The San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists is hosting a 75-minute online training for area journalists with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at noon on Saturday, May 20.
The free webinar will cover how we as journalists can better deal with the effects of on-the-job stress and trauma – whether it’s from covering the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde to COVID-19 mortality rates to editing images and video footage of victims grieving losses. It can be a lot and we as an organization want to help individual journalists and news teams build resilience and learn techniques so they can continue to do the journalism San Antonio residents deserve.
The Dart Center is a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and has trained many journalists how to better cope with stress, trauma and burnout.
In times of acute and sustained crises, reporters look to their editors and managers for structure, expertise and leadership. Research suggests a direct link between journalists’ psychological well-being and professional resiliency and a newsroom environment that feels accepting and supportive, where leadership is perceived as informed, consistent and fair, and where staff feel they are bound by clarity of mission and standards. In addition, research shows that the single most important resilience factor in the face of ongoing stress is collegial support.
The training offers a grounding in trauma science and will discuss different types of trauma exposure (e.g. direct, secondary or vicarious, moral injury, online harassment/ threat) and offer tips for self-assessment and evidence-based strategies for self-care and collegial support.
In addition, the Dart Center is equipped to provide training on other topics such as trauma reporting best
practices, ethical interviewing, handling graphic content, managing the effects of online harassment and
threat; reporting on sexual assault, covering civil unrest and field safety and peer support/ ‘being a good
colleague.’ Our trainer will be Kate Porterfield and the event will immediately follow May’s regular in-person member meeting at the San Antonio Express-News.
Click here to get the ZOOM link emailed to you.
TRAINER BIO: Kate Porterfield, PhD, is a consulting clinical psychologist at the Bellevue Hospital Program for Survivors of Torture in New York City. Dr. Porterfield has provided clinical care to adults, adolescents and children who have experienced war and refugee trauma and torture for over 20 years. She regularly consults on issues pertaining to trauma, including in cases at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, US courts, and the International Criminal Court and with journalists and human rights organizations. Dr. Porterfield is a founding staff member of the Journalist Trauma Support Network, an initiative at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University. Dr. Porterfield regularly teaches and works with groups around issues of wellbeing, stress management and team communication. She trained with and continues to teach at the legendary Second City improvisational theater.
