Resources

  • Fact Sheet

    Jan 1 2009

    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.

  • In Depth

    PTSD 101

    Interviewing

    By Frank Ochberg

     

    When reporters seek a trauma survivor's comments soon after the event, they have a high likelihood of encountering one or more of the emotional states mentioned above.

  • Online Learning

    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.

  • Online Learning

    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.

  • Journal Library

    Children's Issues

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

  • Booklet

    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.

  • Distance Learning

    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.

  • Print Publication

    Tragedies & Journalists

    VII. Journalist as First Responder

    By Joe Hight and Frank Smyth

    HazMat officer Mike Hagen affirmed a 21st century reality: Police, firefighters - and now journalists - are considered among the first responders to a terrorist act.

    PDF / Request Copies

  • In Depth

    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.

  • In Depth

    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.