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.

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.

Tragedies & Journalists

VI. Management

By Joe Hight and Frank Smyth

Remember: Everyone in your newsroom may be affected differently. Some may be affected immediately while others will take days, weeks, months or even years to see the effect. The journalists who either claim or seem to be the most unfazed by the event may, in fact, be affected the most. Others may have developed mechanisms to help them deal with tragedy, and they may have minimal effects.

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Self-Study Unit 4: The First 24 Hours

IV. Coping Strategies for Victims

The first 24 hours after a traumatic event can be a time of extremely high psychological stress for everyone involved — victims, their families, rescue personnel, medical staff and others. Often left out of this picture of sufferers, however, are the journalists who give witness to tragic situations so that others who are not on the scene have a sense of what happened and what impact it has had (and will continue to have) on the community.