Exploring the Attitudes of Journalism Educators to Teach Trauma-Informed Literacy: An Analysis of a Global Survey

Abstract

Literature notes that most journalists will witness trauma and human suffering during the course of their careers, yet journalism education is lagging behind in preparing students to cope with the effects of exposure to traumatic events. This paper examines the attitudes of journalism educators/trainers toward trauma literacy through a questionnaire survey of 119 journalism educators globally. The findings show that a high percentage of educators have a good understanding of the risks that arise from exposure to critical and potentially traumatizing events but there are some barriers to teaching trauma including lack of knowledge/confidence, resources, time, and teaching materials.

Awareness of Trauma-Focused Education and Attitudes Toward Incorporating Trauma-Focused Education in Curricula Among MENA Journalism Educators

“…Journalism educators from all three countries identified accreditation as a barrier to incorporating trauma education into journalism curricula. Previous research (Melki et al, 2013;Ogunyemi & Price, 2023;Specht & Tsilman, 2018) supports this finding. When we cross-tabulated these responses by country, we discovered that accreditation was rated as a barrier to the inclusion of trauma in journalism curricula by 46.7% of Algerian journalism educators, 40% of Palestinian journalism educators, and 37.9% of Sudanese journalism educators.…”

Who Teaches About Hostility? Examining Factors for Inclusion in Journalism Curriculum

“…Although research on how hostility is addressed within journalism higher education is nascent, there has been a recent push in journalism scholarship to understand how trauma literacy, a related topic, is taught in the classroom, with the goal of fostering more resilience among journalism students (see Ogunyemi & Trifonova Price, 2023b). In a global survey of 119 journalism instructors, Ogunyemi and Trifonova Price (2023a) found although instructors recognized the importance of trauma training—conceptualized as training to help journalists cope with trauma related to “sources of risk to journalists including developments in the political economy of the news; a weak or uneven rule of law; culturally motivated violence; and acute hazards” (p. 215)—those same instructors often failed to bring such content into the classroom because they lacked the proper knowledge and confidence to do so, as well as practical resources such as time and adequate teaching materials to support such content. Recognizing the overlap between trauma literacy and teaching about hostility and abuse in the journalism profession, we turn to the concept of teacher efficacy to better understand possible barriers to the inclusion of such content in the classroom.…”

Cosmopolitan Society and its Enemies

“…If a new structure designed to cultivate a sense of healing is constructive, then civil consciousness can flourish, advancing societies towards a constitution that is truly cosmopolitan. In resilience narratives created by social performance, powerful symbols must be projected and materialized in community and society, such as 'trauma-informed journalism' (Ogunyemi & Price 2023), 'developing urban resilience' (Bugno-Janik & Janik 2020), 'reconciliation pedagogy' (Bekermann & Zembylas 2012), and 'art as a political witness' (Lindroos & Möller 2017). Engaging in civil discourse through the lens of a resilience narrative builds the cultural foundations for peace.…”