Mark H. Massé

On Thursday, Nov. 17, I'll be speaking at the Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University on my new book, TRAUMA JOURNALISM: ON DEADLINE IN HARM'S WAY. The event is being sponsored by the Public Diplomacy Program (Dr. Dennis Kinsey, director). Syracuse journalism professor Terry Anderson (who wrote the foreword of my book) will also be participating. Read More 

The Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma is co-sponsoring a three-day continuing-education program at Columbia Journalism School (NY) to prepare freelancers to cover conflict, disaster and civil unrest. The course, November 11 to 13, covers how to avoid unnecessary peril, with careful preparations before, during and after assignments. Topics include risk assessment and physical safety, computer security, first aid, sexual assault prevention and managing trauma and stress. Contact: www.dartcenter.org Read More 

Professors Yvonne Latty of NYU and Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante of the University of Arizona have developed a joint educational program, “Beyond the Border.” According to Bustamante, the immersive reporting experience for undergraduate and graduate students “is a cross-cultural and international project” focusing on the Arizona-Sonora region and New York City and “issues such as immigration, violence (e.g., ethnic and racial conflict) and environmental degradation.” Both professors spent several years as journalists covering crime and crisis stories before entering academia. Read More 

The debate on issues such as emotional engagement in reporting, critical incident training and trauma counseling for journalists has intensified with coverage of catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina and the South Asian tsunami in 2005 and the Haiti earthquake in 2010. These and other tragedies have brought heightened attention to controversial topics rarely discussed openly in newsrooms. Advocates claim that frank dialogue about trauma-related issues in journalism will enhance the profession. Read More 

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