reads_eats_explores's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
The Trauma Beat is a compelling but hard-hitting read from former crime reporter Tamara Cherry. She examines the trauma caused by media coverage of crimes to victims, their families, and the journalists involved by seamlessly blending her experiences with research she has carried out since leaving the field of journalism.
While the book focuses on American cases, it’s also relevant to other countries. I'm sure we can all think of times journalists went too far to get the story or over-sensationalised something for the increased coverage, can't we?
The Trauma Beat isn’t explicitly true crime-centred either; it's a much more expansive look at what and whose trauma is deemed newsworthy and why that is.
Through her experience of talking to survivors, victims of crime, and their families, Cherry shows that for many people, dealing with the media meant re-traumatising themselves. And subsequently, this was traumatising for the front-line journalists.
But this doesn't mean that the news shouldn't be made available. It's still crucial that reportage happens, but trauma-informed reporting should be the norm, not the exception.
After all, the subjects of news stories are real people. They are only human and might be living their worst day as their name – or the name of a loved one – made the news.
This book should be essential reading for journalism students and, really, anyone who’s currently working as a journalist. 4⭐
Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press for the opportunity to read this book in return for an, as always, honest review.
stitching_ghost's review against another edition
5.0
This book makes a poignant case for more trauma informed reporting for the sake both sides of the reporting, the reported on (or not reported on in some cases) and the reporters, there's a little bit about the viewers' responsibility at the end but it's definitely not a book that aims to make the news watcher feel bad. That being said I think this book is a great starting point for conversations we will need to have regarding the consumption of trauma as causal entertainment, the topic is touched briefly in the book but the focus is largely on legacy medias and it does not touch the topic of hobbyist reporters such as true crime podcasters.
The author managed to treat the topic with a lot of compassion and understanding towards all sides involved and with keeping in mind that the goal is not to ascribe blame to specific people but to question the systems that can be changed not to eliminate harm, something which the author recognizes is impossible, but to reduce it as much as possible. She also shows great humility and vulnerability in talking about her own role in those systems and her own shortcomings in applying her principles of harm reduction, something which anyone who's ever tried to apply principles of harm reduction will need to confront at one point or another in their journey.
This book brings forward questions on multiple topics outside of reporting such as how we handle the trauma of first responders and who we consider as first responders, how we prioritize the trauma of certain individuals and ignore that of others, it really does a lot of the leg work in preparing the ground for a much larger conversation on the topic of trauma.
Long story short, this book is a quick read with very emotional moments, it treats an important topic with a refreshing and down to earth, well researched approach, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who creates of consume news content.
One last thing, I received a digital ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I do not think this fact affected my review, but I would be remiss not to disclose this.
The author managed to treat the topic with a lot of compassion and understanding towards all sides involved and with keeping in mind that the goal is not to ascribe blame to specific people but to question the systems that can be changed not to eliminate harm, something which the author recognizes is impossible, but to reduce it as much as possible. She also shows great humility and vulnerability in talking about her own role in those systems and her own shortcomings in applying her principles of harm reduction, something which anyone who's ever tried to apply principles of harm reduction will need to confront at one point or another in their journey.
This book brings forward questions on multiple topics outside of reporting such as how we handle the trauma of first responders and who we consider as first responders, how we prioritize the trauma of certain individuals and ignore that of others, it really does a lot of the leg work in preparing the ground for a much larger conversation on the topic of trauma.
Long story short, this book is a quick read with very emotional moments, it treats an important topic with a refreshing and down to earth, well researched approach, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who creates of consume news content.
One last thing, I received a digital ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I do not think this fact affected my review, but I would be remiss not to disclose this.
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