Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Children and Media Coverage of Trauma

By Christina Cantrell and Elana Newman

An overview of current research on the short- and long-term impacts of media coverage of tragedy on children, as well as aggravating risk factors and suggestions for future research.

Covering Trauma: Impact on Journalists

By River Smith and Elana Newman

An overview of current research on the occupational hazards for journalists covering traumatic events, the risk factors that aggravate those effects and some suggestions for mitigating those factors.

PTSD 101

Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder

By Frank Ochberg

Journalists are candidates for Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder, an empathic response that affects us, therapists included, when our professional detachment is overwhelmed by certain life events.

Self-Study Unit 3: Photography & Trauma

III. Effects of Trauma Exposure

Although photojournalists photograph a wide range of subject matter, sooner or later they will have to photograph something that they and their readers find deeply disturbing.

Self-Study Unit 2: Covering Terrorism

IV. Interviewing

By Elana Newman and Chris Bull

Journalists take no Hippocratic Oath. There is little question that tackling a difficult story is a hazardous process for both journalist and source. In times of international strife, stories chronicling suffering and loss, and exposing injustices, are the stock and trade of the profession. The issue is how to minimize the risk.

Self-Study Unit 1: Journalism & Trauma

I. What is Traumatic Stress?

Traumatic stress, as defined in this module, is the pressure, force or strain on the human mind and body from a specific event of major dimension that shocks, stuns and horrifies.

News Media and Trauma

This documentary, available online and on DVD, features a wide range of Australian journalists their recounting experiences covering traumatic stories.

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Children's Issues

A list of academic publications that deal with child and adolescent psychology and psychiatry.

Breaking Bad News

IV. What to Do When You Get There

If the family doesn't know you, identify yourself and ask if you can come in.

Self-Study Unit 4: The First 24 Hours

I. The Scene

In Littleton, Colorado, scene of the worst school shooting in U.S. history, a number of news organizations began suspecting that something was amiss when they noticed heavy communications traffic over police scanners. There were rumors of a shooting, but at first nobody knew the extent of the casualties.