This project, launched in October 2006 is due for completion in September 2007 with publication of a report and a national conference. 

Difficult emotional material lies at the heart of much contemporary journalism. Crime, warfare, disaster, terrorism, mental illness, abuse and addiction, for example, all arouse strong feelings in readers, viewers and listeners, and can place heavy emotional demands upon the journalists who report them. The effective reporting of traumatic situations requires all the standard, core skills that all good journalism training seeks to instil: evaluating sources, reporting with accuracy and writring clearly. Considerable attention has been given to how these skills might best be taught; until now though, very little research has been done on how journalists are, or should be, trained to cope with the emotional challenges of dealing with extreme human distress.

Covering traumatic incidents is not, as is often supposed, simply a matter of common sense. For example, few of us know instinctively how to recognise the onset of post-traumatic stress (particularly when it involves ourselves), nor necessarily how to interview victims and survivors in ways that avoid causing further unnecessary distress. This raises the question whether some form of more explicit and psychologically-informed training might benefit journalists. (Unlike those in the media - medical staff, the police and the military now routinely receive such trauma-awareness training.)

In addressing these questions, Emotions and Journalism will take into account recent shifts in attitudes towards the expression of emotion. Taboos against public displays of feeling are not as strong as they once were, and journalists are now under greater pressure to put more of themselves and their own emotional reactions into their stories. Some see this as a threat to impartiality; others, as a chance to create more a empathetic and engaging form of reportage. Clearly these are questions with far-reaching implications for how journalists will be trained in the future.

Emotions and Journalism is funded by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and is conducted in association with the Dart Foundation for Journalism and Trauma. For more information, visit our website www.emotionandjournalism.org