Trauma-informed reporting

Trauma-informed reporting recognises what the person being interviewed has experienced, how it could be affecting them currently, and how the process could burden them further. 

At its best, trauma-informed reporting acknowledges what happened and seeks to understand how the individual is moving forward. 

More broadly, how media interacts with sensitive sources and sensitive issues has the ability to impact people involved in the story, people reading the story, and the broader public narrative.

There is a growing understanding (and body of evidence) to support best-practice reporting. Best-practice seeks not only to minimise harm, but to help add context to societal discussions on sensitive (and historically controversial) issues like family violence and sexual violence, mental health and extremism.

In order to carry out best-practice reporting, journalists (and the wider media whānau) need resources, training and support to understand the impact of their work, and why that matters.

This is where we come in…