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A review by stitching_ghost
The Trauma Beat: A Case for Re-thinking the Business of Bad News by Tamara Cherry
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 or consumes news content.
One last thing, I received a digital ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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 or consumes news content.
One last thing, I received a digital ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.