Research Design

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developed some skills for coping (Meichbaum, 2007). Training or education can be a good approach for building that kind of awareness and providing information about possible solutions (Hernández, Engstrom, & Gangsei, 2010; Deahl, 1998; Bell, 2003).

Training about trauma has put into practice in foreign countries, but the feasibility of the kind of training is still need to consider in Taiwan. Because of different covering conditions and cultural environments, the influence or stress injury on Taiwan journalists about covering tragedies are also different. Referring to their attitude toward training, in Wang’s research, most of her interviewees thought that on-the-job training is a practice worth to giving a try (Wang, 2010).

Even I could assume that Taiwan journalists may not resist more training but it doesn’t mean that most of them really understand they have the demands for being trained. What should be considered is whether journalists perceive that their assignment stress injury from covering tragedies is a problem, because if they don't get aware of it is really an issue and they need to be further trained, how to discuss the efficacy or influence the training bring?

If delivering a brief introduction about trauma to Taiwan journalists, what may change?

Is it helpful for journalists perceived their needs and suffering? And what the “newer”

perception bring? These are things to be found out in this study.

3.2 Research Design

What I did was helping to deliver a simple workshop to the dispatched journalists in Taitung, The workshop was an introduction about possible traumatic impacts on journalists and functioned as a primer for making them think about the trauma issues. Based on an assumption that many journalists may not get aware of the stress injury from their trauma

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assignments, I used a workshop as a primer to make them s think about that and whether there are some influence on them related to covering tragedies.

After delivering the primer, I did in-depth interviews and tried to figure out how these journalists perceived the trauma from their assignment. The aim behind the interviews was gaining more data about whether there are some change on their reactions and cognitive thinking after gaining more awareness about the potential impact from covering tragedies.

Before delivering the workshop, as I want to know their original attitude and demands about covering tragedies and the possible traumatic impact on them, and also gathered some feedbacks to the speaker of workshop for making the content of the workshop more related to journalists’work context, I also did the interviews before the workshop.

As it was an exploratory research, and I was not sure whether traumatic stress really has influence on Taiwan journalists as research showed that on foreign journalists, the pre-workshop interview gave me a simple picture about journalists’ perception about how they perceived their difficulties and their coping skills on tragedies covering. And in-depth interview after the workshop could help me gaining more insights about how they perceived their traumatic experience about trauma covering, their vulnerability, puzzles, and traumatic stress after covering trauma news.

Qualitative methods allow the researchers have flexibility to probe participants’ initial responses and make a room to ask why or how. Participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus groups are methods which often apply in the qualitative research. Participant observation is appropriate for collecting data on naturally occurring behaviors in usual contexts; in-depth interviews are optimal for collecting data on individuals’ personal histories, perspectives and experiences, particularly when sensitive topics are being explored; focus groups are effective in eliciting data on the cultural norms of a group and in generating broad

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overviews of issues of concerns to the cultural groups or subgroups represented (Mack, Woodsong, MacQeen, Guest, & Namey, 2005). Here I chose in-depth interview as main approach for the study.

Also I used the workshop as a primer rather than an intervention. The workshop itself was not the main focus in my study, it would be the focus of the following ones after the exploratory research, I positioned the study was a start for making sure that with more awareness for the possible injury from traumatic stress may bring more positive change to their trauma dealing or traumatic stress dealing. Some research about trauma and stress adopted some psychological scales to evaluate the effect of trauma stressors. But as this study was on the assumption about Taiwan journalists don’t have enough awareness about their trauma and now studies about trauma and journalists in Taiwan are in a stage of awareness building, I used in-depth interview to dig out more influential factors to the topic.

3.2.1 Research Population - Taitung Journalists

There are some reasons for me to choose Taitung as the place to hold the workshop. When I chose my research population, I need journalists who have time to receive the “primer”

workshop and cover news encompass different beats, and dispatched journalists may more fit with my requests.

Different form Taipei journalists, dispatched journalists covered every kind of news stories, and comparable limited staffing such as the “one person” deposition for TV journalists makes them often fight alone, always keep available without rotations for every possible critical issues in a vast area or a country. To the dispatched journalists, even the workload is heavy for their extended responsible covering area and different beats, and the

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demands of local news are much lower, dispatched journalists with the familiarity of the local issues, would have more flexible time arrangement then Taipei journalists.

Yan (2002) studied for his master thesis about local TV news and factors influence the news production, he pointed out crime news or news about accidents, disasters and violence have become the main content of local news. The sensational content attracts more ratings and chances to be accepted by Taipei base for broadcasting. The fact makes covering sensational news itself is a “reflex response” of dispatched journalists. The news stories Taitung journalists file to their base in Taipei, as Yan’s research pointed out are often some “serious”

and “sensational” news, such as murder, disasters and big event. The sensational demands also make them have no more energy for digging out more in-depth and public-relevant issues.

In other words, they have more chance to cover the trauma news than some Taipei journalists who is belonged to some news beats about education, politics and economics.

Taitung is a place where frequently suffer from floods and heavy rains, for instance the Morakot Typhoon had a heavy stroke to Taitung in 2008, broke the records of rainfall. In fact, and when journalists cover disasters they will be more easily exposed to traumatic scenes.

And many research showed that these exposures with longer time or highly intensity may increase the impact of trauma (Smith, 2008; Simpson & Boggs, 1999). Therefore, these journalists who stand at the “front-line” of disasters can offer more feedbacks and the traumatic stress on them may be more significant.

Most dispatched journalists in Taitung have longer work experiences. Most of them work as dispatched journalists for many years and they have built more close relationships with local people, organizations, governments and gentries. Dispatched journalists from different media may construct a more cooperative rather than competitive relationship, when one has his hand full, the others may share his work. Held a new workshop as primer in an

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environment which have cooperate atmosphere and strong connections among journalists is good for promotion and the rate of attendance. That would make me have more interviewee to interview as my setting, also narrowed my research population in an area and give the research a more focused situational context.

Moreover, concerning that dispatched journalists often lacks resources about training and Taitung in fact is much remote to Taipei base, I thought that held a workshop there would be a new practice just as introducing the concept of trauma literacy.

3.2.2 The Workshop

Establishing a training program needs training materials, instructors/ trainers, places and participants (volunteered journalists). The scale of training and the background of attended journalists are also should take into account. As time limitation and financial concerns, set up a training program by myself and gathering enough numbers of attendees to reach normal reliability standard of statistics (usually, n>30) for quantitative research are really difficult.

That’s another reason I chose to use qualitative method as main approach.

Supported by the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan, the research group which is named News Trauma Research Group had a plan to go to Taitung to hold a workshop about trauma literacy. The research group is leaded by an associate professor of the Radio and Television department, Julia Hsu in the National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taiwan. She is the promoter and practitioner for the study about trauma and Journalism and the only contact in Taiwan for Dart Center for Journalism and trauma.

The workshop was titled “Experience Sharing Seminar about Covering Tragedy and Disasters”, and was held on 12/23, 2010, from 19:30 to 21:30. The place was in the Taitung

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County Government, a seminar room just next to the press room, where these dispatched journalists usually take as an office. The speaker of the workshop is Professor Julia Hsu. In the workshop, she introduced possible injury on journalists after covering traumatic event, the difficulty journalists may face and possible solutions and how to covering victims. The workshop could be main case supported my thesis about trauma training.

The content of the workshop were based on Prof. Hsu’s research and her prior experience of being a TV journalist; and the Dart Center’s online modules: “Journalism & Trauma “,

“Covering Terrorism”, “Photography & Trauma ” and “ The first 24 hours”, translated by the Trauma News research group.