Covering Trauma: A Training Guide

According to this training guide, covering trauma is a part of almost every journalist’s experience. Stories about sexual and gender-based violence, child soldiers, or sex trafficking, for example, are stories that require thoughtful and careful reporting and production. All stories about an ordinary person who becomes the victim of abuse require extra sensitivity, because survivors of abuse, whether the abuse is physical, emotional, or political, are usually survivors of a traumatic event.

This guide, published by Radio for Peace Building, has been designed to give journalists concrete tools for understanding the effects of trauma and for conducting sensitive reporting and writing on trauma stories. It provides tips on how to carry out interviews in difficult situations, as well as framing stories so as to protect victims and not sensationalise violence. The guide also explores how journalism can help communities heal after trauma.

This guide includes the following chapters.

• Why Trauma Stories are Sensitive
• What is Trauma?
• How Should Journalists Report Trauma Stories?
• How Should Journalists Produce Trauma Stories?
• How Can Journalism Help Communities Heal?