For many reporters, the on-air shooting of Roanoke, Virginia-based reporter Allison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward has prompted a deeper conversation about the perils of the industry, with a particular focus on the mental trauma that news people experience when exposed to graphic images and stories of tragedy.
In the days after the violent deaths, colleagues of Parker and Ward at WDBJ7-TV eulogized them during memorial services, wore ribbons in their memory, and established scholarships in their honor — all in an effort to “transform a traumatic event” into a chance to do good for others, as a psychiatrist explained to USA Today.
Those gestures of kindness could perhaps be an attempt to grieve productively, especially since members of the newsroom, including Parker’s partner and Ward’s fiancé, have to keep providing audiences with the news of the day even as they mourn. “I have the greatest news team,” WDBJ7-TV news director Kelly Zuber said at a press conference on Thursday. “They cry, they hug and then they get the job done.”
In decades past, only crime reporters and war correspondents bore the brunt of on-the-job mental trauma amid perpetual subjection to violence and the possibility of their own demise. However, in the age of social media, members of the press, no matter their beat, may experience some form of vicarious trauma — defined as the mental strain of reporting breaking news and talking to victims. For those immersed in their work, that means internalizing others’ suffering via tweets, videos, and status updates, even if they’re not there to see these events firsthand.
A United Kingdom-based study released in May found that vicarious trauma can affect both reporters and members of their audience, who are also exposed to raw photos and videos. Twenty-two percent reported that this exposure brought on clinical symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder — including flashbacks, mood changes, avoidance, and sleeplessness. Extroverted people who use social media more often stand at a greater risk of becoming depressed.
This has recently been the case for black reporters covering incidents of police brutality across the country, many of whom say that talking to victims and their families brings to mind their personal experiences as people of color.
Even if they’re not covering issues that mirror their first-hand experience, journalists learn to be sensitive to victims’ pain in order to better humanize their subjects. Fulfilling that responsibility, however, can be overwhelming, especially as reporters become more knowledgeable of the event that transpired. Putting news in context of socioeconomic and racial inequities can cause further mental and physical stain.
In her reflection about Hurricane Katrina’s 10th anniversary, award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien, who conducted on-the-ground reporting during and after the disaster, recounted periods during her assignment when she became affected by the discord.
“I was very frustrated,” O’Brien, who has since started a foundation to mentor girls from the New Orleans area, told NewsOne this week. “I saw that there were so many people who were pregnant and there were ways that we could be helpful. Everyone was trying to figure out, ‘How do we make it work?’ I saw the same thing in education and all of these young women who needed opportunities but couldn’t afford them.”
Reactions to trauma and stress may include stomach aches, headaches, heart palpitations, changes in sleep patterns, and increased use of drugs and alcohol. Affected reporters may also isolate themselves from colleagues, friends, and family and experience what psychologist Charles Figley describes as “compassion fatigue” — a state of exhaustion after long-term firsthand and vicarious exposure to traumatic events. This may cause journalists to talk about their experiences casually or to avoid exploring their feelings altogether, which further perpetuates a misleading aura of invincibility in a high-paced newsroom.
Experts at the University of Wisconsin Center for Journalism Ethics say that when left untreated, the mental burden of carrying this trauma alone can adversely affect journalists’ personal and work life, even hospitalizing them and shortening their careers.
“You may re-experience the event through visions or auditory sensations. It can feel a little bit like, ‘Is this really happening or is it not?” Laura Mutrie, clinical instructor of social work and director of field education at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, told USA Today this week.
“It starts to become a problem if people avoid going back to work, if they stay home, if they increase their normal drinking, if they become isolated from their families, if they refuse to do things they normally do. It’s a problem if their mood is more depressed more days than not, if they can’t get back to their routines, if they can’t get rid of the nightmares, if they’re re-experiencing it,” she added.
The American Psychological Association recommends that workplaces integrate debriefing procedures, counseling, and relaxation techniques to help support employees. While the demands of the 24-hour news cycle may not allow reporters enough time to sort through their feelings, they are learning to talk about their experiences with colleagues who can relate. News organizations have been called to institutionalize gatherings where mentor-colleague relationships can flourish.
“Journalists are a pretty resilient tribe — but we’re also human beings,” NPR’s Ari Shapiro told the Huffington Post earlier this year. “We’re no different from cops, firefighters or soldiers — and no different, either, from groups like homicide detectives or psychotherapists, who carry the secondhand burden of others’ suffering.”
But some newsrooms are making changes that better allow journalists to rest their minds. For instance, employees at Mashable can let their inner-child come out in an art studio chock-full with a plethora art supplies and audiovisual equipment. Natural light, which has been found to improve productivity and mood, permeate office and meeting spaces at the New York Times’ 62-story headquarters.