Mark H. Massé

At North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C., Bradley Wilson, coordinator for student media, has been staging campus emergency drills, such as simulated shootings or explosions, since the mid-1990s to help student journalists interact with traumatized people. Wilson, who has worked in emergency medical services for 20 years and is a trained medic, was editor of the 2010 Journalism Education Association’s special edition "Covering the Unimaginable," a crisis-planning guide for educators confronted by disaster, violence and emergencies, notably student deaths and suicide. Read More 

For more than a decade, newsrooms in the United States and abroad have turned to Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma representatives Joe Hight and Frank Ochberg for counsel in response to crisis coverage. Their message to reporters, correspondents, editors and news directors: promote the ethical coverage of trauma and the ethical treatment of those affected by tragedy (including journalists). Read More 

Award-winning photographer David Handschuh was recognized by the National Public Health Information Council for promoting peer-counseling workshops, where journalists are trained to assist colleagues in debriefing sessions and other post-event interventions. “Newsgathering can be hazardous to your emotional health,” he says. “We just need to have the desire to look after each other.”

Associated Press chief Africa correspondent Michelle Faul credits counseling with making her aware of the need to deal immediately with stress when covering a story. “We journalists don’t realize what trauma is doing to you,” she says, recounting grisly death scenes and life-threatening conflict zones. “There are things you can do to make yourself feel better when you’re in a really bad place.” Read More 

Former AP Chief Middle East Correspondent Terry Anderson speaks plainly and directly to journalists in hazardous situations: “Always, constantly, constantly, every minute, weigh the benefits against the risks. And as soon as you come to the point where you feel uncomfortable with that equation, get out, go, leave it. It's not worth it. There is no story worth getting killed for.” Read More 

Photojournalist Molly Bingham is driven by her family’s (newspaper publishing) legacy to produce quality work. She believes that journalistic storytelling can make a difference and effect change in the world. Molly has covered conflict, violence and tragedy across Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East for nearly two decades. She is one of a “rarified group of people” who risk their lives to tell dangerous stories that otherwise wouldn’t be told. Read More 

Although war correspondents, crime reporters, and those drawn to covering conflict and crisis may be described as adrenaline junkies, adventure seekers, or a “different breed,” journalists are not detached from scenes of terror, grief, or horror no matter how calm or collected they may appear on
screen. No matter how efficiently they complete their stories and produce their images to meet deadlines. Journalists, like other people, have varying emotional thresholds when it comes to confronting trauma. Read More 

First anniversary of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma's Dart Research Database, an extensive online compendium (bibliography and website) featuring “interdisciplinary scholarship on journalism and trauma in a single location, grouped in a single set of searchable categories.” http://dartcenter.org/content/new-tool-debuts-for-trauma-research

As founding director of the International News Safety Institute (INSI), Rodney Pinder is committed to protecting journalists worldwide. He is particularly concerned with the safety and welfare of local news media workers (e.g., freelancers, stringers, fixers) in developing nations where journalists “operate under a blanket of fear”— often targeted because their reporting threatens powerful interests. “In many countries, a free press is endangered,” Pinder says, noting how the majority of journalist fatalities are not international reporters and camera people killed covering war but local journalists trying to investigate crime and corruption who are murdered in their own homeland. Read More 

Trauma journalist Scott North encourages young reporters to see journalism as a craft that takes time, experience and effort to develop. “Much of what we know about good trauma reporting comes from people having made mistakes,” he says, alluding to his journey and apprenticeship as a community journalist. “Learn from those and the ones you inevitably will make on your own.” Read More