Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

Using forest learning to enhance trauma and safety learning for journalists

By Colm Murphy

Finding effective methods to journalists how to deal with trauma and enhance their safety and
resilience is key for journalists, employers and journalism educators. This chapter tells how
an international consortium led by Ulster University in Northern Ireland devised and tested a
new methodology which it named the ‘Holistic Humanitarian Approach’. At the end of the
chapter the four main stages of this new training approach as it relates to trauma mitigation
are outlined.

The new method was a response to the fact that the underlying threat type has been
changing, with the majority of journalists killed annually, up to the outbreak of the Ukraine
war in 2022, being ones working in their own country. Often they are targeted for
intimidation or at the extreme assassination. In response, UNESCO and others have called
for research into best practice for safety education to halt this and the consequential decline in
global media freedom since 2012. The premise of the new training approach is that the safety
of journalists is greatly enhanced by understanding the key threats and knowing how to take
action to reduce them. Three studies by influential organizations like UNESCO (2018), Dart
Centre for Journalism and Trauma New York (2017) and the Association for Education in
Journalism and Mass Communication (AEMJE) (2013) have identified a significant gap in
safety and resilience education. UNESCO called in 2015 for research on effective safety
training for journalists. Since this call, there have been over 75 academic papers in the safety
arena, but most are in the theoretical field. So there remained a significant gap in the
literature relating to effective pedagogies for practical training in safety for journalists. Only a
minority of journalists globally require highly specialist safety training and fewer still can
access it.
In journalism globally there is also little attention to safety training, even in countries
where journalists are constantly under mortal threat like Mexico, Ukraine, Afghanistan,
Somalia, the Philippines, Columbia and Gaza Strip. Even in the most highly resourced
counties, like America, only a quarter of the 106 Association for Education in Journalism and
Mass Communication-accredited American journalism programs provided any safety
training. The AEJMC report said it “left prospective journalists ill-prepared to cover domestic
and international violence and disasters”. The report’s authors called for the development of
effective curriculum and accompanying resources to address this potentially serious
omission. Other experts, who advise on training in the military and medical profession to
mitigate combat post-traumatic stress disorder, also called for significantly enhanced
resilience and safety training research for news professionals (Slaughter et al., 2017).

With increasing risk from more extreme weather, natural disasters, conflict, online and
offline abuse and more graphic user generated content, journalists will benefit from an
understanding of what causes work-related trauma. The little-changed 32-year-old dominant
international provision for training journalists going into hostile environments, the ‘military
battlefield’ pedagogy, is used by the world’s major news organizations like BBC, CNN and
the New York Times. It is largely based around military training and much of it is delivered
by ex-military personnel.

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

However, with the threats changing, this new pedagogy adapted and customized best
practice from other organisations like the Red Cross’ international safety and security team’s
training, the Police Service of Northern Ireland anti-terrorists and riot training, disaster
healthcare trainers and trauma training from the Ambulance Service of Northern Ireland as
well as working with several trauma psychologists. A key piece of underlying research was
Taylor’s 2020 Competencies for Disaster Healthcare professionals (Taylor, 2020). This
changed the thinking on the core competencies required of professionals going into hostile
environments. It moved the training away from the ‘military battlefield’ model towards more
humanitarian competencies in personal care, stakeholder engagement, trauma awareness, peer
support and cultural understanding. The more traditional areas like situational awareness, first
aid, bomb and firearm awareness, were still included.

Building on Taylor’s new research, best practice in other professions and interviews
with 20 journalists who have worked extensively in hostile environments, the new
programme was devised. It was tested and refined when delivered to four cohorts who took it
between 2018 and 2023. They all judged that it ‘very significantly’ enhanced their resilience
and safety skills. Its concentration on group and individual physical and mental resilience
building, risk mitigation, psychology, communication was a paradigm shift in training
internationally for news professionals in dangerous environments.

