A professor of journalism at Indiana University offers two sample assignments that teach concepts related to victims and trauma by engaging students' interest in real-world reporting.
Early live reports of terrorist attacks are sometimes confusing and misleading. Yet there are also extraordinary examples of media excellence, with journalists risking their lives to inform the nation about an unfolding crisis.
The skills needed to interact with people under such stressful and unpredictable conditions do not usually come naturally. The goal of this module is to explain what traumatic stress is and why it is useful for journalists to know about its effects.
An overview of how news stories, traumatic and otherwise, are "framed," finding a general absence of context and recommending avenues for future research.
An overview of current scholarship regarding how different, contextual approaches to reporting news influence consumers’ knowledge, perceptions and opinions, and the implications for researchers and for journalists.
An overview of current research on the short- and long-term impacts of media coverage of tragedy on children, as well as aggravating risk factors and suggestions for future research.
An overview of current research on how news coverage of traumatic event effects the public and the risk factors that exascerbate reactions of distress.