Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Bringing it Home: 2013 Dart Awards

On May 1, 2013, the Dart Center celebrated the 2013 Dart Awards winners and honorable mentions and presented a roundtable discussion. The conversation explored the story-behind-the-story, and drilled down on what's involved in undertaking hard-hitting, humane investigations of trauma and pursuing high-impact collaborations. Dart Foundation Vice President James Lammers and Dart Foundation Program Manager Claudia Deschaine presented the awards.

Good Wars, Bad Wars: A Special Conversation

On Tuesday, the Dart Center hosted a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dale Maharidge and Ridenhour Prize-winning journalist Nick Turse about their acclaimed new books which revise our understanding of two very different wars. In Bringing Mulligan Home, Columbia Journalism professor Dale Maharidge goes in search of the ghosts that haunted his WWII veteran father. In Kill Everything that Moves, journalist and historian Nick Turse uncovers secret Pentagon records and tracks down survivors and perpetrators, revealing the brutal consequences of America’s military policy in Vietnam.

Crisis Reporting in the Age of Social Media

By Anna Codrea-Rado

In the high stakes business of trauma reporting, social media has become a powerful and controversial journalistic tool. We are also only just beginning to understand how to use it. A special report in advance of our symposium on Monday, April 22, in conjunction with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, at Columbia Journalism School: Sandy Hook and Beyond: Breaking News, Trauma and Aftermath.

Symposium: Sandy Hook and Beyond

Click here to watch all of the symposium panels. Click here to read the Live Blog from the event. Click here for program details.

The daylong symposium: Sandy Hook and Beyond: Breaking News, Trauma and Aftermath took place on Monday at Columbia University. Regional and national journalists were joined by community leaders, mental health experts, policy advocates and Sandy Hook families and shared perspectives, discussed lessons learned and pointed the way towards responsible news coverage going forward. 

"The Story Behind these Hands: Finding Their Way Out"

By Bill Landauer, Jason Plotkin, Samantha Dellinger, Scott Blanchard, and Brad Jennings

Judges described this multimedia feature story in the York Daily Record (PA) as "moving" and "compassionate." It explores the lasting impact of trauma on one community nine years after the 2003 shooting at Red Lion Junior High that left the principal and shooter dead. Originally published in April, 2012. An interactive version of this story can be found here.

Intimate Partner Violence: Behind the new DOJ Numbers

By Whitney Eulich

As Congress debates reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a new DOJ report shows a dramatic drop in IPV incidence. But are the numbers accurate?

Military Suicides in 2012 Hit Record High

The 2012 tally of military suicides is a sobering 349, almost one per day, more than any year since the military began tracking it. The Dart Center has been working with mental health experts and journalists to improve coverage and understanding of this sensitive topic.

Scar Tissue: 1 Crime. 2 Writers. 18 Years.

On August 7, 1994, a deranged man brutally stabbed seven people in a New Haven cafe. Award-winning writers Emily Bernard and Bruce Shapiro, both critically injured that night, pondered the attack in essays written nearly two decades apart. In November 2012, they continued the conversation at Columbia University.

Children’s Reactions to Trauma-related News Media

By Summer Nelson, Elana Newman, and Betty Pfefferbaum

Following the Newtown school shooting, a fact sheet on the effects of trauma-related news media on children.

Mass Shooting at Connecticut Elementary School

A mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut left 28 people dead, including 20 children. See the Dart Center's resources for journalists covering this tragedy.