Blog 3 – Ethical Lessons from the Foster-Foreman Lectures by Chad Bargerstock

Situation Definition

On the morning of October 25th, Douglas Blackmon visited Penn State’s campus as part of the annual Foster-Forman Conference of Distinguished Writers. Blackmon spoke about his experiences working as a journalist. He has had the opportunity to cover very historical events including but not limited to, the election of Barak Obama, Hurricane Katrina, and the BP oil spill.

Blackmon brought up some ethical concerns he has had in the field. Of these ethical concerns, the idea of having to cover traumatic events has stuck with me the most. Covering traumatic events can affect both the victims in the story and those who cover the story. After hearing everything Blackmon had to say, Journalists should be offered mental health treatment and journalist should respect subjects being interviewed during traumatic times.

Analysis

One ethical concern when dealing with traumatic events, is the question of whether journalists should be offered medical help after covering these events. According to communications professor at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Young Joon Lim, journalists are as equally vulnerable as anybody else during traumatic situations, “As with military personnel who take part in violent conflicts, journalists who cover violence, including war, have been shown to suffer higher levels of distress than does the general population.” Blackmon had the opportunity to cover the civil war in Croatia, giving him a first-person point of view of a very violent experience.

During the Q&A portion of the conference, Blackmon was asked if as journalist was he offered any kind of mental health treatment after experiencing traumatic events in Croatia. He said he was not offered any help. Communication professor, Klas Backholm, and Psychology professor, Kaj Björkqvist,  found that (Blackholm, Björkqvist 2012), “ most journalists cope well with work-related exposure. However, a minority of journalists might experience severe reactions after being exposed to various types of crises. Symptoms such as PTSD, depression, and compassion fatigue have been reported in studies of journalistic work in various types of crises.” Due to severity of these health issues that journalists can experience it is important to offer them mental health treatment.

Another ethical concern involving journalist that cover traumatic events is the idea of being respectful of the subjects of your story. Blackmon believes every human life has value and everybody should be respected. At one point in Blackmon’s career he was required to interview a mother that had just lost their child, an experience that a mother should not have to go through. After interviewing the mother Blackmon felt that he invaded the mother’s boundaries and was sick to his stomach thinking about how intrusive he had to be. Blackmon decided he would never be put in that situation again, but it doesn’t mean there will never be another journalist in this situation. Journalists should always worry about, “feeling empathy for the victims and how to interview victims/eyewitnesses without causing further distress.”

Conclusion

By sharing his experiences, Douglas Blackmon has helped me to think about being more mindful in the future when covering traumatic and violent stories. I am reminded that everyone is human and anybody is of much value as the person sitting next to them. Everybody is equally susceptible to being affected by traumatic experiences.

References

Backholm, K., & Björkqvist, K. (2012). Journalists’ emotional reactions after working with the Jokela school shooting incident. Media, War & Conflict5(2), 175–190. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635212440914

Lim, Y. J., & Sweeney, M. S. (2016). UPI’s Merriman Smith may have suffered from PTSD. Newspaper Research Journal37(2), 113–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739532916648956

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