About the Project
In May 2020, Pickup Communications founder Tamara Cherry began exploring the impact of the media on trauma survivors and the impact of trauma on members of the media. This research inspired her most recent book, The Trauma Beat: A Case for Re-Thinking the Business of Bad News. Part of it was also included in a peer-reviewed research paper published in the Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being.
Tamara’s qualitative research study looked at the impact of victims and survivors interacting (or not) with the media, as well as consuming media coverage (or lack thereof) of their cases. The study also examinined the perspectives of journalists who cover these events, with a special focus on trauma-informed reporting techniques and preventing, identifying and addressing vicarious trauma.
The goal of the project was to produce educational materials that would help journalists, survivor support workers, and various partners in the criminal justice sector better understand and support victims and survivors in their interactions (or lack thereof) with the media, to the benefit of all stakeholders.
Surveys
Note: Survey responses are no longer being collected for this study
As part of her research, Tamara produced several surveys: One for survivors of homicide and traffic fatalities, another for survivors of sexual assault and human trafficking, another for family members of missing people, as well as a survey for survivors of mass violence. The surveys were intended to gather experiences of all survivors — from those whose cases received little to no media attention, to those who experienced onslaughts of media coverage and requests from the media. The voices of these survivors have played an integral role in this study.
There was also a survey for members of the media. This was meant to explore the experiences of journalists, methods for covering traumatic events, the prevalence of trauma-informed training and the impact of traumatic events on journalists.
Latest News
More than 100 trauma survivors and two dozen journalists have been surveyed and/or interviewed for this project. With the exception of one homicide survivor from New Zealand, all participants and subject matter experts are from the United States or Canada. They come from big cities to small towns, all socioeconomic classes, and a variety of cultural backgrounds.
Tamara’s peer-reviewed research paper, Trauma survivors and the media: A qualitative analysis, was published in the Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being in September 2021. Findings from the project were presented for the first time at the RTDNA Canada National Conference on June 3, 2021. Tamara’s presentation was very well received by journalists from across Canada, many of whom expressed a hunger for change. The full presentation (less the live Q&A session) can be viewed here.
Training seminars are now being offered to newsrooms, journalism schools, and those in the criminal justice and victim/survivor support sectors.
Tamara is also in the process of writing a book on her project that is intended to benefit those in the sectors listed above, while also appealing to a broader audience. The book will be driven by the stories of more than 100 survivors, two dozen journalists, and various practitioners in the criminal justice and survivor support sectors, as well as Tamara’s personal experience as a crime reporter. It is slated to be published in Spring 2023 by ECW Press.