The new training method was run in different settings, formats and durations in the four
pilots. The effectiveness of each in enhancing the resilience of journalists was measured.
They ranged from being totally immersed in a forest for seven days (2019), to a hybrid of
forest for three days and then a classroom (2018). To a one day intensive class in a forest
(2021 and 2023). The cohorts ranged from international groups in 2018 and 2019 to national
groups from Northern Ireland in 2021 and 2023 (due to Covid-19 restrictions).

The theoretical basis for the teaching methods chosen for the new training programme -
immersive experiential outdoor learning in an austere environment - emerged from a
literature review and mirroring best practice in other professions. There is much evidence that
scenario-based and immersive simulative training is effective for safety and resilience (Deeny
at all, 2009).
The idea of being ‘immersive’ pertains to the creation of a simulated event that evokes
sensory, emotional, behavioural, and conceptual engagement so that the learner has a felt
experience that the event is real (Lioce at al, 2020). This level of realness, accuracy, and
detail is also referred to as fidelity. Moreover it has been suggested that there are different
types of fidelity, ranging from conceptual fidelity, where the scenario makes sense; physical
fidelity, where the simulation duplicates the reality; and the emotional or psychological
fidelity, where the learner feels it is real (Vannin, 2016).
The other element of the new pedagogy developed was outdoor immersion. A review of
outdoor learning proposed eight themes relating to the learning outcomes and psychosocial
benefits (Fernee at al, 2018). These included developing outdoor living skills, dealing with
risk and challenge, gaining environmental knowledge and exploring nature and wild life,
sustainability issues related to the natural environment, personal growth and leadership, self-
awareness, building confidence, sense of community, building connections, having fun in
nature and lasting impact. The therapeutic value of wilderness as a method to improve mental
health is well documented (Meerts-Brandsma and Rochelle. 2019), as is the transformative

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

nature of outdoor adventure education (Taylor, 2020). This type of learning can be described
as ‘foot learning’, where students learn by walking a similar path as that walked by a
journalist in a real hostile environment, but in a “safe” environment. Immersion in the
wilderness environment provides additional stimuli direct from nature, such as temperature
change, smells, sounds, mud and dirt, rain and wind. There are benefits to resilience-building
from being in an austere wilderness environment. This in turn, theoretically, should make the
individual better able to cope in dangerous situations, no matter what the environment.
The effectiveness of each format and duration of the delivery was measured using the
Connor Davidson Resilience (2018) index and semi-structured interviews with participants.
In terms of quantitative results, the 2018 student cohort demonstrated the most effective
learning so, for the purposes of this chapter, we will concentrate on that format – three days
in a forest, two intense days in a classroom with interactive workshops and a day in a hostile
environment (interface areas of Derry city).

Each of the journalists participating in the 2018 training completed the Connor–
Davidson Resilience Scale 25 (2018) before starting the programme. The students were asked
25 questions about their resilience and scored them between one to four each. So, the
maximum was 100 on the Connor–Davidson scale. The scale was developed specifically
from Connor and Davidson’s treatment of people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
This study involved the participants evaluating the effectiveness of the new pedagogy rather
than rating their own performance. The less experienced group members initially scored
around 61 on the scale, with the more experienced ones around 83. To put this in perspective,
the American population average was 80.4, with a standard deviation of 12.8. It was
significantly above the Hong Kong general population level of 60 (13.9 standard deviation).
The 2018 cohort re-marked themselves against the Connor–Davidson scale six weeks after
completion of the course. They all reported that their scores had risen significantly. The
greatest rise was in the students who had started with the lower scores—now up around 83.
Those more experienced rose from the 80s to the 90s on the CD-RISC25 scale. This coupled
with the three other pieces of measurable feedback, which indicated that the programme did
have a very significant impact on building the resilience levels of participants.

