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positions of media would be variable for influencing the affordability of journalists when covering traumatic events.
As Wang tried to formulate a framework for developing support mechanism in future and investigated the existed social support for dealing with traumatic stress to Taiwan journalists, she found most journalists adopt two approaches, self-care and seeking social support. In the part of social support, Wang divided it to three types: Emotional Support, Informational Support (offer information about the stress context) and Tangible (material and service) Support and also divided the source of support to three categories: Peers, Organizations and Religion & Family. Her research pointed out these journalists from their peers can acquire more informational support, but limited emotional support for the sake of competitions, and religious support plays an important role in the ways of Taiwanese journalists to deal with traumatic stress. Moreover, Journalists in Taiwan are often criticized about lacking empathy, because for the deadline pressure and competing for rating, some of them often ask the news subjects some inconsiderate questions, for getting some useful quote in the news reports.
1.4 The Study
Instead of reconfirming the impacts on journalists from covering traumatic events, which Lu (2009) has already discussed in her master thesis, and papers contributed to find solutions or builded a model for dealing with the impacts related to trauma (Wang, 2010; Castle, 1999;
Rentschler, 2010); I tried to discuss a better way to help journalists dealing with their traumatic experience from covering tragedies.
Most Taiwan journalists don’t have awareness about the potential trauma, and nothing is
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systematically set up in the newsrooms for helping journalists who suffered by witnessing tragedies and covering traumatic events (Lu, 2009). In this stage, building awareness about trauma and helping them have a positive attitude to seek some feasible frameworks for better coverage are things we could do. An awareness building may be the first step for creating more appropriate solutions. Trainings or workshops may be an approach to build awareness.
In view of these, I helped to release a simple workshop about trauma literacy. It was as an informant for Taitung journalists. And then I used in-depth interview as an approach to consider whether trauma literacy makes difference, especially on journalists’ perception of their traumatic stress. I hope the research would be a proposal to urge the importance of building trauma awareness among journalists.
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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Trauma and Journalists
Journalism has been discussed as a hazardous profession, because journalists, especially war journalists would suffer from traumatic stress and sometimes safety threats from their assignments (Feinstein, 2002). After covering war, humanity crisis, and disasters, foreign correspondents and journalists would have some emotional scars, lingering memory and even problems of substance abuse. Psychiatrist Feinstein also wrote that” There is a notion within war journalism that even reporters are not combatants, they can confront war with impunity as well” (Feinstein, 2003: 8).
With the improved technology, increased production expectations and spiraling competition between a greater number of domestic news outlets, trauma news and live coverage increased as well (McMahon & McLellan, 2008). News about disaster, war, riots, genocides and terrorism which seems full of trauma are significant to link trauma and its consequences to journalistic practice, and occurring news about criminal incidents such as drug abuse, suicide, sexual assault, rape, child abuse, domestic violence, and what require to interview victims, survivors, victims’ families and first responders are have strong links to trauma as well.
In fact, not only war journalists but almost every reporter or editor may be involved in the coverage of tragedies which have victims and have influence on the society, such as automobile accidents, fire, murders and crime news (Hight & Smyth, 2003; Smith, 2008;
Dworznik, 2006).
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In a research by McMahon and McLellan (2008) showed that many journalists who covered the Indian Ocean Tsunami in December 2004, were confronted a number of deficits in five fields, including control, safety, trust, self-esteem and intimacy. In spite of a single, serious traumatic event, Van der Merwe (2003:11) noted that there are some responses which appear on journalists are resulted from traumatic stress, especially when they repeatedly cover traumatic events. These responses include being cynical, have a limit hope in human kindness, being lethargic, withdrawing from intimacy and a loss of belief in self, etc.
Matloff (2004) also noted that reporters sometimes may experience “survivor guilt”6 in their work. Journalists’guilt feeling is come from identification with the victims. The kind of guilty feeling in the context of the health profession may be put as a kind of “vicarious trauma” which makes a shift of schema and the belief about self and others after constantly exposing to traumatic stories of others.
Traumatic exposure
Simpson and Boggs (1999) did an exploratory study about traumatic stress symptoms on press journalists. They surveyed 131 American newspaper reporters, photo journalists and editors in Michigan and Washington State, and found that interviewing victims or survivors, as well as witnessing traumatic events made these journalists have traumatic symptoms.
