Tag Archives: journalists

Medill National Security Journalism Initiative goes global

GIJN_band_logo_largeWASHINGTON — The Medill National Security Journalism Initiative has been elected to membership in the Global Investigative Journalism Network, an international association of nonprofit organizations that support, promote, and produce accountability and watchdog reporting.

The vote on March 2 means the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative is now part of the GIJN efforts to foster investigative journalism through training, conferences and other resources.

The National Security Journalism Initiative’s membership will provide Medill students with the opportunity to participate in collaborative international projects with fellow GIJN organizations, as well as give students and faculty access to an unprecedented network of global reporting contacts and resources.

“I’ve been watching GIJN’s rapid global growth and the excellent work of its many member organizations since it was first established, and in recent years it has become increasingly clear that it is one of the most important players in the world of international investigative reporting,” said Josh Meyer, the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative’s director of education and outreach, who first reached out to GIJN last year. “We’re honored and humbled to be accepted as one of its members.”

The 2015 cohort of inductees extends GIJN’s reach to include 114 reporting groups in 53 countries, according to its announcement. Other prominent GIJN members include the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Center for Public Integrity and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.

“It’s an honor and a great opportunity for Medill to be part of the Global Investigative Journalism Network,” said Ellen Shearer, co-director of the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative and William F. Thomas Professor of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. “We look forward to participating in the network of great journalists.”

To learn more about the Global Investigative Journalism Network’s work in support of investigative journalists around the world, visit http://gijn.org/.

For more information about the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative, visit http://www.nationalsecurityzone.org.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

War Reporting: How to live and tell the tale

WASHINGTON–The War on Terror continues to claim the lives of soldiers, innocent civilians, and journalists. Safety training experts say war reporters have a lot to learn about protecting themselves while trying to get their story.  

“Too many times journalists are the only professionals on the battlefield or in a disaster zone quite unprepared for what they are going to encounter,” said Rodney Pinder, director of the International News Safety Institute. “International journalists do not appreciate the risks and local journalists have neither the means nor the opportunity to access safety training,” he said.

Since the start of the War on Terror, hundreds of journalists have died trying to cover the war. In 2010 alone, 46 journalists have been killed trying to report in hostile environments, including Iraq and Afghanistan. When compared to the Vietnam War, which claimed about 70 news media lives, these numbers reported by the INSI are shocking.

“Those who target journalists are professional killers – we need to be as professional in protecting ourselves,” said Pinder, adding that  hostile environment training can potentially save the lives of journalists, and help them save the lives of others.

INSI is an organization dedicated to the safety of­ journalists working in dangerous environments. Its goal is to “help journalists survive the story” by raising funds to provide training for free to journalists in need. Training programs come in around $3,000 a week and can seem cost prohibitive to freelance reporters. The program teaches journalists about the many aspects of personal safety, pre-deployment planning, conflict management, hostile crowd situations, ballistic awareness, safety from fire-arms, passage through checkpoints, coping with kidnapping, and basic first aid skills.

Technological innovation and smaller, lighter equipment, has made war reporting more dangerous than ever before. Now, more and more reporters are covering the news from the front lines, including camera operators. 

“Those in the military like reporters who­ embed in the battlefield because it establishes a trust between the media and those deployed, said Dr. Conrad Crane, lead author for the U.S. Army Manual on Counterinsurgency and director of the US Army Military History Institute, a part of the Army War College.

To live up to the networks standards of immediacy, fortifying this trust relationship between reporters and the military is necessary. But consequently, a reporter’s­ safety is often at risk­. However, despite how dangerous war reporting can be, it is an essential job that someone must do.

“Our job is to keep the outside world informed. Wars must not, cannot, be conducted in secret,” said Pinder. He believes that transparency in war reporting holds “the government and military accountable. Our reporting counters their spin and reveals actions they would like to keep secret,” said George Espers, a veteran Gulf War and Vietnam War reporter.

 “[War reporters are] the unsung heroes behind most of the news footage we see on our screens every day,” according to Pinder on the institute’s website.

 Being in a war zone is dangerous for anyone, but reporters can take certain steps to educate themselves before entering a combat zone. INSI is just one of many organizations dedicated to the safety of journalists. But at the end of the day, how to proceed successfully often relies on common sense.  

 “There is no guarantee in War. . . .Ask yourself, is this story worth the risk? No story is worth getting killed for,” said Espers.

Tagged , , , , ,

PTSD: Not just for soldiers anymore

Journalists are typically perceived as fearless, intrepid and ready to throw themselves into the fire to get the story – often quite literally. But, despite this notion of invulnerability, reporters are susceptible to mental, as well as physical injury. And, unlike emergency responders and soldiers, most journalists aren’t often taught how to recognize symptoms of mental illness or the importance of seeking help.

The most common psychological effect that can stem from coverage of traumatic events is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

“The more I learn and understand about PTSD speaking as a journalist, the more I feel that the mechanisms involved in PTSD have a particular relevance to us as journalists,”  said Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. The Dart Center, a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, specializes in informed reporting on topics of violence, conflict and tragedy.

According to the National Center for PTSD, the condition is an anxiety disorder that usually occurs after one has been through a traumatic event.  During such an experience, the sufferer thinks their life or the lives of others are in danger. This can be coupled with feelings of fear or lack of control.

One of the hallmarks of PTSD is that sufferers can’t shake the memory of the traumatic event. It’s as if an amplification loop has been set up in the brain and the memory never fades, said Dr. Esther Sternberg, a medical researcher and author of Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being.

That is particularly the case with journalists, who by the nature of their job are constantly re-exposing themselves to trauma through continued reporting. This makes it more difficult to escape traumatic memories, Shapiro and other experts say.

They add that many journalists ­may be ignoring the mental burden this carries, in many cases because they don’t realize how susceptible they are.­

Many if not most journalists suffering from PTSD don’t even know they have it because few in the medical community have spoken out about this hidden problem. It has become particularly common in journalists after the Sept. 11 2001 attacks, when so many journalists went to war or covered the story at Ground Zero and elsewhere in the United States.

PTSD is a real physiological phenomenon that is related to changes in brain stress hormones, said Sternberg, who adds that the macho image of a stiff upper lip, or that journalists are superheroes, can compound the problem. Such an attitude can prevent people from seeking the help they need.

“Do we [as journalists] perceive ourselves as invulnerable?” asked Shapiro. “Or, do we view ourselves as resilient skilled professionals who nonetheless are vulnerable to psychological injury?”

Certainly it is the latter, according to Shapiro and others.

Part of coping with PTSD is through recognition and understanding – though this is where journalism seems to be struggling, Shapiro said.

Training is important to consider. On the one hand, he suggests this can take the form of hazardous environment training to understand how to be safe under dangerous conditions. He also points out that training can give journalists a basic understanding of what symptoms to look for in themselves and others, as well as getting them to talk about PTSD.

The Dart Center is one organization that offers training to journalists. At the center of its approach is the idea of providing journalists with basic vocabulary to prepare them for covering trauma and addressing psychological injury. An emphasis is also placed on molding people into supportive colleagues, as well as getting sufferers to talk about their experiences.

But at an even more basic level, journalists need to remember that they are not super human. It’s important to resist self-isolation as social interaction is crucial. Social connection is key to moving past PTSD and other psychological injuries, said Shapiro.

“If you had an appendicitis it wouldn’t occur to you to take it out yourself,” Sternberg says. “You would see a surgeon.”

Tagged , , , , ,