Nieman Reports

Winter 2009

Trauma in the Aftermath

Reporting in the aftermath of tragedy and violence, journalists discover what happens when people survive crippling moments of horror. Pushing past what is formulaic and numbing, they find ways to craft stories where the touch is raw and real. In this issue of Nieman Reports, journalists are joined by trauma researchers and survivors themselves in telling their stories in their own voices. We invite you to listen in.

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Aftermath | Journalists’ Stories

Winter 2009: Introduction

By Melissa Ludtke• Features• December 15, 2009

In an Instant, a Bomb Claims Lives and Devastates a Survivor

By David Finkel• Features• December 15, 2009

‘Every part of him was taped and bandaged because of burns and infections, except for his cheeks … his mouth … and his eyes …’ Read more

When Murder Strikes a Small Community

By Don Corrigan• Features• December 15, 2009

‘What is a news organization’s responsibility to its reporters who are eyewitness to murder? Can an editorial staff experience depression or long-term PTSD as a result of such exposure?’ Read more

Tears Are Part of Telling the Story

By Mike Walter• Features• December 15, 2009

‘That day in the bedroom Gary asked the questions; he fought the urge to cry. He did his job.’ Read more

Shooting War: A Photographer’s Vision

By Marcus Bleasdale• Features• December 15, 2009

An Essay in Words and Photographs Read more

When They Come for Us

By Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge• Features• December 15, 2009

‘… when you are compelled to leave your … family, your work, your country, and your life as you knew it, that’s when you realize you cannot give up. You have to do more, you have to speak louder, write bolder. And now, it’s personal.’ Read more

Manipulator or Human Rights Facilitator?

By Antjie Krog• Features• December 14, 2009

A journalist involved with the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s radio coverage of that country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission describes how it was done and why decisions made about its approach matter. Read more

The Iraqi Shoe-Thrower: When Endangered Journalists Need Help

By Jerome Aumente• Features• December 11, 2009

‘I wonder how different things would have turned out if I could have found help for al-Zaidi. If assistance came sooner for his possible post-traumatic stress, maybe the shoe-throwing incident would not have taken place.’ Read more

Altruism’s Rise in the Wake of Disaster

By Jan Gardner• Features• December 9, 2009

Rebecca Solnit’s wide-ranging inquiry into disaster led her to a surprisingly good-hearted view of human nature. “In the wake of an earthquake, a bombing, or a major storm, most people are altruistic, urgently engaged in caring for themselves and those … Read more

Women War Correspondents: They Are Different in So Many Ways

By Anthony Feinstein and Mark Sinyor• Diversity• December 11, 2009

‘It is not by chance that these women have gravitated to the frontlines of war.’ Read more

Aftermath | Conveying Complexity

The Conference | Covering Violence and Tragedy

By Melissa Ludtke• Features• December 15, 2009

A doctor in a Fallujah, Iraq hospital raises an X-ray to show head injuries to this 9-year-old boy whose home was hit by American airstrikes. Three members of his family, including his … Read more

Bringing What’s Buried in Folders to Life

By Arnessa Garrett, Julia Reynolds, Miles Moffeit and Paul McEnroe• Features• December 15, 2009

‘The closer I felt to these people, the more attention I paid to details—to timelines, to chronologies, to what kind of food they ate, what kind of medication they were on, and at what time they’d done something.’ Read more

When a Crime Is Just the Beginning of the Story

By Julia Reynolds, Luis Rodriguez and Rachel Dissell• Features• December 15, 2009

By establishing relationships of trust with those touched by crime, reportiers discover and imtimacy of throught and emotion that can assist healing—for individuals and for communities. Read more

Strategies for Reporters Coping With Stress

By Julia Reynolds• Features• December 10, 2009

Julia Reynolds offers approaches to handling the stress that can be part of this demanding crime beat. RELATED ARTICLE “When a Crime Is Just the Beginning of … Read more

Forming Connection, Finding Comfort

By Donna DeCesare• Features• December 15, 2009

An Essay in Words and Photographs Read more

Trauma in New Orleans: In the Wake of Katrina

By Brett Myers, Jed Horne, Jiarra Jackson, Larry Blumenfeld and Patricia Smith• Features• December 15, 2009

Journalists and a poet explore this story’s intimacy, its emotional power, and its cultural significance. Read more

Aftermath | Voice and Language

Approaching Emotional Pain—As a Journalist

By Elana Newman, Jonathan Shay and Pete Hamill• Features• December 15, 2009

‘Routinely we witness the awful things that people do to each other and the most enduring awfulness of all, the aftermath.’ Read more

When Language Fails Us

By Alexander McFarlane• Features• January 20, 2010

‘… truth is not at all lovely and not at all reconcilable with the military communiqués of war correspondence.’ Read more

