{"id":2239,"date":"2022-01-20T15:01:29","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T15:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/01\/20\/an-editors-sensitive-guide-to-interviewing-victims-of-trauma\/"},"modified":"2024-10-29T18:44:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T18:44:18","slug":"an-editors-sensitive-guide-to-interviewing-victims-of-trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/01\/20\/an-editors-sensitive-guide-to-interviewing-victims-of-trauma\/","title":{"rendered":"An editor’s sensitive guide to interviewing victims of trauma"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong>\u00a0Narrative editor Jan Winburn created a class focused on trauma reporting last semester at the University of Montana, where she was the T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professor. For the next four Thursdays, we\u2019ll post interviews her students did with John D. Sutter, Moni Basu and Jessica Ravitz, all who worked with Winburn at CNN, and with NPR\u2019s Nate Rott.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What goes on in someone\u2019s brain when the unthinkable happens? How can a reporter do justice to a trauma survivor\u2019s story without doing harm? And what is the value of reporting on loss? How does it balance against the potential of retraumatizing someone?<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Those questions and others occupied my journalism students this past semester at the University of Montana, where I taught a seminar called \u201cThe Worst Day Ever: Writing about Trauma.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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As someone who spent more than 40 years as a narrative editor in newsrooms,  I know these are not just issues for students; similar questions nag experienced reporters \u2014 and especially those who are thoughtful about what they do.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Jan Winburn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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At CNN, I dispatched writers across the globe to places where bad things had happened. The reporters on my team were not the first responders bringing you the day\u2019s headlines. They were in pursuit of the \u201caftermath\u201d stories that introduced you to the human beings who suffered and survived. But often this question hung in the air: What is gained by documenting the worst day in someone\u2019s life?<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Early in my career, what I knew about how to approach survivors of a tragedy came from instinct and personal experience. No one in the newsrooms where I worked talked about covering trauma, or the impact of that coverage on victims. But during the past two decades, the profession has worked to improve this coverage, spurred by the establishment of a rich source of research, support and insight, the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.<\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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At one time, \u201ctrauma journalism\u201d usually meant reporting on war, terrorism and genocide. But thanks in part to the Dart Center, it is widely recognized now that journalists encounter stories of trauma in every news cycle: floodwaters rip a baby from its father\u2019s arms, a baseball team\u2019s bus turns over on the way to a tournament, a protest crowd grows violent.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Add to these the oldest of traumas \u2014 race-based atrocities perpetrated on individuals and entire communities \u2014 and the relatively new forms of tragedy documented by today\u2019s journalists: mass shootings, police shootings, climate-related disasters and, most recently, the COVID pandemic, which has imposed a large-scale trauma of isolation, dislocation, anxiety and profound loss.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Studying the effects of trauma<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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My Montana students studied Eli Saslow\u2019s work on the pandemic for The Washington Post. In these deeply reported pieces, he employed the techniques of oral history to showcase \u201cVoices from the Pandemic\u201d<\/a> in an as-told-to format.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Related stories<\/h2>\n\n
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Strictly Q&A: John D. Sutter\u00a0reporting Hurricane Maria<\/a><\/p>\n

Strictly Q&A: Jessica Ravitz on\u00a0farmer suicides<\/a><\/p>\n

Strictly Q&A: Moni Basu on following an\u00a0earthquake survivor in Haiti<\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\t\n<\/div> \n

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We studied how trauma changes brain chemistry and can affect memory. We learned that a survivor of tragedy craves what has been lost: control. And that a reporter can respond to that need in small but important ways, by asking: Where would you like to be interviewed? Do you want anyone there with you?<\/em> Can we continue, or do you need a break?<\/em> We discussed what journalists can do to care for themselves after exposure to violence or tragedy, because vicarious and secondary trauma are real.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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But the question that persisted in my classroom was this: Why do we ask survivors to recount their experiences? Is doing so ethically or morally sound?<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Every reporter I\u2019ve ever worked with has asked themselves this question again and again. To them, and to my students, I\u2019ve offered these thoughts:<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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We do not get through our lifetimes without experiencing loss. Trauma is central to human existence. And central to journalism, because it is the journalist\u2019s duty to inform, to give voice not just to opinion, but to people\u2019s lived experience. Sometimes that means illuminating the landscape of tragedy and trauma.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Research has shown that the more information the brain absorbs about someone, the more empathy grows. In other words, deeply told stories that strive to put you in someone else\u2019s shoes spark feelings of empathy. And grief experts say that connection itself is healing.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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But with each story, it serves us well to ask this question: What is my purpose?<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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If you can answer that question, if you can describe what you hope to achieve, then you\u2019ll know why, and whether, to pursue a story.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I\u2019m not talking about a souped-up pitch aimed at convincing a trauma survivor or a victim\u2019s family to talk to you. And I\u2019m not talking about a seemingly lofty purpose that, boiled down, is more about your reflected glory in the storytelling than the experiences of those whose stories you tell.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The \u201cgreater good\u201d of a story<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Your purpose must emanate from an honest place. You have to believe there is some greater good in telling the story. I once heard a reporter tell a victim\u2019s parents, \u201cI just want people to know who she was. She should be known for more than how she died.\u201d The most indelible advice my class heard about interviewing survivors also spoke to purpose. The advice was this: Don\u2019t leave the person in a dark place. Ask questions that gently move them away from discussion of the trauma: What has given you strength? What brings you joy? What do you want others to know about your loved one?<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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That wisdom came from Selene San Felice<\/a>, an Axios reporter based in Tampa Bay, Florida, and it was hard won. In 2018, Selene was at her desk in her former newsroom, The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, when five of her colleagues were gunned down.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Selene has found purpose in her experience as both a survivor and a journalist: to help others cover trauma with sensitivity.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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To prepare my students for interviewing a survivor, I asked each of them to find a narrative story about trauma that they admired and interview the journalist who produced it. I hoped the assignment would offer insight and reassurance about their roles as chroniclers of tragedy.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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For John D. Sutter<\/a>, reporting on the death toll of Hurricane Maria for CNN meant asking Puerto Ricans to relive the disaster that stole the lives of family members and friends. It meant literally counting bodies in funeral homes and morgues. John reported with a purpose that was both moral and humane: He wanted to hold the government accountable, to expose efforts to hide the scale of the calamity. And he wanted to make known the human loss, individually, to introduce us to the victims and their dreams.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Moni Basu<\/a>, who followed a survivor of an earthquake in Haiti over the course of a year, found purpose in showing readers how life goes on, with struggle and resilience.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Jessica Ravitz<\/a>, who asked a Montana farm family to talk about their father\u2019s suicide, hoped to help that family open a conversation in their community about a taboo subject.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Finally, Nate Rott<\/a> of NPR, who covered the deaths of 19 hotshots in a fire in 2013,  talked about bearing witness. Sometimes a reporter\u2019s purpose is as simple, and as difficult, as that.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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***<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Jan Winburn<\/strong> spent more than four decades working in newsrooms as a narrative editor, writing coach and investigative editor, and now teaches in the University of Georgia\u2019s MFA program in Narrative Nonfiction.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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