Situation definition:
On Thursday 25th, the Pulitzer Award winner, Douglas Blackmon gave us a speech at Penn State talking about his various experiences in his field as a professional journalist. It is one part of the Foster-Foreman Conference. Blackmon is an American journalist who grew up in Mississippi where contains loads of issues of races , and he also started to write at a very young age.
Being a professional journalist is not a easy thing to do. Blackmon talked about not only ethical problems in the journalism field, but also some serious mental health problems like PTSD which journalists will face after witnessing extreme violence and wars.
Analysis:
As professional journalists, they will cover all kinds of issue in different places around world about stealing, attack, accidents, violent activities, wars ,etc. At the time journalists risk their lives to rush to the scene of the scene where accidents happen, they will also undergo some invisible hurt mentally. The mental trauma afterwards is prevailing in the field of news reporting.
Blackmon shared his experiences in Yugoslavia while he almost contributed his life to it. When he drove his car in to the area which is filled with Serbian reactionary troops, his vehicle was crashed. Those Serbian troops were bombing and exploding the regions insanely. And his ultimate fear of life made him frightened and brought about long-term effects even after escaping from that place. And beside that, he also talked about the experience when he was arrested by Croatian police because he took photographs of citizens killing people and burning their houses. “Photographers are among the most susceptible to PTSD, according to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2002. Because photographers have to get close to capture their subjects, they must switch off their human instinct to help, and this can cause inner conflict.” (Judith Matloff, 2004, p.20)Photojournalists will get to where the war or attacks are happening, they have to face and experience whatever is cruel and true.
“Experts note that trauma is often worse when violence is random and people are unprepared for it; reporters are living among a hostile population and bombs can explode anywhere. And since many reporters dispatched to Iraq have never covered conflict before, they have no practiced responses.” (Judith Matloff, 2004, p.20)
The stress from flashback in memories and echo in their mind will influence negatively journalists’ lives. The PTSD symptoms will come and go anytime. People will become insecure and sensitive even when they are at home hearing some tiny sounds. And people themselves cannot control their mind to keep away from those feelings. “A number of factors can increase the chance that someone will have PTSD, many of which are not under that person’s control.” (Harine G., M.Phil. Scholar, 2017, p.89)
However, during the Q&A session, when someone asked Blackmon if there is any place they can go to consult and look for treatment for their PTSD in the field as journalists, Blackmon explained that there is no place at his work to go for a treatment or get assisted. This is definitely not an ethical act. Because journalists are always working at a risk and thus they need to be supported and helped.
Conclusion:
Blackmon’s speech about his own experiences as a journalists truly makes me impressed and touched. Journalist will get intensely mental health problems while they are facing directly to the cruelness from violence, war, attacks and others. And by saying so, it will be nice to see places where journalists work at establish some system to provide them assisting and treatment when they have PTSD.
References:
Munaweera, N. (2017). What lies between us: A novel. New York: St. Martins Griffin. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=1b790dd8-70e8-4343-9548-73bd8896216f%40sdc-v-sessmgr05
Matloff, J. (2004). Scathing Memory [Review]. Retrieved from http://judithmatloff.com/archive_2/pdfs/scathingmemory.pdf