Symptoms of the secondary exposure to traumatic events may persist for months or years, and could be triggered by some reminders about the specific traumatic events. To these journalists, the most mentioned symptoms are sadness, exhaustion, excitement, guilt, apprehension, anger,
6 “Survivor guilt” is also called survival guilt. It is the feeling of guilt for surviving from a tragedy in which others died. In some cases, the person may believe the tragedy occurred because he or she did something bad. In others, the person may feel guilty for not taking proper steps to avert the tragedy (Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition).
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fear for self and fear for family members. Traumatic stress strikes from journalists’ duty are similar to the emotional response public-safety workers take in their work. The studies also showed that journalists are at risk of symptoms such as the intrusion of unwanted recollection and avoidance as early as their first violent assignment and with the accumulation of covering traumatic event without dealing, affect journalists adversely, and Simpson and Boggs suspected that may “drain on one's consciousness, and diminishes the capacity for accurate, creative work” (Simpaon & Boggs, 1999:18).
Traumatic exposure did bring traumatic stress on journalists, in spite of Simpson and Boggs’ research, Ross (2003) also suggests: “Media members are often exposed to direct trauma when they witness violence and tragedy first-hand, or second-hand trauma from repetitive exposure in the aftermath of tragedy” (2003:74). Studies of journalistic trauma authorized the “journalistic witnessing” by making it medical (Conrad, 1992; Ochberg, 1996), codifying the horrors reporters saw may have possible lead to PTSD.
Other factors
In spite of traumatic exposure, Himmelstein and Faithorn (2002) also pointed out while journalists lose a sense of mission may suffer from a loss of conviction and depression, and feel helpless to affect the society. That means that only traumatic stress from the tragedies journalists cover but the following questioning about their ethical reasoning or condemn also make they traumatized. Moreover, when journalists have the same experience with the trauma victims or have some similar background with the subjects, they feel more traumatic stress.
Professional detachment
Many journalists employ the “professional detachment” which is a short-term technique to
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be selectively dissociated and keep a distance to the news targets, making journalists to function “professionally” and to file their stories on time (McMahon & McLellan, 2008). The compartmentalize behavior make journalists continue their work instead of overwhelming on the spot but as Simpson and Boggs questioned, “Can journalists truly compartmentalize or repress the horror while they go about the routine of producing the news?” (Simpson & Boggs, 1999:2)
Moreover the “macho culture” which is the culture of being “tough, ruthless and devoid of emotions”, is still popular in most newsrooms. And that culture makes few journalists want to talk about how traumatic stories have affected them, because they thought that it is not a way that a good journalist has been expected to be. Newman, Simpson and Handschuh (2003) in their research also showed that low perceived social support may increase the rate of PTSD among photojournalists. Organizational support and training program about trauma are important for journalists to learn how to deal with the trauma they cover and the following potential stressful impact on them.
Therefore awareness of the traumatic stress and help seeking for dealing the traumatic assignments and the following impact are still need to be promoted, and urging a shift of culture in better preparing or supporting media staff to deal with traumatic stress which may make impact on their mental health (Brayne, 2004).
With finding out journalists inevitably have some traumatic stress from their daily work, in recent years, many training courses, experience sharing gathering, workshops which set up for journalists are come with the trauma concerns (Brayne,2004; Bennett, 2008; Simpson, 2004; Frank & Perigoe, 2009; Wang, 2010). Organizations such as Dart Center for journalism and trauma have started to notice the trauma related problems, and cooperated with psychological scholars to release or to deliver materials about trauma issues in
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journalism to journalists. The trauma issues in journalism have not been in the corner anymore. As a BBC correspondent David Loyn described trauma therapy as a process of vacuuming a carpet: “If an ordinary sentient human being is exposed to a lot of violence, then you need a cleaning.”(as cited in Matloff, 2004: 20).
2.2 Assignment Stress Injury on Journalists
Casualties and physical persecution of journalists in war zone and conflict areas note the importance of safety issues in journalism. Not only War journalists, foreign correspondents and local journalists are often facing life threats and at the risk of being severe injury physically on their way to cover stories or rush into the scene of accidents and disasters (CPJ report, 2003). Keat and Buchanan (2009) proposed a term, “Assignment Stress Injury” (ASI), to describe a type of injury that developing on trauma assignments and in newsroom, that kind of injury often comes from traumatic stress. To journalists, their work routines often place them in dangerous situations where they may confront their own vulnerability and the psychological impact of subjects in their stories, such as grief, shock and disorientation (Himmelstein and Faithorn, 2002).
