-old student, was shot and killed as she watched a peaceful protest.

Two very different deaths, two very different news stories, but both required context to express or arouse anything but pain and loss. More »

Video of the death of Neda Agha Soltan, who was shot in the chest as she stood near a peaceful protest in Tehran this Saturday, has become a powerful symbol as it has spread worldwide through social websites and news media alike. But for news organizations, this video also poses hard questions: When, how and in what context should we use graphic, violent, deeply upsetting images and video?

In the first in a series of guest posts, author and NYU photography professor Fred Ritchin addresses what journalists need to know. More »

Here at the Dart Center we focus on coverage of violence and its aftermath. Usually that means better understanding the role of emotional injury in the lives of individuals or communities.

But sometimes the story is exactly the opposite: What happens when individuals and communities, whose lives have been thwarted and voices diminished by trauma and fear, find creative ways to assert their rights and aspirations? More »

"Why am I doing this? Because I think it's incredibly important for you and for the audience to hear this story." Documentary photographer Mimi Chakarova said this of the risks and challenges entailed by her latest project on Iraqi rape victims. But the same could have been said by either of her fellow panelists as they talked about "Covering Invisible Populations" at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference on Saturday. More »

I just came out of my first session at the 2009 Investigative Reporters and Editors Conference: a discussion of new frontiers and strategies in mapping. For the next few days, I along with many others from the Dart network will be attending panels and talking to some of the world's best investigative reporters, editors, producers and news directors. More »

Stan Strick, former executive editor at The Daily Herald in Everett, Wash., and a strong supporter of innovative journalism focused on community reaction to trauma and violence, died June 4 from complications related to cancer treatment. More »