There was a second quantitative method used to gather results from the 2018 cohort.
This was a questionnaire on their skill and knowledge level relating to safety. This was
completed before the programme started and again after the final day. The results showed
that the programme had achieved its main learning objective in terms of specialist safety
skills and knowledge acquisition, with up to 83% improvement on their knowledge in this
area. A male trainee journalist in the 2018 cohort said: “Going back to the self-assessment
forms following the training, I was able to see a marked improvement in all areas. As well as
highlighting the paramount importance of detailed knowledge and preparedness, I now feel
confident, and excited, to begin a career working in harsh and hostile environments.” Another
Spanish female journalist who took the 2018 course reflected: “Risk, will always be there, but
now I have the tools to cope with it and prepare for it.”
Instead of being paralyzed with fear about doing something, the investigative journalist
in her late 20s reflected that the course had taught her to equip herself with the tools to
mitigate the risk. All the participants evaluated it as great learning and significantly
confidence building. They felt they also knew what further skills they needed to acquire
before working in a hostile environment and were beginning to plan to acquire them.

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

There were similar results from a more international mix of participants in 2019 who
spent the entire course living in a forest, except one day in a hostile environment in interface
parts of Derry city. An interface area is where there are physical barriers erected to stop one
section of the community attacking another. They had no tents, but instead were taught as
part of the course how to build shelters from tarpaulins. Participants from areas like Africa
and Scandinavia and countries like Canada, who had experienced more outdoor adventure,
scored significantly higher on the Connor Davidson Resilience Index before the programme
started. But those with little outdoor experience as they were from suburban UK and
Chinese cities scored low initially. Some of these in the survey even questioned their
suitability for working in dangerous environments. But they all commented on the
camaraderie they had built and informal learning and mental health support from each other,
which helped them through the programme.

Significantly, several of the participants in the 2019 cohort had had ‘military battlefield’
style training previously. They all said that this new programme was more effective for them
as it better addressed their real safety issues. While the sample size was small, so it is not
possible to generalize to the entire population, the indication would be that the new pedagogy
is gender and language neutral. The most important indicator of effective learning was that it
led the journalists to successfully undertake assignments in Syrian refugee camps, under fire
in Gaza, and covering illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean. Several of the journalistic
outputs that resulted were shortlisted for UK national student journalism awards. The
experimental conclusions that can be drawn are that the pedagogy developed to build
resilience and safety skills to prepare journalists for hostile environments is effective in its
principle aims.

The results from the day-long intensive programmes (2021 and 2023), devised to
comply with the restrictions under Covid-19 pandemic, indicated they were on average less
effective than the more prolonged time in the forest. The journalists had absorbed a lot of
extremely useful information relevant to their jobs, but their resilience had not improved as
much as those who had spent several nights in the forest. They also had not the time to
benefit from peer-to peer support and to form new friendships.

One photographer who took part in the day long course and covers terrorist attacks
near the Irish border said: “It was invaluable and full of relevant learnings that I will
implement straight away in my often risky work.” Another freelance reporter, also working in
the volatile Irish border area, said: “The training answered a lot of questions I had about the
best approaches to safeguarding my physical and mental health.” But in terms of building
their resilience, their results were not as good as those who had been based in the forest for
several days. However, while their knowledge of how to counter risk and understanding of
trauma had been greatly enhanced, their resilience had not improved greatly.

The main advantage of the day-long course was that it had the highest number of
participations, on average 22 journalists each day. Often they find it hard to get the time to do
any training that is longer than a day. The Rory Peck Trust, an international charity that
supports freelance journalists in hostile environments, had paid part of the costs too of the
day-long training so it meant freelancer journalists could avail of it for free. In analysing the
results, it was clear that the fully immersive experiential learning gained from more exposure
to the elements over a few nights was much more effective in building resilience.

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

Given its proven effectiveness to enhancing resilience, in this next part of the chapter
the four main stages of the training, which related to trauma, are summarized. The course
itself has several components, with trauma only one of them. It is not a detailed medical
description but rather an outline of the immersive approach.

