Journalists can’t let horrors on the job get to them
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This post about the mental health effects of reporting on awful news stories kept getting delayed in favor of other timely topics because I figured another news peg would be right around the corner. A risky assumption it was not. Thursday, five journalists witnessed the state-administered suffocation death of an Alabama Death Row prisoner.
Few reporters go a career without having to report on a horrific event, such as a war, a mass shooting or even a violent crime with a single victim. According to the Columbia Journalism School’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, the psychological toll of seeing and hearing about the heinousness that people are capable of can include sleeplessness, unwelcomed recurring thoughts of the violence, a sense of impending doom, and anger.
I can’t even imagine what it was like for journalists who viewed Israel’s video compilation of atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7. Some reporters had to walk out. Some cried.
It’s not just intentional violence that can take a mental toll. So can coverage of natural disasters, accidents, court cases and hate groups.
These experiences are often called “secondhand trauma” or “vicarious trauma.” Journalists don’t necessarily witness the events, but they still can suffer effects as sources recount the events to them, or they visit the scenes, or they view photos and videos. That’s why potential trauma is not limited to reporters at a scene. Being a photo or video editor, for instance, can sometimes be brutal, even miles away.
Secondhand trauma is bad enough for the individual. But left unrecognized or untreated, it can create numbness and cold-heartedness that show up in how a journalist treats others. “It is not only a matter of mental health; emotional detachment leads to some of the worst journalistic decisions,” Sidney Tompkins, a licensed psychotherapist who has worked with journalists suffering from traumatic stress, told poynter.org. “You will ask insensitive questions, air or publish (insensitive) videos and photos, or approach people in unfeeling ways that seem normal to you.”
Ruth Serven Smith, editor of the Alabama Media Group’s Alabama Education Lab, has emphasized self-care by her reporters throughout her career, as well as steps that managers can take to help. She believes everyone has better awareness of the issue today than in the past.
Professionally, Smith saw long-term secondhand trauma in some colleagues at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia, after they covered the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in August 2017. Personally, she has experienced firsthand trauma.
ruth serven smith of the alabama media group
Smith and her family found themselves in the path of a rare EF5 tornado that killed 24 people and injured 200 in Moore, Oklahoma, in 2013. Stuck on an escape route on a highway, the family had to abandon its car and run for shelter in a nearby movie theater. The tornado passed over the theater. “I thought I was going to die,” Smith said.
The episode gave her a greater understanding of the effects of trauma. “It took me a long time to realize how much that affected me. I still get hyper-anxious during bad weather.”
Smith offered some good, practical suggestions for how newsroom staff involved in any aspect of reporting on horrible events can protect themselves. Newsroom managers have a role to play, too. I’ve added some advice from The Dart Center and The Poynter Institute, a journalism training organization.
Talk to a professional therapist. Even have a regular appointment. (Some news organizations have brought in therapists after major traumatic events in their communities. Hearst has hired a confidential, constantly available therapist for its news staff in California and Texas.)
Be willing to share mental health concerns with colleagues and bosses. Individuals early in their careers are sometimes reluctant to do this because they fear giving the impression that they can’t handle this aspect of the job. That’s unfortunate. Feel something, say something.
Try not to work alone on such stories.
Take a day off during or immediately after the daily grind of grim reporting. “There’s often an incentive at the higher level (of management) to reward the people who are willing to go to the disaster zone and then make them keep doing it every day, and I don’t think that’s fair,” Smith said.
Find a way to write uplifting stories occasionally, especially when working a beat like police and crime.
Above all, remember there’s a purpose to reporting on the worst realities of the world, be it to bring awareness, motivate the search for solutions or memorialize victims. “I think some of what makes trauma linger … is feeling like you’re doing all of this and hearing all of this and you’re not helping anyone,” Smith said.
One strategy that won’t work: Planning to avoid ever having to deal with the awfulness in life.
If interested, here’s an October 2021 post on reporters who witness state executions: “Staring death in the face — voluntarily”