Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Professor Ian Richards from the University of South Australia this year became the inaugural Dart Centre Australasia Academic Fellow (to see the biographies of all the Fellows, click here.)

The Fellowship enabled him to take part in a program of seminars and presentations at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York, USA.

There were 12 Fellows – 10 from the US and two international Fellows – on the program, which focused on the issues raised when journalists report human tragedy.

Key figures involved in preparing and presenting the program included the executive director of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, Bruce Shapiro; Deputy Director Joan Connell; Head of Dart Research, Professor Elana Newman; Dr. Meg Spratt from Dart Centre West; and Gavin Rees from Dart Centre Europe.

“It’s a fantastic program,” Professor Richards said. “It covered a wide range of issues, from the professional implications of reporting human tragedy to a range of approaches to teaching students about them.

“My professional background and experience gelled with much of the discussion. As a young journalist, I remember interviewing a Cambodian mother and son who had fled from the vicious Khmer Rouge regime.

“They told a harrowing tale of how, while in hiding near the Thai border, eight members of their family had died – and how, soon after, the survivors became so hungry that they ate flesh from the bodies of their dead relatives.

“I covered more dramatic stories during this time, from light aircraft crashes to road accidents and bushfires, but for some reason that Cambodian story had the strongest effect on me. They just seemed so sad and pitiful.”

Like most working journalists, he received no training in how to deal with such situations. He is keen to develop appropriate and effective ways of educating journalism students in this area.

“They need to be taught how to recognise trauma and stress reactions in survivors,” he said. “They need to be equipped to make appropriate ethical decisions when reporting these situations. And they also need to be able to handle their own responses to what are often emotionally charged situations.

“These things are not easy to teach, but I’m confident that the Fellowship has made it much easier to find a way through the difficulties.”

The Fellowship covers the cost of the program at Columbia as well as travel and accommodation expenses.