Journalists may be affected by traumatic exposure at three different levels (Cameron, 2007): (1) Direct exposure, where a traumatic event is personally experienced or witnessed; (2) Secondary exposure, which exposed via sympathetic involvement in the experiences of another (3) Vicarious exposure, where traumatization occurs in the absence of personal contact. The direct exposure is easy to understand, which may give rise to Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) or Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); and secondary or vicarious exposure is leaded to Secondary Trauma Stress (STS).
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2. 2.1 PTSD and Journalists
Some studies have examined the PTSD on journalists. Some Journalists and photojournalists who covered large-scale disasters confirmed symptoms of PTSD (Cote &
Simpson, 2006; Palm et al, 2004). According to previous research about the ratio of journalists who suffer from PTSD, the results were ranging from 4.3 percent in a study with newspaper journalists (Pyevich, Newman, & Daleiden, 2003); 6.7 percent in a study to 875 media professionals, 98.4% of them are photojournalists who have experience about covering traumatic events7(Newman, Simpson, & Handschuh, 2003); 30 percent in a study with 140 war correspondents (Feinstein, Owen, & Blair, 2002) and gradually elevated rates of depressive symptoms have been found with regard to journalists (Feinstein et al., 2002).
PTSD is often associated with soldiers, prisoners of war, or rape victims, and usually it associates with one traumatic event rather than an accumulation of smaller events. The threats of physical harm, witnessing a tragic event, and immediate feelings of fear, horror, and helplessness are necessary for the diagnosis of PTSD (Dworznik, 2008). Different from the instant stress response such as Acute Stress Disorder (ASD)8, PTSD is a chronic response to trauma, lasting at least a month and occurring anytime after a genuine trauma (Ochberg, 1996). The diagnostic criteria for PTSD include a history of exposure to traumatic events, such as people who have experienced a threat of harm or death on themselves or those they love. The main symptoms of PTSD are intrusive recollections of the trauma event; avoidance of reminders of the event and emotional numbing; hyper arousal 9 (DSM-Ⅳ-TR, 2000).
7 This rate (6%) is roughly consistent with rates in the general population (Newman et al, 2003).
8 Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by a cluster of dissociative and anxiety symptoms occurring within one month of a traumatic event (Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 2008).
9 Hyper arousal is a state or condition of muscular and emotional tension produced by hormones released (Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 2008).
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Further symptoms of PTSD include depression, grief and loss, helplessness, guilt and fear of the traumatic event recurring. These symptoms may appear shortly after the trauma, but some victims may be symptom free for weeks before symptoms begin to surface (DSM-Ⅳ-TR, 2000).
Studies showed that the ratios of PTSD are not significant among local journalists as war correspondent. Even Pyevich, Newman, and Daleiden (2003) attempted to improve the study of PTSD in local journalists by increasing their sample size. They surveyed total 866 local newspaper journalists for PTSD and their traumatic exposure in 2000. The result were that 96
% of the sample had covered at least one incident in which someone was hurt or killed, but only 4.3% have PTSD. Dworznik (2008) thought the result was due to the fact that local reporters and photographers rarely contact with a single event which is traumatic enough to trigger PTSD. Instead, they expose to an accumulation of trauma aftermath and victims’
stories, which is indicative of compassion fatigue. Adding compassion fatigue to trauma studies in journalism may offer a more complete picture of how journalists are being affected by their work (Dworznik, 2008).
2.2.2 STS and Journalists
Sommer (2008:62) mentioned that there is “a variety of terms have been used to describe the deleterious effects experienced by some professionals who provide services to those who directly affected by traumatic stressors”. Secondary Traumatic Stress is the most comprehensive term that can be interchangeably used to describe vicarious trauma,
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countertransference10, compassion fatigue and burnout, reactions to the emotional demands on people from witnessing or being exposed to others’ suffering through graphics, images, testimonies, etc. (Sanchez, 2010: 8). It is a natural consequence, and it is also stressed by Keat
& Buchanan (2009) as an assignment stress injury to journalists. As Dworznik (2008) wrote in his doctoral thesis,
“Near constant exposure to people in trauma coupled with long or irregular work routine, deadline pressure, and lack of social support make journalists a prime candidate for secondary traumatic stress, burnout and compassion fatigue”(2008:71).
Compassion fatigue is a biologically, psychologically and socially state of exhaustion and dysfunction and was first used for describing the emotional exhaustion of nurses who are over emotionally involved with the plights of their patients (Joinson, 1992). Dworznik described compassion fatigue as the result of “the emotional exhaustion, depersonalization11, and reduced personal accomplishment combine with the inability to process traumatic information” (2008:69). People who frequently exposed to dangerous situations, witnessing property damage and loss, working under bad conditions, the physical strain associated with their work, and have the necessity of conveying bad news to friends and family of victims are at risk for compassion fatigue (Beaton & Murphy, 1995).
