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By Brock Weir In this line of work, you sometimes have to cover events
and stories that are naturally outside your comfort zone. To pick just one example from my time coming up through
Carleton University's journalism program, one hardened-before-her-time CBC
reporter told us that the most dreaded job when she was first starting out in
her career was covering a Royal Visit sometime in the 1990s, when she wanted to
be out in the field, covering crime scenes and hot political turmoil. Some people might thrive on the police beat, for
instance, tackling the seedy underbelly of our society head-on, issues like
human trafficking, knowing that the work they do by shedding a light on these
very important issues can go a long way towards eradication. But there are others still who shudder at the very
thought of getting this kind of assignment. There are few things more difficult for a reporter than
being assigned a story on a murder, a missing person, or other tragedies that
require you to delicately approach a grieving family for their personal insight
on what they're feeling. Usually, if approached in the right way, they are
understanding, conscious of the fact we're simply doing our job and giving them
an opportunity to speak; an opportunity which often gives them a chance to pay
heartfelt tribute to a loved one. It's a tough situation to navigate and it is rarely the
kind of work that can actually be left in the office. You invariably bring it
home with you; it can pop back into your head without any sort of warming. Some
might see it as PTSD, others might avoid it, but no situation is less
impactful. What I'm describing is nothing new. You've heard
generations of editors, reporters, and other media personnel speak about it.
You've probably picked up snippets from academic studies looking at the same.
Maybe you too have experienced it, but what I hadn't considered until very
recently was the impact these stories have on consumers – readers, viewers, and
listeners. But, I should have considered this much earlier because
we're all victims of this. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling compelled to tune out
for a little bit during the heat of the 2016 United States Presidential
Election when vitriol was at its zenith. It was a time hallmarked on childish name-calling,
outlandish conspiracy theories being somehow legitimized simply by who was
spouting them, racial slurs and dog-whistles being thrown out with as much care
as one would throw away a Kleenex, and people ignoring the world metaphorically
burning down around them with a singular focus on an email server – all
amplified by the 24-hour news cycle. For the sake of my own mental health, I instituted an
all-too-brief moratorium on American television news, and it was glorious – but
I hadn't considered this was a “thing” until a story published late last month
by a reporter from Yahoo! Canada News. In her story, “How to cope with this week's tragic news
stories,” Megan DeLaire wrote about the multiple emotional gut punches we
received as a nation in mid-February, including the tragic fire in Nova Scotia
which killed eight refugee children planning new roots in their new home, and the
death in Brampton of Riya Rajkumar, who was the subject of an Amber Alert the
previous evening. “Often, when a tragedy like a violent crime or deadly
fire occurs, the people closest to the epicentre of that tragedy have access to
supports like grief and trauma counselling,” wrote DeLaire. “But distressing
events can also affect the people who follow them in the news and become
personally invested.” She cites work carried out by grief and trauma expert
Karen Letofsky, who has looked into the impact of repetition and shocking
imagery in our news cycles. “That can have an impact with respect to inducing an
emotional reaction,” said Letofsky in the article. “It is going to be on a
continuum from somebody that's severely affected to somebody that's momentarily
distressed. If you have been traumatized before, if you are in an emotionally
vulnerable place in your own life, I think these triggers and what it takes to
have an emotional impact on you might be less intense than if you are in a
place in your life where you're not as vulnerable. If you're constantly hearing
these stories and they're reported in a matter-of-fact way…it can numb you and
deaden you so that you don't have an appropriate emotional reaction, so that's
the flipside.” She goes on to recommend moderating news consumption to
revisiting a particular story just once or twice before taking a break, but it
is also important to have keen self-awareness and a sense of self-care. Moderation is a great tool, as are self-awareness and
self-care, but in addition to having supports like counselling readily
available, I, as a reader was left to wonder about the value of knowing where
to turn for opportunities to channel the feelings left by what you've read –
or, in the case of some of us, what you've written – and channel that into
positive change. Just a couple of weeks ago, Judy and Dennis Shepard, the
parents of Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in an anti-Gay hate crime in
Wyoming in 1998 touched upon this issue when speaking to a group of students,
parents and community members. When asked how they had the ability to get past
the pain and have the strength to do something positive with their grief, they
admitted it was an overwhelming process, but something they had to do. “We felt we owed that to Matt and his community,” said
Judy. “It became the reason I got out of bed in the morning. It gave me
purpose. The idea of closure just doesn't exist. You just learn to build your
life around the tragedy and to accept that sometimes you just cry for no
reason…and you just figure out how to make it work. We just felt it was really
important. We felt that we had maybe two years at most to tell Matt's story and
people would just move on to the next tragedy, but, for some reason, Matt's
story has resonated for much longer. It was a conscious choice and it gave us
purpose. It was our survival.” I would like to know how you cope with difficult news in
the papers, on television, and in online platforms. Please send your thoughts
to brock@auroran.com.
Post date: 2019-03-15 18:47:57
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