These tips have been compiled by and are based on the research of Pickup Communications founder Tamara Cherry. Tamara’s peer-reviewed research paper exploring the impact of the media on trauma survivors and the impact of trauma on members of the media can be found here. To hear from trauma survivors on what it means to practice trauma-informed journalism, head to this page. While these tips have been curated with journalists in mind, they are also important for any person or organization that is supporting someone in telling their traumatic story. Are you planning a public relations campaign that leans on the traumatic stories of the people you serve? There’s a lot for you in here, too.
Find an intermediary.
Particularly in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic loss, when many survivors are in a state of shock and cannot fully appreciate the substance of your interview request, do not reach out directly to survivors. Instead, look for someone with a degree of separation. This could be a family friend, an investigator, or a survivor support worker. Many survivors who do not wish to engage with the media, but who reluctantly agree when a reporter shows up at their door, end up regretting the decision to speak publicly. This can result in further trauma.
When speaking with a family spokesperson, however, it is important to ensure they have the blessing of the family to speak on their behalf. Seeing an estranged relative or acquaintance of the victim speaking publicly about their deceased loved one can be upsetting for some survivors.
Take no for an answer.
If a trauma survivor declines an interview request, leave them your contact information (if they agree to take it), and leave them alone. Even if you see them being interviewed by another media outlet, leave them alone. This subsequent interview should not be seen as an indicator that the survivor now wants to talk.
Following survivors from place to place, showing up at the funeral when you’ve been asked to stay away, and continuing to report unnecessary details or images when you’ve been told they are upsetting to the survivors are all examples of unacceptable behaviour.
Inform, inform, inform.
For a trauma survivor to consent to an interview, it must be truly informed. This means having a conversation before hitting the record button. It also means, quite often, not even requesting that interview in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event (let alone while the traumatic event is unfolding), when the survivor’s brain can’t properly comprehend what has happened or what you are asking of them. When you do get to that point of requesting an interview, however, answer all of the survivor’s questions, including the ones they don’t think to ask.
Where and in what context will the interview be used? How much of the interview will be used? Until what point can the survivor withdraw their consent to participate? If the survivor grants you an interview, is it likely that other media outlets will start calling? Is there a chance that the contents of the interview, or any pictures that are shared, will be used in subsequent stories? Who else will be part of the story? If the survivor changes their mind down the road, can the online story be taken down? What would a story without the survivor’s voice look like? What images are likely to be used (for example, the crime scene, surveillance video, photos of the victim that you found online)? Will the survivor have a chance to see the story before it is published or broadcast? Are there any details the survivor should avoid so as to protect the integrity of the court case? If you don’t know the answer to this last question, suggest that they seek advice from an investigator assigned to their case.
Whether you cover trauma on a regular basis, or just once in a while, it is a good idea to carry information sheets with you that you can hand to survivors, and electronic versions that can be sent to them ahead of time. This sheet would include information like that listed above — and here — as well as your contact information. This is important for two reasons: First, the survivor may not remember everything you told them. This can lead to further harm when, for example, they are taken off guard by seeing their interview aired or printed somewhere unexpected. Second, it allows the survivor to consider the information without you present, lessening the chances of them consenting to an interview for the wrong reasons.
Talk about words.
How does the survivor want to be identified — as a victim, as a survivor, or as something else? How would they like you to describe what happened to them? Explain why you must use the word ‘alleged’ if the case remains before the courts. Explain why you cannot use the word ‘murder’ if a different charge was laid.
Unless the survivor uses the word ‘closure,’ don’t assume that is what they are after or what they have achieved through the discovery of their missing loved one, the arrest of a suspect, or the conclusion of a court case. Many trauma survivors despise the word ‘closure,’ as they feel that no matter the outcome of their case, true closure will never be achieved.
If your newsroom has guidelines dictating that victims be referred to by their first name and last name and then by their last name only, explain the reason for this. Many survivors find it jarring and insensitive to see their loved one referred to by only their last name.
Images matter.
Before you publish or broadcast your story, ask the survivor if there are any images they would like you to include. Maybe there’s an image you or other news outlets have been running from social media — is the family okay with this? Is there a different image they’d prefer? Have there been any other images in circulation that they want to make sure you don’t use? They may have given police a photo of their loved one in the immediate aftermath, but have since found a better photo that they’d like used instead.
If you’re a photographer, ask for the survivor’s permission before taking their photo. Or, at the very list, ask for that permission after the photo has been taken and before it has been shared with the world. Share the images with them. Survivors shouldn’t need to purchase images of themselves from the newspaper, or purchase a disc with a story about them from the news station.
If a survivor tells you that an image is harmful (for example, “In the first story you guys did, you ran a photo of the car wreck. Please don’t use that again. It caused me and my family a lot of stress and I don’t want my kids to see it.”), don’t use that image.
If police offer a mugshot photo of a homicide victim, ask the investigators or other liaison to ask the family if there is another picture they’d prefer be used. Sometimes mugshots are distributed because they represent the most recent picture of a victim, but these can be harmful to survivors. If you must use that mugshot image, explain your reasons to the survivors, provide context for your news consumers, and also run photos provided by the family.
