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In March 2003, reporter Michelle Trudeau
told National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered”
audience about a new study that underlined the risks of psychological
injury faced by war correspondents.
Reporting on a landmark study by Anthony Feinstein, a Canadian
psychiatrist, Trudeau used interviews with Chris Cramer, president
of CNN International Networks, CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour
and other journalists to underline the importance of the findings.
Feinstein’s study was a signal to news organizations, including
NPR, that the imminent Iraq conflict could impact the flood of reporters
preparing to move toward Baghdad. NPR already was involved in internal
discussions about how best to support its journalists, whether on
domestic or international assignments, when they reported violent
events.
Those discussions led to an invitation to the Dart Center to provide
briefings in June 2003 for all of NPR’s News & Information
Division, as well as its Engineering and Operations Division management
and broadcast radio technicians. Attendees represented reporters,
correspondents, hosts, news and information managers, producers,
editors, engineering and operations managers and broadcast technicians.
The briefings reflected collaboration within NPR among news and
information, engineering & operations and human resources divisions,
and externally with the Dart Center and NPR’s employee assistance
program provider.
Frank
Ochberg, M.D., a psychiatrist and chair of the Dart Center Executive
Committee, and Bruce Shapiro, a journalist, educator and Field Director
of the Dart Center, briefed NPR employees on the causes, symptoms
and treatments of traumatic injury and the need for personal and
group response to support personnel exposed to traumatic events.
With permission of National Public Radio, you can hear the audio
of one of the briefings introduced by “Morning Edition”
host Bob Edwards. “Journalists are often first responders
to traumatic events,” Edwards says. “Other first responders
— police, firefighters, military — get routine training
in coping with traumatic stress.”
Listen
to the NPR Briefing (29 min.) 
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