Understanding Trauma & Journalism
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Australasian Summer, 2007 Update The Dart Centre Australasia newsletter Understanding trauma & journalism New Australasian DVD Special report On the road with Brett McLeod F the adage that doctors make the worst patients holds true for other Iprofessions, then journalists should be the worst interview subjects. In fact making the News Media and Trauma DVD has shown me that journalists, and photographers, and camera operators are in fact good interviewees – they’re just a bit shy. Everyone I approached agreed to be interviewed, much to my relief. I sent Peter Harvey, (pictured left), a long screed about Dart, the purpose of the DVD, how important his contribution would be, etc. I must have spent an hour on the email. He shot one back within a few minutes saying “Great, let me know when you want to do it.” That was to be the typical response. OR the past four months, senior GTV9 After recording key interviews in Canberra, There was no scientific method involved reporter Brett McLeod has spent a good Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, Brett’s in selecting subjects. deal of his spare time producing a cross- cross-industry News Media and Trauma DVD F I just picked people I’d worked with industry trauma and journalism awareness is nearing its launch and, he says, he’s more over the years who I felt represented DVD for the Dart Centre Australasia. convinced than ever that such a tool is needed different parts of the industry, with The project grew out of an idea fleshed out by 16 in Australasian newsrooms. experience ranging from 40 years in the senior journalists and newsroom managers from “Across the industry there’s some common industry to just a few months. And most a cross-section of Australian and New Zealand understanding of what needs to be done in were very anxious about appearing on news outlets at the Dart Centre for Journalism and terms of preparing people to do this sort of camera! Trauma’s inaugural Beginning to Make a Real work,” Brett said, “but it’s not often enunciated Is it because we work in a competitive Difference retreat held in Coffs Harbour in April. by experienced staff nor by newer journalists, industry where we fear ridicule from There was consensus at the end of that retreat probably for fear of being seen by their peers our colleagues? Possibly. about a growing need to begin discussions in as ‘too soft’.” I think it’s more to do with the fact these newsrooms about issues around covering traumatic That’s not what it’s about at all, Brett says. news. One way of doing this effectively, all agreed, interviews were about an area that’s very “It’s about doing the job professionally and personal in a very public profession. was to show the stories of news personnel at all turning out a better product without harming We deal with some of the worst events different levels and from a variety of organisations. ourselves or others.” in modern life. We throw ourselves at the This would replicate the successful approach When Brett started to ask cross-industry the Australian Broadcasting Corporation took stories and exhaust every angle we can find. colleagues to participate in this new project, But what happens when we go home? with its excellent in-house training DVD well-known journalists from metropolitan and Continued P2 produced and launched earlier this year (see regional media promptly agreed. Lisa Millar’s story pp4-5). Continued P2 INSIDE THIS EDITION Introducing Trina McLellan. .... .. .... .. .... .. ... page 2 Some new faces in the US.. .... .. .... .. .... .. ... page 8 Preparing for a hometown disaster .. .. .... .. ... page 3 Worth a closer look .. .... .. .... .. .... .. .... .. ... page 8 Meet Australasia’s 2007 Dart Ochberg Fellow....pages 4-5 Trauma and journalism in Indonesia . .. .... .. ... page 9 Encountering traumatic news the first time... .. pages 6-7 Recent visits/Trauma is not a dirty word ... .. page 10 DVD helps newsrooms understand trauma & journalism • • • From P1 Eight appear in the finished News Media and Trauma DVD: • Nine Network senior reporter Peter Harvey • News Limited photographer Renee Nowytarger (The Australian) • former reporter and now 2UE program director Greg Byrne • senior Age reporter Gary Tippet • WIN TV regional Victoria reporter Erin Cassar • Seven News reporter Jess Adamson and cameraman Rob Brown, both from South Australia • senior ABC reporter and former foreign correspondent Philip Williams. Each interviewee spoke openly about issues arising from covering traumatic news stories as well as the ways newsrooms can better prepare people ON site ... Australian and international news organisations spent more than a fortnight camped out to do this sort of work and to support at a mine in the chilly northern Tasmanian township of Beaconsfield in 2006 documenting desperate their staff while they are doing difficult attempts to rescue two trapped miners after their colleague was killed