There is much mis-understanding of what trauma is, so the trainers on the Ulster
University course give a general introduction to the area. It is largely based on the the
American Psychological Association definition of trauma “as an emotional response to a
terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Immediately after the event, shock
and denial are typical. Longer term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks,
strained relationships, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea.” (American
Psychological Association, 2023). While these feelings are normal, some people have
difficulty moving on but there are constructive ways, with assistance of clinicians, of
managing their emotions.

It is explained that there is evidence that although journalists build-up coping

mechanisms for constant trauma, it is a high risk factor of the profession. Self-medication in
the form of alcohol, drug misuse, depression, dissociation, personality disorders and other
health problems are higher within the profession than in the general population (Monteiro et
al, 2016). These are symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a long-term
condition that can affect those subjected to trauma.

Amongst war reporters, the incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), was
found to be one in five, similar to that of combat veterans (Feinstein et al, 2002). The
incidence amongst the general population of journalists is hard to calculate but comparing
various studies it looks to be between 9.7% and 28.6% (Williams et al, 2019). The risk of
PTSD increases as the frequency or intensity of exposure to traumatic events rises. This
incidence is significantly higher than that of the screened UK population where 3.7% of men
and 5.1% of women have PTSD, according to 2014 figures from the UK’s National Institute
for Health and Care Excellence. Research conducted during COVID-19 in 2022 found its
effect on the mental health of reporters covering the pandemic was equivalent to that of front-
line medical workers (Osmann et al, 2022).

While frontline emergency services frequently argue their trauma training is

inadequate, for most journalists they receive no training in it at all. But within journalism
there is increasingly greater awareness of safety which includes both physical and mental
safety. Much of the credit for this change is that younger new entrants to newsrooms have
less of a stigma about talking about mental health issues. ABC in Australia and BBC in
London, for example, have occupational psychologists working with the newsrooms. Some
smaller newsrooms like the York Daily Record in Pennsylvania have trained-up staff to offer
peer-to-peer support.

But few news organisations, however, do this and their efforts to address the issue are
often treated with skepticism often by experienced journalists. A highly experienced
television reporter who has covered traumatic events globally almost daily for over 30
years said: “It feels like they are just trying to protect a company from litigation rather than
the journalist.”

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

One experienced investigative reporter said: “The macho culture is still there. But a
manager’s job is to remove barriers to get people to do their jobs better. So we need to build
better managers.” What little support there is generally comes after a traumatic event. But
the journalists interviewed for this research, trauma medical experts and emergency services
trauma trainers say the training needs to be pre-emptive rather than reactive. The reporters
argue that they need to know how to deal with online abuse, tragedies involving children and
other areas but often editors were themselves desensitized to trauma and therefore take
little action to ameliorate it.

Another who has covered constant conflict and trauma for 34 years in Northern
Ireland said that when living in a conflict zone to survive: “You need to switch-off your
emotions. But you need people with empathy in newsrooms, you cannot lose the human
aspect.” He learnt how to get people often on the worst day of their life when they have
suddenly lost a loved one in horrific circumstances to talk: “You need to be conscious of how
you deal with people who have trauma. I am not a fan of the aggressive interview. Ask
people the question gently.”

Another reporter, was in a war zone when a bomb killed his friend and he developed
PTSD and had to stop reporting. “First rule of front line reporting is not to become a victim
yourself. I saw the bodies in blankets coming out. It haunted me.” He said: “Trauma is like a
door you step through and cannot get out. You are in the clouds and it is dark. The only
thing that helps is the sun is going to rise.” It took him a number of years to recover and re-
enter journalism.

The following are the four stages used in the Ulster University ‘Holistic Humanitarian
Approach’ hostile environment training course.

Stage 1:Be physically and mentally prepared for covering traumatic events.

