Mass Shootings In DC, Chicago and Nairobi: Tips for Journalists

September 16, 2013

Mass shootings occurred in the last week at the Washington DC Navy Yard, at a pickup basketball game in Chicago, and at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where terrorists killed at least 62 people. The Dart Center has a host of resources for journalists covering these events and their aftermath.

Simon Maina / AFP

A policeman carries a baby to safety as people flee a Nairobi shopping mall during a terrorist siege that has left more than 62 people dead.

Mass shootings occurred in the last week at the Washington DC Navy Yard, at a pickup basketball game in Chicago, and at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where terrorists killed at least 62 people and continue to hold hostages inside the building. The Dart Center has a host of resources for journalists covering these events and their aftermath.

The Dart Center has a host of resources for journalists covering this event and its aftermath.

COVERING MASS SHOOTINGS

Psychiatrist Frank Ochberg, M.D. and Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center, share insights on covering mass killings in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting that left six dead and a U.S. Congresswoman grievously injured.

Reporter Dave Cullen's lessons from a decade of reporting on the Columbine attacks.

A self-study unit on covering terrorism.

A compilation of journalist-to-journalist advice.

Professor Meg Moritz shares four lessons on covering school shootings.

Quick tips on working with victims and survivors from Dart Centre Asia Pacific.

Resources for Covering Mass Shootings: Reacting to the 2010 Cumbria Tragedy, the Dart Center's Gavin Rees reflects on the story and offers resources for journalists.

In a piece for Walkley magazine, the Dart Center's Bruce Shapiro points to some of what we've learned from covering mass shootings.

In this video James Grimaldi, staff writer at the Wall Street Journal, talks about how to investigate gun sales.

For those who read German, Gisela Mayer, the mother of victim of the school shooting in Winnenden describes her family's experience of finding itself subject to media attention.

ADVICE FOR EDITORS

Dart Center Executive Director Bruce Shapiro passes on lessons for newsrooms learned from the Virginia Tech shooting.

Quick tips on how to support your reporters.

SELF-CARE

Quick tips on self-care from Dart Centre Asia Pacific.

Self-care advice from an editor who's been there.

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Mass Shootings In DC, Chicago and Nairobi: Tips for Journalists

COVERING MASS SHOOTINGS

ADVICE FOR EDITORS

SELF-CARE

Request Publications

Tragedies & Journalists

Reporting War

News Media & Trauma

Covering Children & Trauma

Child Clinicians & the Media

Covering Columbine

Ethical Reporting on People Affected by Trauma

Peer Support for Journalists

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character

Journalists under Fire: The Psychological Hazards of Covering War

PTSD and Veterans: A Conversation with Dr. Frank Ochberg

Mapping Trauma and Its Wake: Autobiographic Essays by Pioneer Trauma Scholars

Post-Traumatic Therapy And Victims Of Violence (Psychosocial Stress Series)

Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir

Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming

Trauma Journalism: On Deadline in Harm's Way

After the War Zone: A Practical Guide for Returning Troops and Their Families

Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges

Trauma Therapy in Context: The Science and Craft of Evidence-based Practice

Home from the War: Learning From Vietnam Veterans

The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence

Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting About Victims & Trauma

Sharing the Front Line and the Back Hills

The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence

Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime

Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia

Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles

A Country Called Amreeka: U.S. History Retold through Arab-American Lives

Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice

Unsettled/Desasosiego: Children in a World of Gangs/Los niños en un mundo de las pandillas

Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and America's Future

War Photographer

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda

Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur

The Troubles We've Seen

Ghosts by Daylight: Love, War, and Redemption

Echoes of Violence: Letters from a War Reporter (Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity)

It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War

Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story

Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide

Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values

Shoah

Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology

Carnage and the Media

Nostalgia for the Light

War Stories

The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict

On Television

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

Sleep: A Very Short Introduction

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

The Universal Journalist

Fighting for the Rain Forest

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On the Natural History of Destruction

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House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-Torn Zimbabwe

Butcher & Bolt: Two Hundred Years of Foreign Failure in Afghanistan

Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

They Fought for Each Other: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Hardest Hit Unit in Iraq

The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle against America's Veterans

Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Vodou, and Civil Strife in Haiti

Columbine

Juvenile

Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.

Still Here: Stories After Katrina

Breaking News Breaking Down

One of the Guys: Women as Aggressors and Torturers

Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War