Dworznik (2006) put symptoms of compassion fatigue as these of secondary traumatic
10 Countertransference traditionally has referred to the activation of the therapist's unresolved or unconscious conflicts or concerns, and can be more broadly incorporated the painful feelings, images, and thoughts that accompany the work with trauma survivors (McCann & Pearlman, 1990).
11 Depersonalization: Persistent or recurrent experiences of feeling detached from, and as if one is an outside observer of, one’s mental processes or body (e.g., feeling as though one is in a dream; sense of unreality of self or body; or time moving slowly)(APA, DSM-5).
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stress, and reviewed research from Bull and Newman (2003), Zalin(2001) and Steele(2001) , reported compassion fatigue on news workers may have these symptoms including fear, shock and social disconnection, sadness, exhaustion and guilt, and nightmares and headaches. Some research showed that compassion fatigue can make journalists change the way they shoot and write stories, affecting the media message itself and audience (Dworznik, 2008: 72).
Compassion fatigue in journalists can impact both their interpersonal relationships with new subjects they interview and also the messages they construct for mass audiences (Dworznik, 2008). For compassion fatigue on journalists makes them emotionally over-distancing themselves from their news subject in grief, in this way they may have difficulty to really understand their grief. Moreover, Reporters with compassion fatigue may choose or present more sensational and horrific stories, and pass along their compassion fatigue to the audience for they are emotionally drained.
Pearlman and McCann (1995) defined vicarious traumatization as the cumulative effect on a therapist for engaging in therapeutic relationships with trauma victims, and the effects may influence the helpers’ cognitive schema, feelings, the sense of safety, self-esteem and memories, and lead to cognitive shifts and intrusive imagery. Van der Merwe (2003) pointed that journalists and press photographers should be aware of the danger of vicarious trauma12, because constantly exposure to trauma story of others are pervasive in the lives of journalists and can potentially affect all realms of their lives, and it is a long-term alternations in cognitive schemas or mental frameworks about self and others.
Burnout is a kind of cumulative stress, a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by the loss of ability to cope with one’s everyday environment. It was
12 Vicarious traumatization (VT) is specific to trauma workers. As McCann and Pearlman (1990) argued that working with victims could have lasting and profound psychological effects on counselors and therapists. They termed this traumatizing phenomenon as “vicarious traumatization”.
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introduced to describe feelings of emotional and physical exhaustion related to one’s work.
Depression, cynicism, boredom, loss of compassion and discouragement are often come with burnout (Dworznik, 2008). Research about journalists’ burnout showed that younger, less experienced journalists often suffer from higher rates of burnout than their older, seasoned colleagues (Reinardy, 2007). Moreover, there is a strong linkage between burnout and intentions to leave journalism and mostly female journalists reported higher level of exhaustion (Reinardy, 2009).
2.3 Dealing with Traumatic Stress
Traumatic stress and first responders
Concerns on the psychological sequelae to trauma have not only on primary victims but some victims suffer from their work which have some strong connections to others’ trauma such as military personnel, domestic rescue workers, the police, and psychologists as well.
There are many research has been recognized traumatic stress on so-called first responders.
Regehr, Goldberg and Hugh (2002) have recognized that the exposure to death and destruction can result in posttraumatic stress symptoms and depressive symptoms in emergency workers and paramedics. And Shepherd and Hodgkins (1990) pointed out that mental health workers in disasters may be the hidden victims from some psychological response in their emotion, cognition, behaviors.
With recognizing these “sequelae”, these professionals have some interventions or trainings to help them to deal with the potential impact come with their work. After recognizing journalists may suffer from traumatic stress as first responders from the past research, the coping strategies for journalists are what I really concern, but the practical
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related research are few.
To first responders, early organizational interventions following traumatic exposures, such as understanding from their manager and immediate practical support can reduce psychological effects of trauma and lower absence rates (Rick, O’Regan & Kinder, 2006).
Most interventions which are designed to reduce occupational stress can be categorized as (1) aiming to increase individual psychological resources and responses (e.g., coping), simply put, stress management training ; and (2) aiming to change the occupational context (van der Klink, Blonk, Scheme, & van Dijk, 2001).
Van der Klink, Blonk, Schene, and van Dijk (2001), did a quantitative meta-analysis
Van der Klink, Blonk, Schene, and van Dijk (2001), did a quantitative meta-analysis