How to Do an Interview—When Trauma Is the Topic

By Karen Brown, Mike Walter and Ruth Teichroeb• Features• December 15, 2009

‘It’s just a totally different landscape when dealing with someone who’s been traumatized. They don’t know the rules, and what’s so essential in these interviews is to give the person choices about a whole host of things …’ Read more

A Journalist and a Survivor

By Esad Boškailo and Julia Lieblich• Features• December 15, 2009

‘If I can give advice to journalists, I suggest it’s all about relationships.’ Read more

Narratives—With Trauma at Their Core

By Constance Hale, Moni Basu, Peter Davis and Scott North• Features• December 15, 2009

‘There’s a kind of emotional insight that a skilled writer with a great command of language and of the human condition brings to a story.’ Read more

When War Ends: The Trauma That Remains

By Lori Grinker• Features• December 15, 2009

An Essay in Words and Photographs Read more

Toxic Storytelling: When Trauma Is Sensationalized

By Richard Mollica• Features• December 15, 2009

Families found a variety of ways to float away from their flooding homes; some, like this one, were rescued in boats as the water rose in the Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane … Read more

Aftermath | Purposeful Storytelling

Visual Storytelling About the Human Condition

By Amy Hill, Barbara Ayotte, Brian Storm and Glenn Ruga• Features• December 15, 2009

‘The tools are so powerful now that, as journalists, we can … be focused on doing the kind of journalism we want to do and then partnering with other organizations to get the word out.’ Read more

Connecting Threads of Individual Pain With Societal Responsibility

By Anna Di Lellio, Jack Saul, Marc Cooper and Seamus Kelters• Features• December 15, 2009

From Northern Ireland, Chile and Kosovo come stories of the struggle people have in healing from terror and torture when political accountability and reconciliation are absent. Read more

It Matters Who Tells the Story in the Middle East

By Bruce Shapiro and Scheherezade Faramarzi• Features• December 15, 2009

‘The deliberate or unconscious dehumanization of Arabs is also reflected in the way they are portrayed on television. … selective images confirm the stereotype that Arabs are inherently violent.’ Read more

Aftermath | Digging for Meaning

Tugging Meaning Out of Trauma

By Drew Gilpin Faust, Jacki Lyden and Robert Jay Lifton• Features• January 20, 2010

‘The journalists, by telling the survivors’ stories, are a witness to the witness and they bring that story to the larger society.’ Read more

In Search of an ‘Inside Narrative’

By Bruce Shapiro• Features• December 11, 2009

‘Very often, as journalists, we end up telling these kinds of outside narratives when we go to official sources for the most difficult and intimate stories.’ Read more

Reporting the Iraq War: Whose Truth Is Being Told?

By Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi, Daniel Rothenberg and Hannah Allam• Features• December 15, 2009

‘… I used to tell the American correspondent, “You know what, you’re writing my story. I’m writing my story. When we cover a car bomb, it’s my neighborhood.” For an American correspondent, it’s a story.’ Read more

Telling Untold Stories of What Happened in Iraq

By Kael Alford• Features• December 15, 2009

An Essay in Words and Photographs Read more

Aftermath | Art and Trauma

Art and Literature: Guiding Journalists in Trauma’s Portrayal

By E. Ann Kaplan, Rose Moss and Roya Hakakian• Features• December 11, 2009

‘… Nieman Fellows who’d been in the Balkans wanted to take courses in music, art, poetry, and other kinds of literature. I don’t think this happens arbitrarily.’ Read more

‘Entering Darkness’

By E. Ann Kaplan• Features• December 11, 2009

Depicting an individual’s story leads viewers to awareness of a ‘generalized horror.’ Read more

Art and Trauma—And Journalist as Observer

By Alicia Anstead, Chris Vognar and Glenda Carpio• Features• December 11, 2009

‘We have to be inside of the circle to understand the conversation, to get down and dirty with the people who are making art, and still keep that distance by preserving our personal and professional space apart from them. That’s very important.’ Read more

Words & Reflections

Curator's Corner

Bolstering a Beat: A Nieman Fellowship for Business Journalism

By Bob Giles

Nieman Reports issue archive

Nieman Reports

Winter 2009

Trauma in the Aftermath

Aftermath | Journalists’ Stories

Aftermath | Conveying Complexity

Aftermath | Voice and Language

Aftermath | Purposeful Storytelling

Aftermath | Digging for Meaning

Aftermath | Art and Trauma

Words & Reflections

By Dan Kennedy

By Cameron McWhirter

By John Maxwell Hamilton and Valerie Komor

Curator's Corner

By Bob Giles