Whether your beat is family violence or natural disaster, the news choices you face are difficult, and affect your subjects, policy makers and the wider public. This page offers a wide range of quick tips, deep background and training and support programs to help journalists cover bad news better.
The Ochberg, Asia and Academic Fellowship programs.
The Dart Awards honor excellence in reporting violence and tragedy.
Guidebooks and DVDs on best practices in covering trauma.
Specialized training and seminars for journalists and newsrooms.
The 2012 tally of military suicides is a sobering 349, almost one per day, more than any year since the military began tracking it. The Dart Center has been working with mental health experts and journalists to improve coverage and understanding of this sensitive topic.
On May 1, 2013, the Dart Center celebrated the 2013 Dart Awards winners and honorable mentions and presented a roundtable discussion. The conversation explored the story-behind-the-story, and drilled down on what's involved in undertaking hard-hitting, humane investigations of trauma and pursuing high-impact collaborations. Dart Foundation Vice President James Lammers and Dart Foundation Program Manager Claudia Deschaine presented the awards.
On Tuesday, the Dart Center hosted a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dale Maharidge and Ridenhour Prize-winning journalist Nick Turse about their acclaimed new books which revise our understanding of two very different wars. In Bringing Mulligan Home, Columbia Journalism professor Dale Maharidge goes in search of the ghosts that haunted his WWII veteran father. In Kill Everything that Moves, journalist and historian Nick Turse uncovers secret Pentagon records and tracks down survivors and perpetrators, revealing the brutal consequences of America’s military policy in Vietnam.
In the high stakes business of trauma reporting, social media has become a powerful and controversial journalistic tool. We are also only just beginning to understand how to use it. A special report in advance of our symposium on Monday, April 22, in conjunction with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, at Columbia Journalism School: Sandy Hook and Beyond: Breaking News, Trauma and Aftermath.
Chaos descended on Boston Monday as the city's storied Boston Marathon was rocked by two bombs near the finish line. As the facts emerge, journalists can draw on lessons drawn from other large-scale terrorism and disasters.
Application guidelines for mid-career journalists who want to deepen their knowledge of emotional trauma and psychological injury, and improve reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy. All application materials must be submitted by October 11, 2013.
A 40-page guide to help journalists, photojournalists and editors report on violence while protecting both victims and themselves.
Recommendations for meeting the emotional challenges of covering war, from a group of seasoned veterans.
Application Deadline: Newsroom Leadership Academy
77th Annual Emergency Media and Public Affairs (EMPA) Conference
National Children's Alliance Leadership Conference
Human Rights Watch Film Festival: My Afghanistan - Life in the Forbidden Zone
National Children's Alliance Leadership Conference
Human Rights Watch Film Festival: My Afghanistan - Life in the Forbidden Zone
Dart Center at 2013 IRE conference
Human Rights Watch Film Festival: Camp 14 - Total Control Zone
77th Annual Emergency Media and Public Affairs (EMPA) Conference
Your contributions help the Dart Center nurture informed, innovative and ethical news reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy worldwide.
The Dart Center is a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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