The initial stage of the training is to give journalists an understanding of how to be physically
and mentally healthy particularly when operating in stressful environments. Pat Deeny
(2018), a pioneer in international disaster healthcare, said you need to keep your body and
brain at optimal level so as to give you the extra capacity to cope with trauma. Firstly, as
sleep is viewed as the barometer of mental health, he advices you have the sufficient amount
with the recommended American Center for Disease Control seven hours a night for adults.
This means no caffeine after lunch, no mobiles in bedrooms and a dark, but not too cold
setting. Ensure that you exercise, but not excessively or less than three hours before sleep,
and eat and drink healthily with not too much sugar or alcohol. Good hydration is also key
with a recommended nine cups of water, 1.5 litres, a day in a moderate climate and up to
three litres in a warm one.

Deeny also advised that being a journalist can be all-consuming as 24/7 news is all
around us, but it is important to switch off from professional life. This can be with a sport, a
hobby, meditation, mindfulness or socialising with friends or family. You should, he said, be
compassionate with yourself, take breaks and try to manage the stress. This preparatory
session in the training also involves an intensive briefing by a trauma specialist on how
understand and then cope with trauma.

This training is led by specialist trauma trainers from the Northern Ireland Ambulance
Service. They have gained huge experience during 30-years of conflict in Northern Ireland, in

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

dealing with staff and victims who are traumatized. In the Ulster University training they
explain the body’s Fight, Flight, Freeze and Submit possible responses to a traumatic episode.
Through an interactive workshop they explain how they brain and body react to trauma and
bring their real-world experience to explaining how to cope.

Then they outline how it as a service has learnt to support staff involved in traumatic
incidents. Firstly, after a traumatic incident, they check on staff 72 hours after the traumatic
event. But at that point it is policy to ask as least twice: “How are you? How are you really
feeling (NI Ambulance Service trauma trainers, 2023).”

If required they also hold a non-operational debriefing for the whole team involved a
few days after the event. This concentrates on emotions and feelings and is led by a trained
trauma specialist. Staff who then require it start intensive specialist trauma counselling. They
point out that the effects of traumatic events can take four weeks to 20 years sometimes to
come-out, so everyone can re-act differently.

Stage 2: ‘Talking Stick’ approach to peer and employer support after a traumatic event

The second stage is when trauma occurs and the affected journalists need to understand
what has occurred, process it and contextualise it. This is to try to let the brain deal with it in
a more rational way. The police service in Northern Ireland, the PSNI, uses experiential
learning to train officers how to react safely in trauma situations like riots or coming under
bomb or gun attack. In Ulster University’s ‘holistic humanitarian’ training, we followed this
best practice and simulated for journalists a riot and also them coming under gunfire. The
objective was to train their brain to identify threats and then to react safely under intense
stress. Once the gunfire started during the riot they were trained to react immediately and get
down into hardcover. They had to repeat this exercise up to eight times until it became an
automatic fast reaction to get hard cover.

Other exercises with the police and St John’s Ambulance involved a mock terrorist
attack where the journalist had to administer first aid to victims. Students with wounds
mocked-up realistically with make-up simulated casualties which the journalists had to treat.
In all these exercises the aim was to use experiential learning to teach them how to react
safely in traumatic circumstances.

Significant time after the simulation is spent analyzing the journalists’

emotional responses. This is because by being able to identify our responses, we will
feel less under threat and have greater control over our brain’s and body’s responses.
Know how you body reacted – an alertness of the central nervous system, rush of blood to
muscles and vital organs, faster breathing and faster heart - all due to the fast release of
adrenaline. This can take over 72 hours for its effect to wear off in the body. Secondly, how
cortisol has put more sugar into our blood giving us an energy rush that will peter out.

That is the physical reaction, but what of the emotional one? How are you emotionally
processing your experiences? Your brain has to process and remember a perceived life
threatening experience. These body and brain responses are the normal and expected
response. But by talking about them or writing them down, we are helping ourselves look at
them more rationally.

