Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Former First Lady Expects More from Mental Health Care

By Tanya Paperny

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter is frustrated and angry. At a forum and panel conversation held on Monday, May 3, she insisted that our country's current mental health system is broken, despite the $120 billion dollars our federal government spends annually on direct mental health care. More »

Drama Explores Wounds of War

By Geoff Buteau

Laura Linney and Brian d'Arcy James's portrayal of a wounded journalist couple in the play "Time Stands Still" sparks a discussion of war reporting's lasting effects.

Deadly Decisions

By Bruce Shapiro

In a Katrina-flooded hospital, doctors injected patients with painkillers and sedatives. Were they trying to ease their pain or to speed their deaths? ProPublica reporter Sheri Fink tells the story.

How Clinicians Can Help Journalists Cover Disaster

By Stan Alcorn

"If I asked you to fill in the following statement, 'Journalists are __,' what's the first thing that pops into your head?" Elana Newman, research director of the Dart Center, posed this question Monday as part of a webinar she co-hosted with Dart Center Executive Director Bruce Shapiro. In a disaster, when interviewing and reporting on victims is inevitable, the gap between a clinician's answer and a journalist's answer to this question can be the difference between stories that are both sensitive and effective and stories that are neither. More »

Audio: Conflict Journalism and Surviving Kidnap

By Stan Alcorn

Last month in Bonn, Germany, news media, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, politicians, artists, entrepreneurs and scientists from all over the world came together to discuss conflict in a multimedia age. The Dart Center organized panels on "The Trauma Factor: The Missing Ingredient in Conflict Journalism" and "Surviving Kidnap"; You now can download or listen online to the audio. More »

Two Deaths, Two Contexts

By Stan Alcorn

In Baghdad, Chancellor Keesling, a 25-year-old soldier from Indianapolis, shot and killed himself. In Tehran, Neda Agha Soltan, a 26-year-old student, was shot and killed as she watched a peaceful protest.

Two very different deaths, two very different news stories, but both required context to express or arouse anything but pain and loss. More »

Reporting on Youth Violence

Low crime rates mask an epidemic of violence among urban youth, but how can journalists get this story right? A panel discussion convened by the Dart Center and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Covering Tragedy

ABC Radio

2007 Ochberg Fellow Lisa Millar talks about trauma journalism on the National Media Report.

Points of Entry

A panel discussion held Oct. 24, 2007, at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Reporting on Iraq Veterans

From catastrophic physical injuries to the invisible wounds of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression, the Iraq war has exerted a heavy toll on hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops. At a recent Dart Center event at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, four pioneers in reporting the human impact of the Iraq War discussed the challenges of reporting on these veterans.

Seymour Hersh & Jonathan Schell

By Jesse Tarbert

Two acclaimed journalists discuss press and politics.

Dart Center & Frontline Club Look to Support Journalists

A Frontline Club Discussion

London’s new Frontline Club for journalists involved in the reporting of war, trauma and disaster has now formally opened its doors with a powerful discussion organised and sponsored by the Dart Centre on the role of trauma in journalism.

Panel: Reporting War in Afghanistan

At the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, David Loyn and Christina Lamb discuss the country they've covered for decades.