Consider your elements carefully.
Images like body bags, a body under a blanket, the aftermath of a violent car wreck, or footage showing the violent act can trigger the trauma of not only the survivors connected to the case, but also countless other survivors who may have experienced something similar.
Do images of frantic people running from a scene add important context to the story? If so, consider for how long it is necessary to use these images. What about a shot of a victim’s body being removed from the scene? Do you need to show the car wrapped around the pole? If so, explain why these images are being used and warn the survivors ahead of time.
Such imagery can be upsetting for survivors weeks, months, even years after their traumatic event, sending their brains into fight-or-flight mode and flooding them with the same emotions they experienced at the time of their trauma, such as fear, helplessness, anxiety, and overwhelming sadness.
Create safe and predictable circumstances.
If a trauma survivor has agreed to be interviewed, ask them where they would prefer the interview take place. Some survivors may find peace in the place of their traumatic event or loss, but for many, these places will cause them to become overcome with emotions related to their trauma, such as fear, helplessness, anxiety, and sadness. Perhaps they would prefer to be interviewed at home, their workplace, a friend’s home, or their place of worship. Ask the survivor who they would like present during the interview. A family member or a friend? A survivor support worker? Would they feel safer or more comfortable with their pet sitting in their lap? For television shoots, be sure the survivor is comfortable with the lighting that is used. Has it been set up in such a way that they can’t see people beyond the camera? Are they okay sitting with their back to the door?
Before the interview, tell the survivor which questions you will be asking. Ask them whether there are any questions you should avoid. Even after gaining prior consent to talk about certain details, it is important to prepare the survivor for potentially traumatizing questions. For example, you could transition with, “I’d now like to talk about what happened in 2018. Is that okay? Are you comfortable going there?” If you see that the survivor is beginning to relive their trauma (one sign of this can be that they begin talking in the present tense, or that they are suddenly overcome with emotion), bring them back to a safe place. Ask them if they would like to take a break or stop the interview entirely.
Do whatever you can to avoid having a survivor relive their trauma. If you feel that you must report traumatic details, research alternative sources of this information, rather than having the survivor tell it again. Are there court or parole documents? Did the survivor grant a previous interview? Ask the survivor if they are comfortable with and/or would prefer you taking these details from other trusted sources, rather than having them rehash them in the interview.
If you plan on referring to a survivor’s case in a subsequent, unrelated story, let them or an intermediary know ahead of time. Predictability of when their story will be talked about publicly can go a long way in preventing further harm.
Let survivors review your work.
When possible, let the survivor see the story before it is published or aired — not just their parts, but the entire story, or as much as they need to understand the context of their words. This will not only help the survivor feel more comfortable and safe, but it could result in a better, more accurate story for you.
A traumatized brain can sometimes play tricks on a survivor’s memory, causing them to explain a sequence of events out of order, or give outright false information. Having the survivor take a look at the story before it is shared publicly can serve to correct these mistakes, saving you from a correction down the road, and the survivor from further trauma.
It is important to prepare survivors for any potentially upsetting details in your story. If you cannot be with them, ensure they are in a safe place with a support person present before they read, view, or listen to your story.
Ask survivors what they would like to achieve.
Unlike traditional news stories that involve reporters digging for and regurgitating facts, it is important for trauma survivors to have agency in the storytelling process.
Give them the questions ahead of time. Allow them to choose how they are identified, and what images will be used. Ask them what messages they would like to get across — and make sure those messages are included in your story. Never sell a survivor on one idea, then surprise them with something else entirely.
It is important to maintain ongoing conversations throughout the storytelling process, from before you hit record until after you pack up your gear. By allowing survivors to provide feedback and contribute ideas, you may mitigate or eliminate the harm that often accompanies stories about trauma.
Don’t assume they’ll want to talk again.
Just because a trauma survivor agreed to one interview, doesn’t mean they will be happy to grant another (or, for that matter, that they were happy to grant the first one). Too often, a trauma survivor who gives one interview is seen as a willing participant in the media coverage of their case. As a result, they are revisited by multiple media outlets any time their case, or a similar case, resurfaces in the news cycle. If you are revisiting a trauma survivor for an interview, ensure again that their consent is informed.
It is common in cases of mass violence for the media to continue to request interviews only with survivors who spoke in the immediate aftermath of the event. These may include loved ones of the deceased, or those who were physically or psychologically injured. By highlighting the stories of some, and ignoring the stories of others, the media can contribute to the creation of a victim or survivor hierarchy, invalidating the trauma suffered by those in the shadows and in some cases, preventing them from seeking the help they need. By contributing to a hierarchy of victims and survivors, the media can also create divisions in the peer support communities that can be so valuable for survivors.
Follow up.
Speaking to a reporter about a traumatic event can bring up all sorts of negative emotions for survivors. Though they may seem fine when you leave the interview, they may be sitting with their negative thoughts and feelings for hours, days, even weeks to come. For this reason, it is important to ensure that survivors are surrounded by support people, and to follow up in the hours, days, and weeks after the interview. It is not sufficient to only follow up with a survivor when you would like to request another interview.
