Resources for Journalism Educators

Case Studies

A Classroom Case Study
John Harris (Western Washington University Department of Journalism) discusses incorporating a two-week session on trauma reporting into an upper-level journalism class.

Media Ethics
University of Central Oklahoma Journalism Department Chairman and Professor Terry Clark opened his newly established course on journalism ethics with a discussion on media coverage of the space shuttle Columbia tragedy.

Training for Trauma: Dart Europe Workshop
At a recent workshop in London, European journalism educators were introduced to the Dart Center's method of preparing students to cover traumatic events. Media trainer Tudor Lomas reports ...

Covering Trauma
Mike Cane describes the University of Washington Department of Communication's three-part program, designed to prepare student journalists to interview trauma victims and write helpful, emotionally conscious stories.

Teaching Newsgathering and Ethics
Sherry Ricchiardi, professor of journalism at Indiana University, offers these ideas for using the book Covering Violence when teaching about victims and trauma in her ethics course and other courses — even literary journalism.

Training Steps: A Guide to Teaching
Migael Scherer shares her strategy for teaching journalism students about covering trauma.

Training For Trauma
Michael Parks describes enlisting theater students to help teach his community college newswriting class about covering trauma.

 

Personal Stories

"My Mind Froze"
A student describes her experience with the University of Washington's journalism trauma training exercise.

"Clouds of High Emotion"
Trauma training presents challenges to one young reporter.

Standing on Both Sides
Heatherjune Olah lost one of her best friends to murder when she was in high schooL. Now, 21, she is a journalism student. She wrote about dealing with the media in the aftermath of the murder for an ethics class.

Student Reporters Witness Shooting
While traveling to a crime scene to cover the shooting death of a police officer, student reporters in Indianapolis witness the police shooting the assailant. Two of the journalists involved give their accounts for the Dart Center; and Indiana University journalism professor Sherry Ricchiardi reports on the publisher's response to the incident.