Journalism and Everyday Trauma: A Grounded Theory of the Impact From Death-Knocks and Court Reporting
type: CreativeWork
description: News is an emotional business (Richards, 2009, p. 308) Journalists are now often carrying out death-knock interviews early in their careers, whereby they are expected to interview the family or friends of a victim immediately after a tragedy. Soon after graduating, some also cover horrific court stories. In New Zealand there are few guidelines – written or oral – about how to cover death-knock interviews or how to filter out the lurid details in court. Rarely are journalists taught how to deal with the range of emotions they are likely to encounter. This lack of insight includes the emotions of people who are suffering, as well as their own. This study focuses on two sites of secondary or indirect trauma: death-knocks and court reporting, as opposed to direct trauma whereby journalists actually witness the event. Previous research has shown that the denial of emotions and psychological damage from ongoing trauma coverage can have a cumulative effect on journalists. The effects include exposure to secondary trauma. The repetitive nature of any work, where death or near-death stories now constantly make the news because of the need to maintain audiences and profits, has exacerbated this issue. The traditional approach to trauma reporting has been to learn on the job, as journalism education has been based on recommendations from the media industry. As a result, journalists can make mistakes as they practise on the public. Because of a traditionally stoic culture and the socialisation process within newsrooms, novice journalists feel the pressure to remain objective and suppress any emotions. Using grounded theory methodology and taking a social constructivist approach, this study analyses data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 20 news professionals – 18 journalists and two former media managers. The outcome is an inside account of what those journalists felt and what they experienced as they repeatedly covered trauma on the job. Using participant comments…
abstract: News is an emotional business (Richards, 2009, p. 308) Journalists are now often carrying out death-knock interviews early in their careers, whereby they are expected to interview the family or friends of a victim immediately after a tragedy. Soon after graduating, some also cover horrific court stories. In New Zealand there are few guidelines – written or oral – about how to cover death-knock interviews or how to filter out the lurid details in court. Rarely are journalists taught how to deal with the range of emotions they are likely to encounter. This lack of insight includes the emotions of people who are suffering, as well as their own. This study focuses on two sites of secondary or indirect trauma: death-knocks and court reporting, as opposed to direct trauma whereby journalists actually witness the event. Previous research has shown that the denial of emotions and psychological damage from ongoing trauma coverage can have a cumulative effect on journalists. The effects include exposure to secondary trauma. The repetitive nature of any work, where death or near-death stories now constantly make the news because of the need to maintain audiences and profits, has exacerbated this issue. The traditional approach to trauma reporting has been to learn on the job, as journalism education has been based on recommendations from the media industry. As a result, journalists can make mistakes as they practise on the public. Because of a traditionally stoic culture and the socialisation process within newsrooms, novice journalists feel the pressure to remain objective and suppress any emotions. Using grounded theory methodology and taking a social constructivist approach, this study analyses data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 20 news professionals – 18 journalists and two former media managers. The outcome is an inside account of what those journalists felt and what they experienced as they repeatedly covered trauma on the job. Using participant comments…
author: Barnes, Marilyn (Lyn)
keywords: Trauma journalism, Trauma education, New Zealand, Gender and journalism, Death-knocks, Court reporting
date published: 2016
date modified: 2026-07-27T18:45:44Z
provider: AUT University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: AUT University