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

The Ulster University ‘holistic humanitarian’ hostile environment training had a daily
debrief called the ‘Talking Stick’. A stick was passed around and once you had it you had to
talk about your day, your stresses and anxieties with peers around a campfire. It is not an
operational debrief, rather a ‘feelings’ debrief. For many journalists attending the hostile
environment training it was the first time they had ever spoken about their emotions in
association with the job. The group members, who were complete strangers before the
training course, very quickly become good and often lifetime friends and key supporters of
each other.

Unfortunately, for most journalists there are not formalised methods for peer to peer
support. Several of the journalists interviewed for this chapter argued very strongly,
particularly freelance ones, about the benefit a formal method of peer to peer support would
have been to them. The difficulty with this is that given the increasing amount of remote
and also freelance working, the traditional newsroom with its informal support
mechanism is becoming rarer. So a valuable previous source, peer support, is no longer
always available face-to-face.

One of the traditional strategies of dealing with traumatised staff was sending them
home for a few days leave. But the emerging thinking is that this can be counter-productive
as they may feel even more isolated if they do not have proper support there. For this reason,
the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service does not automatically send staff home after they
have experienced very traumatic incidents. It checks in with them via its trained support
network 72 hours after the traumatic event. The ambulance service trainers day that this is
when the cortisol- induced energy boost and adrenaline have worn- off and the reality
begins to hit. The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service organise non-operational debriefs for
all the staff involved in the incident. Specialist trauma counselling is then provided over the
next month by external trained experts.

While few news organisations have employee assistance programmes, it is important

that journalists know in advance any organisational arrangements to deal with those in
distress and how they can be accessed. It may be a manager, colleagues or an outside
employee assistance programme. Freelance journalists, often excluded from such
programmes, will have to look for specialist support via their union or online such as
specialist trauma and journalism not- for-profit organizations . Other initiatives are the
‘buddy system’, whereby journalists often from different organisations work deliberately in
pairs. This is both for physical and mental safety.

A highly experienced Northern Ireland photojournalist Kevin Cooper said: “As a

freelancer you have to keep covering the story as you do not have the stability of a news
organisation that has your back. Freelancing is the norm now, so this is troubling.”

The situation regarding trauma is changing and some editors are learning from their
own previous experience. After the 2022 Uvalde school massacre of 19 people in Texas, for
example, Sewell Chan, the editor-in-chief of Texas Tribune, rotated staff covering it.
Afterwards he organised sessions with all staff to talk about processing what they had
seen. Chan, who had learnt about trauma reporting from his 9/11 experience and reading
books, said: “We brought in a counsellor to help smaller sets of journalists who were dealing
specifically with very graphic material footage that had emerged. I think we've all come to
recognize that even though our journalists were not there during the mass shooting itself, they

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

arrived in the immediate aftermath, that doesn't mean that their exposure to all this kind of
grief and horror is any less.”

Dave Seglins, an investigative journalist at CBC News in Canada, was diagnosed with
PTSD after covering a traumatic trial but found it hard at first to get help. He said: “The
Employee Assistance Programme didn't have trauma counsellors on it. So I wound up going
through a family doctor, got referred to a trauma specialist. Things that I've been through had
built- up and I could no longer process the stress.”

In some extreme instances, particularly in a conflict situation, news teams are carrying
so much trauma that they do have not the capacity to carry any more. One reporter who
joined a news team which had witnessed their colleagues being shot, killed, bombed
and threatened over several decades said: “They were carrying trauma. People in the
newsroom had lost their lives, they had lost their friends. They had no more capacity for
trauma.”

Sadly, the consensus amongst those journalists who suffered significant trauma and
were interviewed for this project was that managers, while sympathetic, were ill-equipped as
were their organisations in providing support.

Stage 3:Avoiding secondary or vicarious trauma/explicit material

People can absorb the trauma of others. This is known as secondary or vicarious trauma. For
example, a year after the Omagh bomb in Northern Ireland which killed 31 people in August
1998, people living 50 miles away were experiencing trauma simply from seeing the
associated news reports of it. For journalists this can come in many forms such as talking
with bereaved, covering road accidents, tragedies, fires and murders.

