PressEthic

I have to admit that the idea of journalists as victims -- of any sort -- in the midst of the mess that Hurricane Katrina left behind did not occur to me until I was sent a link to the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. And then it seemed so obvious.

The Center functions as a global resource hub for journalists reporting from disaster zones or covering traumatic events. September 11th 2001, the Asian tsunami and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are precisely the sort of situations they are concerned with. The idea is to provide journalists (of all kinds) and their editors with resources to prevent them from being psychologically scarred by the horrific nature of the events or scenes they are witnessing.

The Center's website has links to first hand accounts of reporters' experiences covering Katrina, some of them illustrative of the emotional toll the job is taking on them. I thought an email written by Natalie Pompilio of the Philadelphia Inquirer was quite telling, especially when she says:

For me, this is worse than Iraq. Because there, the language barrier meant I was always a little bit separate. But I can understand every word people here say to me and it's killing me. Strangers come up to you and beg for water. They want to know where you're staying and if they can stay with you. Like the woman above, they want you to put their names in the paper so their loved ones can find out they're alive. And I feel helpless because I can't help them.

Poynter Online, too, has resources for journalists covering tragedies -- some of the links leading back to the Dart Center. Al Tompkins wrote a piece for Poynter.org (September 15th, 2001) that was quoted by the Dart Center in a larger article, saying:

Reporters, photojournalists, engineers, soundmen and field producers often work elbow to elbow with emergency workers. Journalists’ symptoms of traumatic stress are remarkably similar to those of police officers and firefighters who work in the immediate aftermath of tragedy, yet journalists typically receive little support after they file their stories. While public-safety workers are offered debriefings and counseling after a trauma, journalists are merely assigned another story.

So it's good to see that there are organizations out there who are providing the missing support.