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Many years ago, I attended a session hosted by the Globe and Mail where Anthony Feinstein made a presentation that had a lasting impact on me.
Dr. Feinstein is known for his research on post-traumatic stress disorder and at this event, he was speaking about PTSD in journalists. I was editor-in-chief of The Canadian Press at the time and for years, we had rotated journalists through Afghanistan to cover the Canadian Forces stationed in that war-torn country. But Dr. Feinstein spoke that day about how journalists don’t need to be in a warzone to experience PTSD.
News reporters and photographers – like police, firefighters and EMT workers – are often first on the scene of horrific incidents. The issues raised by Dr. Feinstein helped CP form a better counselling strategy for its journalists who had experienced traumatic events.
Today, Dr. Feinstein writes about a new form of PTSD for journalists who never even venture out of the newsroom: “As the media evolves, the risks change as well. A new phenomenon is the stress posed to some journalists by user-generated content (UGC). This refers to images and video material, often violent, transmitted to newsrooms from the man in the street.”
That’s just one of several good Monday reads we have for you: what the federal government must do if it’s serious about implementing a national food policy; why better research data is needed to separate life-saving treatments from those that should end up on “the science scrapheap” and we explain why you don’t have a moral compass – you actually have a moral calculator.
With regards,
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Violent and distressing news video and images such as this girl fleeing fighting in Mosul, Iraq, on July 2, pose mental health risks for journalists in newsrooms — a new phenomenon.
(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Anthony Feinstein, University of Toronto
Journalists face psychological trauma from producing news even when they are distant from the scene of violent incidents. What can news organizations do?
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Health + Medicine
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Stephanie Swift, University of Ottawa
Systematic reviews are rarely applied to basic research. A new study shows how they could separate good data from bad, saving millions in research dollars and speeding life-saving treatments.
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Culture + Society
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DB Krupp, Queen's University, Ontario
Moral disputes are a product of independent minds with independent agendas. Thus, there is little reason to see ourselves as unbiased sources of righteousness.
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Politics
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Charles Z.Levkoe, Lakehead University; Amanda Wilson, Lakehead University
While the federal government is taking a step in the right direction with its attempts to formulate a national food policy, its key objectives don't go far enough.
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