Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

No matter what the beat or medium, young journalists are almost certain to encounter human tragedy in the course of their work. But few student journalists are trained to recognize trauma and stress reactions in survivors, to make informed ethical choices about trauma news, or to deal with their own emotional reactions while on the job. With this in mind, the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma has established a new Academic Fellowship Program.  More »

Dark, cold, grey, brooding Helsinki. This was the backdrop for Violence in the Networked Society, an international conference hosted by University of Helsinki’s Communication Research Center on Nov. 6 and 7, 2009. It was a particularly poignant setting, because in 2007 and again in 2008 Finland was the site of school shootings that together left 18 students murdered. In this highly literate and socially conscious society, the sense of communal grief was profound — a national trauma. More »

Finnish speaking journalists who cover violence and trauma have a new page to bookmark: the official website for the Dart Center Finnish Network. Country Contact Klas Backholm, a journalism and trauma researcher, will be maintaining the page, which already contains tip sheets, interviews and research findings. More »

Today is the first day of Deutsche Welle's annual Global Media Forum. The theme is "Conflict Prevention in the Multimedia Age." The location, as usual, is Bonn, Germany. For those of us not in Bonn, there are a few ways to follow along. More »

If there is one constant in the political history of Gaza over the 61 years since the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, it is that whenever it is thought that the situation can’t get any worse, it usually does. The Israeli-Hamas war that ended three months ago left many hundreds dead, thousands of others robbed of their livlihoods and the political divisions within Palestinian society just as deeply fissured as before. More »

Old friends of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma have probably noticed an important change:  a new university affiliation.  The Dart Center is now a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. More »

Welcome to the new online home of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma!

Over the last 18 months, we've redesigned, rebuilt, and reconceived DartCenter.org as a state-of-the-art resource center, think tank and platform for coverage of violence, conflict and tragedy the world over.

This makeover of DartCenter.org comes with journalism itself in upheaval. Journalists who cover street crime and courts, family violence, war, disasters or human rights now are squeezed between the 24 hour news cycle and an industry in economic crisis ... More »

Even if you're not new to DartCenter.org, this DartCenter.org is new to you. The best way to explore the new is to dig in and browse. But for those who prefer a map, here are some of the highlights:

Gateways: Beneath our iconic logo (your link back to the homepage) you'll find "gateway" links that follow you around the site: click these for instant access to  resources of specific interest to either journalists, educators, researchers and scholars, or clinicians ... More »

On today's edition of BBC's Media Show, host Ed Stourton, ABC reporter Richelle Hunt, Global Editor for Multimedia at Reuters Chris Cramer and International Editor of Channel 4 News Lindsey Hilsum discuss how journalists can best be supported when covering traumatic events. More »

Journalists in Switzerland and Germany are talking about the case of Carl Just: a war reporter suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who just sued his former employer. Just's lawsuit appears to be the first suit for work-related PTSD to be brought by a journalist against a European media company. More »