Resources for Blog Posts

"It just doesn't go out of the brain." Onscreen, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation editor described watching footage of a beheading in Iraq. At a brown bag lunch at the Columbia Journalism School on Oct. 30, students watched a DVD chronicling journalists' experiences covering traumatic stories, from accidents to terrorism, and then discussed how to manage such occupational stress with two of Australia's leading experts on the subject.

PBS' "Frontline" recently brought together a group of international experts in conflict reporting to talk about new challenges and needs in the field. The network also recorded the event, and has just made available online polished videos of lively conversations between journalists and advocates from Current TV, the New York Times, the Committee, Protect Journalists and others.

For journalists sorting fact from myth as they cover the story of 2009 H1N1, there's now a one-stop resource for you online.  "Covering Pandemic Flu" provides resources written by journalists for journalists ... 

Was there a Twitter revolution in Iran? To Iason Athanasiadis, an independent journalist whose detention there sparked a global uproar that culminated in his release, the answer comes quickly: No.

The last weeks have seen a number of journalists who have participated in Dart Center programs winning awards for their reporting and publishing stories on issues of trauma and journalism. If there are any we missed, please add them in the comments.

A string of seismic events has made for a week of deadly disasters in the Asia-Pacific region. On Sept. 26, Typhoon Ketsana hit the Phillipines, leaving hundreds dead and flooding 80 percent of Manila. On Sept. 29, an earthquake and ensuing tsunamis rocked the Samoas, killing at least 150. The Indonesian island of Sumatra was hit by an earthquake the next day, and then by a second less-severe earthquake the day after.

In announcing the arrest of a suspect in the murder of Yale University graduate student Annie Le on the morning of Sept. 17, New Haven Police Chief James Lewis did something I’ve never seen in a high-profile arrest announcement: He told a horde of reporters caught in a week-long national news frenzy that they had been presenting the story wrong.

This past weekend I flew out to Indianapolis for a birthday party: the 10th anniversary of the Dart Center’s Ochberg Fellows program. The Dart Society — made up of alumni of the fellowship along with winners of the Dart Award — organized an extraordinary reunion for the occasion, alongside the annual Society for Professional Journalists conference.

Each year, the Dart Society — a cohort of Ochberg Fellows and winners of the Dart and Mimi Awards — honors an editor who advances compassionate and ethical coverage of trauma, conflict and social injustice. This year that honor goes to Jan Winburn for her decades of work at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Baltimore Sun and other publications.

Journalists who want to get better at reporting the toughest issues have only three days left to submit their applications for the 2009 Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships. Fellows can look forward to expert training in the science of emotional trauma and how to apply it to storytelling; they can also look forward to joining a great network.