Hidden Perils of the Job

By Annie Tao
AsiaMedia Staff Writer

Journalists who cover disaster and doom fall prey to serious health risks -- but not the kind you can see, reports Annie Tao

Friday, January 28, 2005

The privilege of a journalist is the permit to bear witness. A journalist can sit front row at a sport’s event, be privy to classified information and interview important people. The press pass is the ticket to an enviable status.

Yet journalists cover a broad range of topics -- many of which can cause severe physical or psychological injury. In addition to all the perks of the trade, journalists are also vulnerable to traumatic experiences; they are among the first at a crime scene, see shocking footage before it is edited or witness the destruction caused by a natural disaster.

The tsunami that hit Asia and Africa is climbing the charts as one of the deadliest natural disasters to have ever occurred in history.  With little trepidation, hundreds of journalists traveled to the region as soon as the calamity hit. In fact, in today’s world, cars and planes make it possible for reporters to travel from murders to war fronts to natural disasters. As distance is made more and more insignificant by technology, the cost of bearing witness is becoming more and more substantial because reporters move from one tragedy to another without much delay.

The National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder describes PTSD as “a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape.” For many journalists, this description of PTSD matches their basic job description, thus many are vulnerable to the condition. PTSD interrupts journalists' work, but it also seriously debilitates other aspects of life, such as personal relationships. In fact, people who suffer from PTSD often relive traumatic experiences through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping and can eventually become chronically depressed. These symptoms can be grave enough and last long enough to significantly impair a person's day-to-day life.

In a letter to his children from Banda Aceh, Indonesia on January 12, ABC reporter Bob Woodruff writes, “As you can imagine, this story has affected your dad deeply. There is just so much destruction here it is hard to put it in a context you can understand.” Woodruff goes on to explain how the disaster hit him on a personal level.  He writes, “You know that a lot of people died here and a lot of them were children. That is the hardest part about this story because every child that I see is just like you and I can't help putting myself in the place of their father … and how unbearable that would be ...”

Another journalist, Michele Greppi for the American publication TVWeek, noted that while it was possible to protect reporters physically, it was difficult to prepare them for the mental anguish they had to face while covering the aftermath of the tsunami. Greppi writes, “It was, however, impossible to immunize the journalists against the emotional roller coaster of an assignment that meant seeing corpses in grotesque numbers and positions while reporting on survivors, including thousands of orphans, and trying to comprehend just how complicated, massive and long-running the process of recovery would be throughout the region.”

PTSD is not necessarily part of the job for journalists covering disasters, though. Dr. Ricardo A. Machón, psychology professor in Loyola Marymount University, believes that a prepared state of mind can greatly prevent an onset of the condition. He says that even when facing potentially traumatic situations is inevitable, familiarity with possible circumstances can help a reporter cope when difficult situations do arise. Additionally, Machón counsels journalists to share their experiences with each other. “Some things are inevitable but knowing what to expect and expressing your feelings can help you better navigate through stressful events,” says Machón.

Vice President and Senior Scholar for the Poynter Institute, Roy Peter Clark likens the trauma faced by journalists to a scene in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.  In the scene, Hamlet and Horatio come upon a gravedigger who is happily singing while digging the grave. Horatio then says to Hamlet that this man must be accustomed to the task because he has performed it many times. Dr. Clark believes that this is also true for journalists, “but no one, in the end, can escape their humanity," he says. "There are special stories -- the World Trade Center, the tsunami -- that are so overwhelming that they affect the soul forever. The average person may hold inside a lot of the things that journalists must express. That expression is, in the long run, healthy.”

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More resources for journalists covering the tsunami are listed here.

Date Posted: 1/28/2005