by an underground collapse. assignments. From P1 Peter Harvey has covered wars from – before approaching them. And it makes us A common response from those I Vietnam to Lebanon, but an image from better journalists. approached to be interviewed was “I don’t the Sydney morgue in the 1960s is still with And I found we are searching for “the really know much about trauma, I’ve never him. right thing to do” when it comes to dealing covered a war or a disaster or anything”. And there need not be one event that gets with our own trauma. Which is exactly the point: The events that to us. Discussions with colleagues, alcohol, traumatise us need not be large-scale tragedy. Gary Tippet speaks of the “drip, drip, therapy, quiet contemplation – the different They can be the story you cover tomorrow. drip” effect on our psyche when we cover methods we’ve tried are on display. Jess Adamson went through the physical trauma after trauma. The News Media and Trauma DVD isn’t a and personal rigours of reporting the What pleased me about the interviews was self-help tool – no answers are given. The aim tsunami in Aceh, only to find the story that a thread of what is “the right thing to do” is simply to get a dialogue going. was most deeply upsetting had happened when it comes to victims of trauma. I hope those who watch it get as much out metres from her desk. We put ourselves in their shoes – or try to of it as I have in helping put it together. A vote of thanks THE Dart Centre for Journalism and in conversations about dealing with stories for journalist, their employing Trauma would like to thank the Nine potential trauma exposure as well organisations and the people they Network – especially Brett McLeod, as ethical and sensitive reporting cover. Paul Webber, Michael Venus and Tony techniques for new journalists. Shepherd and those journalists willing None of this could have happened to tell their stories – for willingly and Along with many working journalists, without the support of Nine in generously supporting the creation of this the Dart Centre believes that raising Melbourne. important teaching tool for newsrooms. these issues and developing skills in how to better deal with the consequences Cait McMahon The News Media and Trauma DVD will of trauma exposure results in better Managing Director, Dart Centre for be instrumental in engaging journalists journalism and, ultimately, better Journalism & Trauma - Australasia Introducing Trina McLellan • • • WITH a career in journalism and delivered tertiary journalism courses and, as part of her contribution, she communication spanning 25 years, Trina and worked in communication compiles, edits and designs this McLellan is secretary – and a founding roles in higher education, the public newsletter and its companion online board member – of the Dart Centre for service and private enterprise. She version. She also assists in the delivery Journalism and Trauma - Australasia. has researched the impact of news of training courses, gives guest lectures Currently working at The Courier- reporting on victims and survivors of and tutorials to journalism students Mail in Brisbane as a newspaper traumatic incidents and completed a and co-operates with other Dart sub-editor and occasional online sub- Master of Arts thesis on this research. Centre members on specific trauma editor, Trina has also designed and Her Dart Centre role is voluntary and journalism projects. 2 UPDATE Summer 2007 Preparing for a hometown disaster • • • By Bruce Shapiro* in the cities of Roanoke and Richmond, these journalists discussed what went right and what IT takes a single phone call, a single alert on went badly, as well as the ethical quandaries a police scanner, a single wire-service bulletin and news choices they faced. bearing word of catastrophe to upend the well- And they agreed to go on the record about ordered chaos of a newsroom. lessons learned from covering the Virginia Tech In Minneapolis recently, it was the interstate incident — lessons that would apply not just to highway collapse. Suddenly local print and another university shooting but to any other broadcast journalists tore up their plans for the large-scale catastrophe. coming week, and threw themselves at a horrific A few of their lessons: scene whose basic facts were still far from clear. • Send a message from the top: Take care of It was the same, just a few months ago, for yourself. On a large-scale breaking news reporters in the US state of Virginia. story it makes a difference when top a Though the incident itself was different in newsroom leader — an editor or news Minneapolis — and the body count thankfully director — reminds journalists of the need for lower — the bridge collapse recalls the Virginia sleep, breaks and other self-care steps. This Tech shootings and the intense pressures on isn’t just a matter of occupational health but hometown journalists to: of preserving news judgment and the capacity • get the story right to stay on the story for the long haul.