“Journalists are not trained in interviewing victims” *

A feed-back relation between journalists and psychologists helps to improve the coverage of traumatic events and its victims. That is why the International Society on Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) seeks year after year to strengthen these bows with diverse researches on the topic of Journalism and Trauma. Elana Newman, current President of ISTSS and Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Tulsa, has conducted these studies heading The Dart Center's Research Unit.

Question: What kind of research related to trauma and journalism have you done?

Elana Newman, Ph.D.: I have done a variety of research. But the first began when I went to a conference because I wanted to support one of my students who was doing research about rescue workers. Suddenly a journalist stood up in the room and said “I am just like the ambulance person you are writing about. What about me?” I thought that it was very interesting and then I met Frank Ochberg (Chairman Emeritus of Dart Center's Executive Committee) who encouraged me to do further research. The first study we did was with Roger Simpson (Executive Director of Dart Center) and David Handschuh who is a photo journalist (Dart Fellow). We sent a survey to the National Press Photographer Association. We got a huge sample: 874 photographers. We found that about 6%, a minority but a significant one, had met the criteria of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and very few of them had sought help. 98% of them were exposed in their job to terrible life events, witnessing it, covering it. The ones that were worst, were not the “career breakers”, but the ones who cover everyday events, car accidents and all kind of things that you (journalists) don't think about, because are so natural to the work. We discovered that the more you saw, the more vulnerable you were.

Q: ¿Have you done a similar research with reporters?

E.N.: Yes. I had a graduate student who did a similar study with print journalists, and she found similar rates. And then there is the Feinstein study which shows that the rate of exposition to PTSD is pretty much higher for war correspondents. (...) We need to do some better studies. We do not have a very representative sample because we do not know who responded. We sent out thousand of calls. But my experience with journalists is they do not like to answer surveys. I think it is because in some ways the survey is like being covered, so you become the subject instead of the observer.

Q: Which areas are you studying nowadays?

E.N.: I am just starting to explore what kind of news are covered, how are traumatic news covered and what are the kinds of issues. Cathy Bullock (A Utah State University Professor) does that kind of work. She studies things like how is domestic violence covered, what's omitted, what's not, what are the choices made. What we are studying a little bit more in my lab is the way, you folks, present the news. How does it affect the readers and specifically about trauma related news. Sara Tiegreen (psychologist) studies on stories with and without context, about rape victims, about name or no name in the story, what effect does it have on readers. And other point of view is how does coverage of mass disaster affect people, based on events like The Oklahoma city bombing and 9/11.

Q: Are there any preliminary results?  

E.N.: We found that people who have directly experienced loss related, PTSD, report watching more trauma related news. It maybe that they just reported watching more news, it maybe that people who are directly affected by terrorism are turning in the news because it is more relevant to them, maybe the news are so upsetting to them, that gets them distressed, we do not know. The general public who is not affected, there is not that correlation.

Q: How do you think victims of traumatic events would like to be covered, what have you found in your research?

E.N.: I have started interviewing victims who have been covered – I have not gotten that far-, but I have spoken with people who were easily identifiable, and through the process of being covered becoming media sources. What I think is that people care about accuracy and so far the things I have heard that are most upsetting are the minor things. They seem minor to you but are major to them. Things like spelling a name wrong or calling a sexual assault a “rape”. Things like meeting someone in a grocery shop saying: “I knew your were hurt but I do not know you were raped“. The kinds of things that are inaccurate are the things which makes people crazy. What I say to journalists is: If every journalist would reread their article as if it were their grandmother, husband or a loved one, and ask themselves: “would I be comfortable if this is written about my loved one?” That would probably be a good check.

Q: Talking about Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma, Is there any research about how did covering pain affect us personally as journalists?

E.N.: That would be great to do, but it has not been done yet. It needs to be done to understand the relation between journalism and trauma. There are some stories but no systematic research about that. That is what Frank Ochberg wants to do. There is some similar research related to the way how clinicians built a relation with their clients. Would that apply to journalists? Is the literature the same? There is a term of clinicians called “vicarious trauma”. It means that if you are in connection with someone who is traumatized your world view can't help it be changed. Empathy affects the way you see the world talking about trauma and you have to watch out for those things cause over time they can affect your carefulness. I think some journalists do have PTSD but maybe the issue is more how does really caring the way you relate and the way you interview people. Vicarious trauma affects rescue workers, fire workers, psychologists, helpers... The question is how might that affect journalists.

Q: Do you think it is good for journalists to be connected with victims or maybe these kinds of relations cannot come up because editors and society say you cannot feel anything?

E.N.: There is no research on that but I can tell you my opinion. I think journalists are trained that in order to be objective they have to cut off feeling. When I train therapists, I tell them that in order to be more objective they have to monitor their own emotions and learn to be aware of them, so it doesn't interfere with their ability to assist their patients. Totally different ways of seeing the world, both of us have different aims. Your aim is to tell an accurate story, our aim is to help a client to make a change in his / her life without our own emotions interfering. I actually think if you are more in tune with your own reactions you probably can tell better stories and make better choices. The other piece I think is the tradition of journalism, is that you are very well trained how to get that sneaky and empowered politician. You are trained in techniques that work to interview someone in power but not in getting accurate information from somebody who is sensitive to abuses of power. Journalists are not trained in interviewing victims.

Q: Thinking about the Colombian example, do you think journalists who are covering a war which never ends are more exposed to PTSD than others who cover tragedies like terrorist attacks or natural disasters, very traumatic too, but which assignment ends in any moment?

E.N.: There are two issues here. There are differences to understand between a local journalist covering the local community and a journalist who comes from somewhere else, to cover a community. To take a different example: There were fabulous war reporters in New York who had been in the worst war zones several times but when the World Trade Center were bombed, it was their home. It was something about feeling unsafe at home, that was very threatening to them, instead of had been to so many unsafe places in the world. After 9/11, I moved to New York for nine months and I directed the Dart Center Ground Zero Office. I began to work with journalists to help them to improve coverage, dealing with symptoms of PTSD, talking about it. (…) And the other part is when you are covering events which are unfolding and you do not know the end. There is not postrauma, it is ongoing, communities have to build their own stories once and again, so it is hard to get a frame. Colombian journalists are at the greatest physical and psychological risk in the world. I have been in Colombia once and I was informed about these facts by the Committee to Protect Journalist.

Q: After all this researches, could you conclude that a bond between psychotherapists and journalists is growing?

E.N:  I think there is one growing. Like others professionals it is a matter of understanding each other and learning. I just came back from Australia, I gave a talk to a large mental health audience how to work better together with journalists and I started off by saying: “Let's start off with some assumptions like journalists are ethical people, highly skilled”. And the audience laughed and I went to the next slide and I said: “No, they do have a code of ethics”. This audience was shocked that there was a code of ethics for journalists and I went through it. “You all complain that journalists are not telling good stories about victims, well how do they get to victims? They are reading things from police reports, there are confidentiality issues, there are all sorts of things to talk about, but they have to do it autonomously. Each of us has different professional rules so it is a matter of communicating and understanding that we have different aims”. (...) I think a lot of it has to do with the Dart Agenda, which is really designed for journalists.

* I shared this interview with my dear friend, colleague and also Dart Fellow, Petra Tabeling in Los Angeles, California, USA in November 2006, during the training in Journalism & Trauma given by Dart Center from Washington University. As an Ochberg Fellow, I also attended the ISTSS Annual Conference. For more information visit www.dartcenter.org / www.istss.org.