New Directions: Trauma And The Media
Matthew Friedman, M.D., Ph.D.
NCP Clinical Quarterly 6(2): Spring 1996
Until recently my attitude towards the print and broadcast media has been ambivalent, at best. When asked, I generally consented to reporters' requests for interviews because I recognized that these were opportunities to reach a much larger audience than the few clinicians and scholars who occasionally read my publications or attend my lectures. It was a chance to tell trauma survivors, their families, and their communities how to recognize the symptoms of PTSD and where to turn for appropriate treatment. And, if I'm honest with myself, it stroked my narcissism, it was a chance to get some personal recognition and publicity. In short, it was an offer I couldn't refuse.
Despite all these positive inducements, I always had a fundamental distrust of journalists, some of it based on adverse personal experiences and the rest based on prejudices which were shared by many of my colleagues. Reporters, it seemed, were mostly interested in the gory, sensational details and cared little about the people who had survived newsworthy catastrophic events. Reporters ran roughshod over the privacy or emotional vulnerability of trauma victims in their rush to meet a deadline. Reporters would select three quotations from a half-hour interview and juxtapose them in a way that implied just the opposite of what I had said. Reporters, like lawyers, wanted the complex and imperfectly understood experience of the trauma survivor broken down into terse slogans, dogmatic soundbites, or pop psychological interpretations. And under the banner of the public's right to know, reporters consistently disregarded the trauma victim's right to privacy
Anne Seymour, former Director of Communications for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the National Victim Center. has been an eloquent spokesperson for privacy protection from the news media. She has identified a number of concerns regarding news media coverage of crime and victimization. These include interviewing at inappropriate times, glamorizing the offender, ignoring victims and survivors wishes, identifying child victims by name in their articles, and inaccurate reporting. Citing data from the National Women's Study, Seymour asserts that rape victims would be much more likely to report rape to the police if there was a law prohibiting the news media from disclosing their names and addresses. In an attempt to promote constructive engagement between victims and the media, Seymour has proposed a victims bill of rights and a media code of ethics.
My introduction to such constructive engagement occurred last summer when, as President-Elect of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, I had the opportunity to judge newspaper articles that had been submitted for the Dart Award for Excellence in Reporting on Victims of Violence. This $10,000 cash prize for outstanding coverage of victims of violence by a U.S. newspaper is the most conspicuous component of the Victims and the Media Program at the Michigan State University (MSU) School of Journalism, This innovative and much needed program was established by Frank Ochberg, a psychiatrist and well-known PTSD expert, and Bill Cote', a veteran reporter and associate professor of journalism at MSU. The program is designed to help journalists improve interpersonal skills for approaching and interviewing victims, to enhance their understanding of the effects of violence on victims, to improve journalists' awareness of victim concerns over media coverage, and to enhance journalistic appreciation of how their coverage may shape public perceptions of both victims and violence. Ochberg, Cote', and Roger Simpson of the University of Washington are also hard at work on a textbook that will address the many technical, clinical, and legal issues related to media coverage of victims and victim issues.
Since my memorable experience at MSU, I've spoken with a number of journalists about these matters. I even participated in a panel last fall on trauma and the media at the New England Society of Newspaper Editors. I was impressed and pleasantly surprised that many of these leaders of the journalistic community seemed sensitive to the victim's right to privacy and were committed to improve the reporting of traumatic events.
Now that I've stopped demonizing journalists, I've come to realize that many of them have a high risk of developing PTSD. Frequent exposure to war, rape, murder, violent crime, natural disasters, and the like, place them in a category along with the military, police, and emergency medical personnel who have high rates of exposure to traumatic events. Perhaps the brusque insensitivity of some reporters is a manifestation of PTSD numbing and avoidant symptoms. Such speculations have prompted me to speak to journalists about the necessity for periodic debriefings and journalistic self-care so that they can take appropriate actions to cope with the predictable occupational hazard of traumatic exposure and the possible development of PTSD.
Finally, I have come to appreciate the potential therapeutic value of a sensitive and accurate media report on the impact of a traumatic event. The top entries in the Dart Award competition emphasized the courageous efforts of survivors to overcome the devastating physical and emotional consequences of arson, rape, or domestic violence. I realized that a newspaper article itself might represent, to the survivor, a validation and affirmation that could potentially play a significant role in his or her recovery. Hopefully, as journalists come to understand how they might carry out their responsibilities with greater effectiveness and care, there will be an added benefit to the victims of violence and to those who love them.
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