Simulated Trauma in the Classroom

March 31, 2010 by Sue Lockett John, Kevin Kawamoto

The following faculty coaching reminders show facilitators what to tell journalism students when helping them to debrief and critique each other in small groups after a trauma training exercise:

One goal of a simulated trauma training is to reaffirm the customary things that reporters need to tell sources whom they’re interviewing in situations like this.  So, to that end, make sure to remind students of the following when they are role-playing as a journalist interviewing a traumatized person:

Essential (I hope every student does this):

  • Identify himself/herself at the outset by full name

  • Identify at the outset the organization for which he/she works (The Daily, the UW campus newspaper)

  • Describe the reason that he/she needs to talk to the subject now (i.e., “I’m writing a story for tomorrow’s Daily about the fire.”) 

Ideal (I hope at least a few remember to do this):

  • Go back over key details – reaffirm that the reporter has listened carefully

  • At the close of the interview, repeat reporter's identification and tell the interview subject how to contact him/her

Other common omissions, problems to be alert for:

  • Subject isn’t asked for his/her full name

  • Subject isn’t asked to confirm spelling of name

  • Reporter isn’t candid about plans to use the subject’s name in story

  • Reporter isn’t really listening – obsessive note-taking

  • Reporter fails to follow up on obvious leads, inconsistency in accounts

  • Reporter makes promise that can’t be kept (i.e., “I’ll find out what happened and tell you.”)

Dealing with the student journalist interviewer

  • Sometimes students get caught up emotionally in what’s happening; if you need to stop the process so the student can recover, do so.

  • Some students feel inept immediately after the interview because they haven’t handled the situation as well as they think that they might have; be encouraging and point out a success or two – remind them that this is a difficult task even for the most seasoned journalists.

  • When the interview is over, immediately ask the student to do a brief self-evaluation – what went well, what do you wish you could do over.