The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma is a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, aimed at helping journalists deal and report trauma. The Dart Center holds seminars aimed at teaching journalists how to interview people who have experienced trauma and how to deal with it themselves. Their research unit is at the University of Tulsa Department of Psychology.
The Web site itself is a resource for journalists and students. Under the About section of the Web site, the center says it “provides timely articles, expert interviews, journalist-to-journalist advice, tipsheets and other resources. The website also serves as a multimedia venue for discussion of controversies and breakthroughs in trauma science, policy and media coverage.”
The Web site has four tabs that serve as categories for the information: Journalists, Educators, Researchers and Scholars, and Clinicians. Under the journalists tab, the Web site offers many resources to help journalists, as the Web site states, “cover bad news better.”
A Dart Media photo shows up on every page. Clicking the link leads you to the Dart Awards best photos over the past 15 years. These photos range in subject matter, but all are pertaining to violence or trauma.
The Journalists tab offers help on covering a variety of subjects. There is a tip sheet for writing about soldiers returning home from the war and how to handle their stories correctly. There are fact sheets to draw information from for stories or ideas for stories. Running along the side of the page, an outline lays out the resources available. Booklets and self-studies about trauma and violence are included in the lay out.
The same information is presented under the other tabs, just aimed at different audiences. There is some variation in content; certain stories are highlighted on some, not on others. However, the fact sheets are on every tab.
Within the Web site, there is little focus on journalism innovation in the literal sense. The Web site is not as concerned with technology as it is with the human element. However on the fact sheets, there is information about news framing and the effects. The real concentration of how the field is changing is about war coverage. Under tips and tools, as well other sections as well, there is a concentration on the effects of violence on the journalists who cover it.
I would give the Web site a 4. I think the site is full of wonderful information about covering the hard stuff of hard news. This is a great resource for any journalist. The only discrepancy I would raise is that the information is so dense that it is hard to sift through it all.
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It seems to me that this website obviously focuses on journalism about violence and trauma, since the main bulk of the news is violent and traumatic. Therefore, The Dart Center is necessary in their training of journalists. They demonstrate how to deal with getting the interview during a traumatic occurrence. Beyond just that journalists learn how to deal with their own emotions in a traumatic situation.
ReplyDeleteAbout two years ago I was working an internship with News Channel 5, and one night we were called on a story about a hit and run. When we arrived at the scene, the police had not shown up yet...my first time ever seeing a dead body up close and personal. The reporter and camera man were worried about me, but they were also wondering how to deal with this body just open to the public. The reporter was worried about how to report it because there were rumors over the scanner that the female might have been 'on the job' if you know what I mean. All the reporter could say was a hit and run, but there were so many calls coming in about more information that he couldn't or was skeptical about giving at the time- on top of staring at this lifeless body. A Web site like this, which is the first I've ever heard of, could have helped me and the reporter and the camera guy do a better job besides sort of freaking out that the police weren't covering the body. In regards to the journalism innovation, I think that the human element of any story must be the focus before we decide on how to use the technology to present the story. The one thing I like about this site is the journalist to journalist advice, because it's more insightful when someone has been through that type of situation.
ReplyDeleteI think this web site is not only very interesting, but I think its an important resource for journalists. Journalists are seemingly try to report "objectively" and I think that when disaster strikes and there are traumas or acts of violence that a site like this becomes an important guide on how to accurately report these kinds of situations. I also think the "tips and tools" sheets are very useful resources for journalists covering violence because they provide information on what to do in certain situations and even have frequently asked questions and answers that provides important information as well.
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