Tips & Tools

Children and Trauma

Children are not miniature adults, and they deserve special consideration when they end up in the news. Yet few journalists have experience interviewing children for routine stories, let alone when tragedy hits. This page brings together wisdom, examples and interdisciplinary resources to aid and inform those concerned with how children involved in traumatic events are covered in the media.

Dart Resources

  • Exemplary Journalism

    Bringing it Home: 2013 Dart Awards

    On May 1, 2013, the Dart Center celebrated the 2013 Dart Awards winners and honorable mentions and presented a roundtable discussion. The conversation explored the story-behind-the-story, and drilled down on what's involved in undertaking hard-hitting, humane investigations of trauma and pursuing high-impact collaborations. Dart Foundation Vice President James Lammers and Dart Foundation Program Manager Claudia Deschaine presented the awards.

  • Event Video

    Sandy Hook and Beyond: Panel Videos

    Watch our entire slate of panels from the symposium.

  • Special Report

    Crisis Reporting in the Age of Social Media

    By Anna Codrea-Rado

    In the high stakes business of trauma reporting, social media has become a powerful and controversial journalistic tool. We are also only just beginning to understand how to use it. A special report in advance of our symposium on Monday, April 22, in conjunction with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, at Columbia Journalism School: Sandy Hook and Beyond: Breaking News, Trauma and Aftermath.

  • Event Report

    Symposium: Sandy Hook and Beyond

    Click here to watch all of the symposium panels. Click here to read the Live Blog from the event. Click here for program details.

    The daylong symposium: Sandy Hook and Beyond: Breaking News, Trauma and Aftermath took place on Monday at Columbia University. Regional and national journalists were joined by community leaders, mental health experts, policy advocates and Sandy Hook families and shared perspectives, discussed lessons learned and pointed the way towards responsible news coverage going forward. 

  • Dart Award Honorable Mention

    "The Story Behind these Hands: Finding Their Way Out"

    By Bill Landauer, Jason Plotkin, Samantha Dellinger, Scott Blanchard, and Brad Jennings

    Judges described this multimedia feature story in the York Daily Record (PA) as "moving" and "compassionate." It explores the lasting impact of trauma on one community nine years after the 2003 shooting at Red Lion Junior High that left the principal and shooter dead. Originally published in April, 2012. An interactive version of this story can be found here.

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Outside Resources

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