Women Reporters & Psychological Trauma

Asha J

In the recent years, journalism has taken a completely different shift with the increasing number of women entering the foray. But when one talk about journalism, is it important to specify if the reporter is male or female? Is it even necessary? In terms of writing style, presenting material, analysing facts women are considered to be much more competent; whereas in areas of covering traumatic events, disaster and tragedies, this is where one should contemplate the specifics of women’s journalism.

Journalists, especially reporters who cover conflict and disaster are extremely vulnerable to stress and trauma just as those from other professions like disaster management systems or even the police force. Most of the time reporters work alone with limited support. This results in high stress levels which most often goes untreated. Trauma, when sustained and serious can affect the performance of journalists, reduce career span and wreck havoc in their personal lives.

While joining the journalism profession, it is extremely important to overcome the basic instinct of self protection. Most often, reporters become observers or participants of some extremely traumatic events. Besides surviving it, journalists should also be capable of distancing themselves from the traumatic events and be able to deliver objective information to the readers.

Journalists often go through primary and secondary trauma. Primary trauma is where a journalist survives a disaster directly; there is a risk to be traumatised in secondary trauma by intensive interaction with the suffering people, hence directly putting grief upon her.

There is always constant debate on how psychological trauma affects professional and personal life of the journalists and to what extent. While media houses do offer their employees special training, most often there isn’t any time to undertake this because it is difficult to prepare and anticipate any kind of disaster. Some companies also offer post trauma support to their employees.

The first steps in bringing journalists to an understanding of psychological trauma, were made in the U.S., where the Dart Centre for journalism and trauma was founded in 1999 (which had been preceded by educational work since 1991). The Dart Centre is an international network of journalists, mental health professionals and educators, and its work is dedicated to improving media coverage of violence, conflict and tragedy. The Centre also addresses the consequences of such coverage for those working in journalism. Today, the Dart Centre's network is actively growing and is represented not only in the U.S., but also in Australasia and many European countries. In Russia, we also develop information materials and support programs for journalists.

Among those multiple myths there is one that prevails in different traumatic situations, not only in cases of sexual assault. People tend to believe that we live in a fair world where we control our future and are able to avoid negative events if we behave in the "right" way. Such assumptions underlie our basic feeling of safety. That's why people that never faced traumatic experience sometimes place responsibility for the violence or other traumas on its survivors. They successfully "find" what the victim did "wrong" to be traumatized. Moreover, even survivors themselves often experience severe self-blame and find their own guilt in the incident. By taking responsibility for the event people in some way try to regain the sense of control on their lives. It can be assumed that for women reporters this aspect may serve as an additional source of psychological distress. After surviving a "primary" trauma in a war zone she may encounter misapprehension and accusations of "breaking her gender roles".

The very profession that imposes upon reporters a greater risk of psychological traumas also gives them tools to deal with them. By structuring chaotic reality into a comprehensive story, and providing the survivors with an opportunity to make their voices heard and maybe help others, - reporters may help regain the sense of control over the dreadful reality, at least to some extent. In overcoming psychological crisis, women more often than men tend to talk it over with significant others, which technically does help to overcome trauma.

Most journalists who have a strong family support and find it much easier to cope with various traumas as compared to others. With all their coping tools, it is unfortunate that in some cases of psychological hardships after a dangerous assignment, reporters are often reluctant to admit it because they risk being stigmatized and accused of unprofessionalism. Quite often they have to conceal and suppress their traumatic experience instead of working it out. This may, sadly, lead to maladaptive coping methods like alcohol and nicotine abuse, cynicism, and emotional detachment, discontent with work and self. It's important for reporters and their editors to understand that asking for psychological support after a gruelling task is not shameful. But it's even more important that they would have a place to find such support.