Bringing Trauma Training into Journalism Schools

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NORMAN, Okla. – Desiree Hill was an executive producer at News 9 when the Oklahoma City bombing put local journalists in the middle of a story they would carry with them long after the coverage ended. Years later, she returned to the bombing as a researcher, interviewing journalists about its effects on their lives and work.

Now Hill, assistant dean for student affairs at the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, is co-leading an international group working to prepare journalists for that kind of exposure before they enter a newsroom.

Hill became co-leader of the Journalism Education Trauma Research Group in June. She shares the role with Lada Price of the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Founded around 2020, the group has more than 250 members worldwide, including journalism educators, researchers and working journalists.

A traumatic assignment need not be a catastrophe on the scale of the bombing, Hill said. A reporter might be sent to a fatal crash or to a hospital where a story brings back a personal loss. What affects one journalist may affect another differently.

Hill wants journalism students to learn what those experiences can feel like, how to respond to them and how colleagues and managers can help. This spring, she taught a Gaylord College course on leadership in trauma-informed journalism and mass communication to about 25 students.

“There is a lot to be said for knowing something ahead of time, rather than just being thrown into it and having it start happening to you,” Hill said.

Hill previously led the organization’s North American research hub and organized its 2024 international conference at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. She has also discussed journalism and trauma with Oklahoma journalists through a News 9 (KWTV-TV) workshop and other events.

As co-leaders, Hill and Price hope to develop ethical guidance that journalism educators can use when teaching about trauma. Hill said the group also wants to strengthen its ties with newsrooms and find funding for its research and free conferences.

The work extends beyond war reporting. Hill is a guest editor of an upcoming special issue of the journal Journalism examining trauma and resilience among journalists covering conflict, including political violence, school shootings and acts of terrorism. She also presented research on peer support in newsrooms at the organization’s conference in Paris this summer.

Hill said the group’s goal is to give educators practical ways to prepare students for assignments that may affect them personally, while helping working journalists support one another. That preparation starts with recognizing what an assignment asks of the person behind the byline.

“That storyteller is not just telling the story, but they are experiencing something,” she said.

OU’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication prepares students for careers in journalism, advertising, public relations and other media fields. For more information, visit ou.edu/Gaylord or phone 405-325-2721.