If you are telling the story of a trauma survivor at the beginning of their trauma journey, you should afford them the opportunity to share the subsequent parts of their journey, should they so desire. Many times, when survivors are interviewed in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event, they may not recognize themselves or even recall granting the interview when confronted with it months or years down the road. Further, someone who identifies as a ‘victim’ at one point in their journey may identify as a ‘survivor’ later on. They may wish to offer more insight, perspective, or details.
If you interview a trauma survivor and are then reassigned to a different story, make every effort to let the survivor know that their story has been delayed or will appear in a different format. It is unacceptable to interview a trauma survivor on the understanding that their story will be shared publicly, then scrap it all together. Find a space for it, someplace, somehow.
Collaborate.
Journalists, survivor support workers, and investigators must work together to support survivors with the media, with each stakeholder educated in the roles and needs of the others. While some jurisdictions demonstrate good working relationships between these different stakeholders, such a scenario remains the exception, when it should be the expectation.
As a journalist, it is important to create relationships with potential intermediaries, such as survivor support workers and investigators. By showing them that you are committed to practicing trauma-informed journalism, they may be more willing to act as the go-between to see if a survivor might be willing to be interviewed.
Trauma impacts different people differently. It can also impact the same people differently, over time.
A trauma survivor who spoke with you or was photographed in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event may now be at the point in their trauma journey where they don’t want to share their trauma with the world, and where reminders of it in re-used stock footage, or a Google search by their growing children, are actually harmful. Consider the “value” in keeping a photo of a homicide crime scene from five years ago online, particularly if a survivor calls and asks you to take it down. Who is that story serving today? What about the image from the traffic fatality that happened last week? If a survivor is asking for it to be removed, what harm could come from that? What harm might come from leaving it up?
Sometimes, trauma survivors are in the news because they are thought to be perpetrators. Most notably, this happens in human trafficking investigations. Police may release the name and mugshot of a young woman thought to be a perpetrator of human trafficking, only to realize later that she was a victim and not a perpetrator. While that young woman’s charges may have been withdrawn in court, her name and mugshot often remain online indefinitely, making it difficult to not only get a job, study at a university, start a relationship or volunteer at her kids’ school, but also to move on from her victimization.
Grant survivors the right to be forgotten.
Learn about trauma.
Journalism books should not be your only resource for reporting on trauma. To practice journalism that is truly trauma-informed, you should understand the impact of trauma on the brain and on the body. You should understand the impact of telling one’s traumatic story, whether once or over and over again. To the extent that you can, you should understand what the survivor was experiencing before you knocked on their door and what they will be experiencing after.
Read trauma specialist and survivor Louise Godbold’s article, Do No Harm: A Media Code of Conduct for Interviewing Trauma Survivors, and Femifesto’s Use the Right Words: Media Reporting on Sexual Violence in Canada.
Echo Training has many incredible resources on their website, including this infographic on supporting trauma survivors, another infographic on trauma-informed care, and a list of questions for survivors to ask journalists (most survivors don’t think to ask these questions; study the list and offer up the answers anyway, or just share the list with the survivors you’re working with).
Watch this video series from Pickup Communications founder Tamara Cherry, which includes the voices of trauma survivors discussing trauma-informed journalism. You can also read Tamara’s peer-reviewed research paper, Trauma survivors & the media: A qualitative analysis, which addresses the impact of the media on trauma survivors and the impact of trauma on members of the media.
For books, The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk is a great resource, as is Trauma and Recovery by Dr. Judith Herman. Pickup Communications founder Tamara Cherry’s book, The Trauma Beat: A Case for Re-Thinking the Business of Bad News, was described in a Quill & Quire starred review as “a stunning work that should be required reading for journalism students, news reporters, true crime junkies, and anyone who wants to write narratives that heal, instead of harm.” Her podcast, also called The Trauma Beat, brings together conversations with survivors and relevant stakeholders to discuss the media and trauma and ideas for telling these stories better.
Two excellent podcasts that are hosted by trauma survivors who interview other survivors are Jan Canty’s Domino Effect of Murder and Amy C. O’Neill’s The Trauma Impact.
Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma has some excellent resources for reporting on different types of traumatic events. Interviewing in the aftermath of trauma is a great place to start.
Take care of yourself.
Practicing trauma-informed journalism is an important element of self-care. Doing things that you find morally reprehensible puts you at a heightened risk of moral injury. For this reason, in order to take care of yourself, you must also take care of the trauma survivors you are reporting on.
Trauma exposure (and repeated trauma exposure) also puts reporters at an increased risk of vicarious (or secondary) trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. Prolonged trauma exposure can lead to changes in your brain, making it difficult for you to regulate your emotions. This harm can be prevented or alleviated through regular maintenance of your mental health. This may mean working regularly with a trained mental health professional to address the stories you are covering, organizing and/or participating in a newsroom peer support program, and/or taking other steps to protect your mental health, such as regular exercise and a healthy diet.
It is paramount for newsroom managers to educate themselves about trauma-informed journalism, moral injury, and vicarious trauma. Newsrooms must foster environments that promote self-care. Reporters must feel comfortable telling an assignment editor they need a break from trauma when they feel their trauma buckets are full.