Report on Ground Zero

Elana Newman, Ph.D., a University of Tulsa associate professor of psychology, and Barbara Monseu, a Denver investment consultant who as a school district official had coordinated responses to students, families and staff following the April 1999 Columbine High School shooting, went to New York City for the Dart Center in December 2002. For more than six months they directed Dart Center Ground Zero (DCGZ). Their goal: To link journalists affected by the attacks to emotional, technical and physical support resources.These three articles review the achievements of that project, which was funded by a grant from the Dart Foundation. They are drawn from the project report, written by Monseu and Newman, and from interviews with Newman.

Elana Newman, Ph.D., a University of Tulsa associate professor of psychology, and Barbara Monseu, a Denver investment consultant who as a school district official had coordinated responses to students, families and staff following the April 1999 Columbine High School shooting, went to New York City for the Dart Center in December 2002.

For more than six months they directed Dart Center Ground Zero (DCGZ). Their goal: To link journalists affected by the attacks to emotional, technical and physical support resources.These three articles review the achievements of that project, which was funded by a grant from the Dart Foundation. They are drawn from the project report, written by Monseu and Newman, and from interviews with Newman.

Part I: Assessment & Action

When Dr. Elana Newman arrived in New York more than three months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, two things stood out.

"The generosity that I saw," Newman said; "it put me in awe."

Despite that citywide willingness to help others, Newman also saw incredible competition and duplication of post-attack trauma services.

As media outsiders, Newman and Barbara Monseu first had to identify journalists' needs. They contacted newspaper editors and reporters. Few people turned them away.

However, some journalists wanted help but felt they were too busy to pursue it. Together Newman and Monseu united overlapping resources to provide more efficient support.

For example, they realized DCGZ could complement Newscoverage Unlimited, a service provider and trainer of peer counselors among journalists. The two organizations began a partnership as the Dart Center assumed responsibility for NU services.

Newman and Monseu quickly shaped a many-faceted support center, connecting journalists and therapists while also coordinating discussion groups and one-time help sessions.

The highlight, Newman said, was a conference in May 2002 co-sponsored by New York University titled, "Reporting Post 9/11, After The Debris is Gone, What's The Story?" Newman and Monseu assembled a panel of top journalists and trauma experts, including Robert Jay Lifton, Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry and psychology; Penny Owen, Daily Oklahoman reporter; and Jay Rosen, chair of the NYU Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Panel members shared suggestions for covering and recovering from trauma with a crowd of journalists. Lifton talked about how to cover apocalyptic violence without encouraging fanaticism.

Owen, who covered the Oklahoma City bombing from the explosion to Timothy McVeigh's execution, discussed the "routine of tragedy." Journalists, she said, must stay in touch with the public's post-trauma responses of memorials, grief, outreach, and anger.

"(It was) a very engaging evening," Newman said. "We had to kick everyone out eventually."