Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

An Icon but Not a Revolution

By Reza Afshari

A young woman, with her stunning eyes wide open, dies on the pavement, taking her last breath and muttering, “I am burning.” Depictions of graphic, bloody, and often senseless street violence hardly serve a constructive purpose as they are brought into our living rooms each evening. But the image of Neda Agha-Soltan dying in a street in Tehran presents something radically different: visual evidence of the passing of a significant moment in Iran’s tumultuous history. 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 »

Making Sense of George Tiller

By Eyal Press

Learning from the last time a physician who performs abortions was murdered.

How News is "Framed"

By Sara Tiegreen and Elana Newman

An overview of how news stories, traumatic and otherwise, are "framed," finding a general absence of context and recommending avenues for future research.

The Effect of News "Frames"

By Sara Tiegreen and Elana Newman

An overview of current scholarship regarding how different, contextual approaches to reporting news influence consumers’ knowledge, perceptions and opinions, and the implications for researchers and for journalists.