An Examination of Journalist Perceptions toward Covering Tragedy and Trauma (original) (raw)
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An exploratory qualitative study analyzed statements from in-depth interviews and published accounts of thirty-six (U.S., international) journalists who have covered tragedy and trauma (e.g., war, terrorism, natural disasters, accidents, crimes). A purposive (non-probability) sample examined the motivation for coverage, the effects of such coverage on journalists, the coping techniques employed by affected journalists, and the lessons for other journalists, their media audiences, and the communities in which they live.
Journalism Studies, 2010
Journalists are caretakers of the public interest. But when a community experiences a devastating trauma, lines of responsibility are less clear-cut. Are journalists responsible to the news consumer or the community experiencing the trauma? Which notion of public interest assumes precedence? How does journalistic responsibility translate into action when residents experience pain, but editors clamor for on-the-spot coverage? Creating spaces for reflective practice can assist journalists in considering principled ways of covering trauma. This paper examines the reactions and reflections of seven journalists who responded to research exploring the impact of media coverage on a rural community where a high-profile murder had occurred. These journalists, using reflective practice, pondered the challenges of covering trauma, the evolution of journalistic responsibility and the implications for journalism educators teaching students who will inevitably cover traumas when they are working in the field.
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When covering traumatic events, novice journalists frequently face situations they are rarely prepared to resolve. This paper highlights ethical dilemmas faced by journalists, who participated in a focus group exploring the news media's trauma coverage. Major themes included: professional obligations versus ethical responsibilities; journalists' perceived status and roles; permissible harms, and inexperience. Instructional classroom simulations based on experiential learning theory can bridge the gap between the theory of ethical trauma reporting and realities journalists face when covering events that are often chaotic and unpredictable by their very nature. A simulation outline that can be used by journalism instructors is provided.
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Covering terrorist attacks has posed numerous challenges to mainstream media across the world. Bringing information to the public quickly remains a primary goal for news media, but the journalistic duty to tell the truth comes with an increased responsibility for the accuracy of reports. When news is broken by civilian eyewitnesses and is posted by social media before it has even gone through the barest of verification checks, news media editors struggle to fulfil the task of informing the public while reporting on stories that hold the potential to alarm the audience. This paper offers some insights into the ways the New Zealand news media organised reporting on the March 15th terrorist attack in Christchurch. Based on face-to-face interviews with selected editors of major news organisations in New Zealand, it investigates the ways they operated in this situation. It explores key moments in editorial decision making on 15 March 2019, the first day of coverage of the terrorist attack. It focuses on the 'first responder' elements of news media workspeed and accuracy in providing information about the mosque attacksto identify how journalistic norms are adapted and changed to report this breaking news.
Trauma reporting and its impacts on journalists: A case study of leading Chinese news outlets
Cambridge Scholars eBooks, 2017
Trauma reporting such as disaster, war and conflict often generates large newspaper headlines as news deemed to have impact, proximity and scale tends to attract the audience's attention. Journalists are asked to seize "immediate, dramatic and novel" news to evoke "excited curiosity", by digging and exposing "the blood, injury and violence", a trend that is more evident in commercial news outlets. 1 Reports about conflicts and disasters also conform to the fourth-estate mantle of serving the public interest; to inform, educate and unite the public, especially in the event of a tragedy. In China, there is now more room for journalists to navigate when reporting such topics and since the 1990s there have seen numerous occasions when Chinese correspondents have been able to cover traumatic events like disaster, war and conflicts in and out China. This has been aimed at domestic and even international audiences. 2 Conventionally, journalists are deemed to be the impact-makers through their agenda-setting and framing, but the impact on themselves is largely neglected. This omission is further complicated by the negative attitude towards stress and its symptoms, or generic help-seeking. It is a culture of silence. 3 Some research views journalism as a macho profession and journalists as a resilient group. 4 Yet, journalists and correspondents are not always well-trained or prepared before they are sent to
Observatorio, 2011
Using some recent examples as a starting point, this paper discusses catastrophe reporting. The claim is that catastrophe reporting reveals some sore points in journalistic professionalism as a whole. The theoretical frames are sought from research on “agency”. According to this approach, distances can be overcome through a purely personal effort. The agency component potentially invites the spectators to feel and act for the sufferers. In order to do that, journalistic professionals are compelled to use new tools in news reporting: emotions and sources, which qualify via experience and suffering rather than rationality and observation. The basic question here is whether the journalistic profession itself, with its fixed and stereotyped norms and practices, has driven the profession into a delicate situation. Natural, participatory contact with the people-on-the-street is regulated by professional rules. Accordingly, the profession tends to express itself with clumsy, even vulgar and artificial terms; professional ethics cannot follow the new trend. Keywords: catastrophe reporting, journalistic professionalism, agency