Alex Hannaford and Jeremy Young on Trauma-Informed Reporting and the Dehumanization of Journalists

Jan 30 2024 • 41 mins

Journalists, especially those covering difficult topics such as war and conflict, violence, corruption, the death penalty, and other human rights issues, are exposed to vicarious trauma through their work.

In this episode of TraumaTies, host and Executive Director of the Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC), Bridgette Stumpf, and co-host, Lindsey Silverberg, Deputy Director at NVRDC, welcome guests, Alex Hannaford and Jeremy Young, both journalists and fellows at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.

Alex is also the writer and director of The Last 40 Miles, an award-winning animated short film about the death penalty. In 2015, he won the Media Award from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Jeremy Young is a senior producer with Al Jazeera based in Washington, D.C. where he helped launch Fault Lines in 2009, the channel's award-winning strand that covers U.S. foreign policy issues. He has also produced several groundbreaking documentaries on jails, prisons, and the lives of inmates.

Tune in to hear Alex and Jeremy discuss their roles as ethical storytellers, the impact of covering trauma on journalists, and the need for journalists to be trauma-responsive when interviewing people who have been through trauma themselves. Their discussion also explores the topics of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma, as well as building resilience, compartmentalization, and the value of human connection.