Reporters face a real risk of secondary trauma due to having to view graphic or
explicit material. This risk has increased exponentially due to proliferation of mobile phones
and CCTV which has meant that traumatic events, previously rarely captured, are regularly
sent to newsrooms uncensored and without warning. Journalists then have to curate this to
see what is suitable to put out. One international television news editor said: “This can be
very traumatic for our staff, particularly younger reporters often working night shifts with
few people around.”
The mental health consequences of this on reporters is still an area of research, but
there is increasing evidence from other sectors of the negative consequence of repeated
exposure to such material.

To avoid secondary trauma from such material, firstly understanding your own
sensitivities or triggers helps. You can either prepare yourself or avoid content that may
trigger your e.g. if you have a child of the same age and the video shows a similar child being
attacked. You must mentally prepare yourself for what you are about to see and also warn
your colleagues.

You should also set the physical boundaries for this sensitive work. Preferably do it
in an office and leave it there. But if you have to work from home, avoid working in your
bedroom or more personal space. It is important to maintain a safe space within your home.

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

When viewing difficult content there are several strategies which will help to
diminish the potential of trauma. It can help to turn-off the audio accompanying footage.
On YouTube and Facebook you can also pause the video and preview it as a thumbnail. This
allows you to preview any potentially harmful content so you can avoid it or prepare
yourself. If there are elements of a video that are particularly disturbing, you could cover
over the element with a post-it note or your hand. It is also prudent to disable the autoplay as
this will stop another more graphic video coming up.

Stage 4: Identifying persistent post-traumatic stress (continues for over four weeks)

The majority of journalists who suffer trauma thankfully never reach this final stage, but it is
useful to articulate the warning signs as it has the most serious long-term health effects if it
reaches this acute stage. After a traumatic event some people will develop Acute Stress
Disorder (ASD) as an immediate short-term psychological response in the first four weeks
after the event. These symptoms can vary but are generally intrusive thoughts, a negative
mood, arousal, avoidance, re-experiencing the trauma and disassociation. For most people
with ASD reactions they will recover in time without clinical intervention. If these symptoms
continue for four weeks after the traumatic event those affected should seek help from a
qualified medical professional, often firstly through their doctor who are best qualified to
diagnose and prescribe appropriate treatment.

They will examine the patient for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is
diagnosed using the DSM-V criteria. The following are some of the four categories of
symptoms used by the medical profession to diagnose PTSD . People with PTSD may have
all or some of these symptoms , some of which may be interrelated e.g. they are
afraid to sleep to avoid flashbacks and then this causes fatigue and mood disorder.
Temperament, past experience, support received and other factors can also influence the
symptoms. The common symptoms according to the American Psychological Association are:

Intrusive or recurrent memories of the trauma. Nightmares and flashbacks that can be
triggered by environmental triggers such as noises, smells or anything which reminds you of
the traumatic event.
.
Avoidance of trauma reminders. Avoiding situations that act as reminders of the event
— thus avoiding potential triggers. You may also try to work excessively and other activities
to avoid thinking about the event.

Feeling sad, angry or numb. Experience more negative emotions than they did before the
event, including sadness, anger and a loss of pleasure in things that used to make them happy.
Using alcohol or drugs to suppress memories and emotions.

Feeling “on edge,” or other changes in reactivity or arousal. Being more jittery than
normal, feeling and acting impatient, irritable, trouble sleeping or concentrating. This is due
to how the brain changes after a traumatic event.

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

A British Army soldier who spent years coming under IRA attack on the Irish border
explained how his brain had changed when he sought a civilian job as a lorry driver. “Myself
and my colleagues all failed the reaction test required to become lorry drivers. We would
press the threat button even if we saw a car in the distance as our brains had developed hyper
alertness to see everything as a danger.”

