Nine years ago, soon after I joined The Australian, I was sent to Port Arthur to cover the massacre of 35 people by gunman Martin Bryant.
An interview by Meg Spratt with Betty Pfefferbaum, a research psychiatrist and professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Oklahoma.
Betty Pfefferbaum, winner of the first ISTSS Frank Ochberg Award for Research in Trauma and the Media, discusses what journalists can learn from her research.
On the weekend observance of three years after the September 11th attack, victims traveled to the Mid-America Press Institute workshop, co-sponsored by the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma, to give their impressions on how reporters should interview those effected by violence.
Years ago when I spent time in Panama, rarely did a day go by when the morning paper didn’t carry the full-color, front-page bloodied remains of some poor guy killed the night before. It was hardly breakfast material, but apparently the photos didn’t disturb the reading public enough to make the paper stop publishing them.
Recently we have covered the fifth anniversary of the worst atrocity of our Troubles. The relatives of the victims, who have formed their own committee, have said it will be the last memorial service formally convened in the town.
Because many Americans will be profoundly affected by reminders of the September 11 attacks, Joyce Boaz, Executive Director of Gift From Within asked Frank Ochberg to reflect on anniversary reactions. Coincidentally, Dr. Ochberg was interviewed on that topic by Richard Kaplan, PhD, senior staff editor with Coffey Communications.
Winner of a Dart Award for its extensive coverage of the aftermath of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, coverage that helped readers connect to the lives of individual victims, survivors and families. Originally published in The Daily Oklahoman between April and November, 1995.