He found civilian life boring as his body had become accustomed to the adrenaline-
infused buzz of being constantly ready 24/7 for attack. “After the gunfights with the IRA we
would play pool and not talk about it.”

He was later diagnosed with acute PTSD and is responding well to treatment. There
are a number of evidence-based therapies available that can reduce PTSD and several
medications are recommended by the American Psychiatric Association. All of which are
variations of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The category of CBT encompasses various
types and elements of treatment used by cognitive behavioral therapists.

Finally, given their over-exposure to trauma and often constant stress, some
journalists can develop another condition known as Allostatic Load. This is caused by
chronic exposure to all types of stress, activating a variety of hormones into the nervous
system and it can provoke some immune system responses. This can occur when challenges
exceed a person’s ability to cope. Forms of exposure may include ordinary daily stress such
as work-related stress and again those with the symptoms should contact their doctor.

Conclusion

To conclude, learning to cope with trauma is difficult but worthwhile but it cannot be kept in
isolation from your physical and information security wellbeing as the three are interlinked.
So it is worthwhile taking a course that also deals with physical safety and IT security. See
links below for free online safety courses from the UK’s National Council for the Training of
Journalists and others. It is also useful to learn about interviewing people who are traumatised
from resources available from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and other
organisations (see resources following). By doing this it can also help reduce potential trauma
to yourself and others and provide you with an enhanced skillset for working in the
challenging but highly rewarding journalistic environment.

For those training journalists, the Ulster University practice-bases research indicated
that three days in immersive experiential learning was the optimum for effectiveness in
improving resilience in journalists. This is accompanied but three days of classroom based
workshops. Longer periods of immersive training, up to seven days, proved less effective due
to fatigue making learning of new skills difficult. One day training was the most accessible to
journalists. However, it was the least effective as participants had little time to practice newly
learnt skills and see the benefit of peer-to-peer support in adverse circumstances. Immersive
experiential learning in an austere environment also proved to be one of the most effective
means of training journalists in physical and mental resilience.

Safety resources for journalists

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

National Council for the Training of Journalists (UK)

skillsacademy.nctj.com
Free online safety and resilience course for journalists reporting domestically and from
hostile environments.

Headlines Network
headlines-network.com
UK-based charity that promotes mental health in the media providing training and resources.

Safely Held Spaces

safelyheldspaces.org
Peer support for those supporting people experiencing extreme mental and emotional distress.

The Hub of Hope

hubofhope.co.uk
UK-based mental health support database of private, charity and state support for mental
health.
Rory Peck Trust
Rorypecktrust.org
Provides practical and financial support to freelance journalists and their families worldwide,
assisting them in crisis.
Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma
dartcenter.org
Resources and a global network of professionals to improve coverage of trauma with
guidelines about interviewing people who are traumatized.

Journalist Trauma Support Network

jtsn.org
An international community of qualified therapists trained to care
for journalists impacted by trauma.

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Building trauma and resilience training into journalism education. Ulster University chapter.

Trust for Trauma Journalism

traumajournalism.org
Works with journalists, before, during and after they cover trauma related events to support
them.

National centre for PTSD

ptsd.va.gov
Resources and diagnostic tools.

Storysmart
nujstorysmart.com
Free online training modules to help in hostile environments and with hazardous tech from
the UK’s National Union of Journalists.

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Acknowledgment: Contributors to the research outlined in this chapter include Leona

O’Neill, Ulster University, co-author of Breaking; Trauma in the Newsroom; Dr Nigel
Taylor, international safety and security adviser for the British Red Cross; Pat Deeny,
international disaster healthcare specialist; Trauma psychologist Michael Napier; Rory Peck
Trust; Ambulance Service of Northern Ireland trauma trainers; Stephen Cargin, former PSNI
commander now working with NATO; Community Rescue Northern Ireland, St John’s
Ambulance, Northern Ireland. Headlines Network.

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