Seven Stories for a Tragic Anniversary

On the morning of July 7th, 2005, explosions in three trains and one bus in London wounded hundreds and killed 52, including the terrorists responsible. In Seven Stories 7/7: Three Years On, Emily Dugan at the Independent lets seven survivors share stories and reflections on both the tragic day and the three intervening years. The diverse first-person accounts — which include witnesses, injured, and even a grieving uncle of one of the bombers — are tied together by pathos and loss, but also by steps forward; into stages of grief, counseling and artistic expression, in a fine example of reporting on a tragic anniversary.

First-Person Narrative Goes "Beyond Rape"

The latest Narrative Digest from the Nieman Foundation of Journalism at Harvard University highlights one of the most remarkable narratives of any month. “Beyond Rape: A Survivor’s Journey” was published in a 16-page special section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer in May. In its 20,000 word first-person narrative, Joanna Connors does what her headline claims: going far beyond her experience in a darkened theater, 23 years ago, to confront the uncomfortable, human complexity of not only her own journey, but her rapist’s.

As Connors told the Narrative Digest in an interview:

“That I was a victim was random, of course, a matter of bad luck and bad timing. That he was a criminal and a rapist was not random; he was the product of a cycle of violence. The piece turned into a story of what parents pass on to our children, and about the immense privilege of birth that we on this side of the boundary take for granted.”

Or, as she writes in part 1, after a taut narrative of the moments leading up to her assault:

“[This story] is about rape. It is about race and class. And it is about our community -- our line-in-the-sand combativeness over these issues, and our stubborn and fearful reluctance to talk about them.

I needed to tell my story, and I think our community needs to see, and talk about, the huge barriers between the haves and the have-nots.”

The Narrative Digest’s interview with Connors provides more insight into the “how” and “why,” and a column in Editor and Publisher details the outpouring of readers' reactions.

Documenting Violence in Photographs

How can a photographer convey suffering and injustice, yet avoid subjecting those photographed to further harm or stigma? Donna DeCesare answers this question in a photo essay, "Documenting Violence," in the latest issue of ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America, now available online. DeCesare, a member of the Dart Center's executive committee, describes her novel approach in the introduction to her images:

"Knowing that I couldn’t control local exposure of my images, I needed to find a way of working that would protect my subject’s identities, allay their fears, and empower them to speak truthfully about their lives. Those who feel imprisoned by stigma need to have a context in which they can exercise control. When a child asked if he could pick a different name to accompany his photographs and story, it occurred to me that he was really asking to share control. This inspired me to look for ways to make the image-making process collaborative."

The text (but not the images) can be navigated online; to view the full issue, including DeCesare's photographs, download the PDF.

China's Earthquake Coverage

More than a week after the earthquake in southwestern China, the death toll has climbed to over 40,000. The most moving and comprehensive English-language overview of how the first week was covered within China, on TV and on the Internet, comes from Deborah Fallows of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In Part 1 , she witnesses the opening up of Chinese media; what the Associated Press called "unusually aggressive" coverage from state media and a "less censored, an almost free flow of discussion," according to Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project. In Part 2, Fallows describes TV regressing to "functioning in lockstep," with carefully choreographed ceremonies. Outside the media, she finds a different kind of unity:

At 2:28 pm, I went outside our apartment building, alongside a big street and one of the major intersections of Beijing. Hundreds and hundreds of people left their offices, restaurants, and apartments to stand together to show respect with three minutes of silence. Cars stopped, and people got out to stand beside them or to look out over the bridges they were crossing. Jackhammers cased pounding; cranes stopped moving. People were checking mobile phones for the time. Then, on cue, horns from every single car began to sound. It was not honking, but one long, continuous wail. This apparently happened all across China. Then after three minutes, cars started up again, and jackhammers and bus horns, too. Young women wiped their eyes with the backs of their hands. I thought that for a few moments, the country had achieved its goal to be a "harmonious society," just as the Party has been trying to build—but at what a terrible cost.

Overcoming Trauma

In a column for the Online Quill, 2005 Ochberg Fellow Melissa Manware recalls some of the hundreds of violent deaths and rapes from her decade covering cops for the Charlotte Observer. Crime stories like these are hard, but her career has shown they are also where a reporter can have her greatest impact; if she can remain both hopeful and emotionally touched. As she recounts:

A few years ago, I wrote about Kristen Smith, a teenager who told her family that she had been molested by a relative when she was 9. Days later, I got a call from a woman in her 40s. She wanted me to know that reading Kristen’s story gave her the courage to finally talk about what happened to her. She was molested as a child and until that day had never told anyone.

That’s what made the work worth the heartache. And that’s what a reporter, especially a crime reporter, has to remember to stay positive when so many of the stories are negative.

In-Depth Series: Veterans with PTSD

Last week, Alysa Landry at the Daily Times in Farmington, New Mexico penned a moving three-part series on veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Part one, Combat that Never Ends, tells the stories of Vietnam veterans who have wrestled with PTSD for decades, but only recently been diagnosed or treated. In part two, The Front Lines Shift... Military Veterans Face Varying Battles, veterans from Iraq repeat the pattern. In fact, Robert Udero of the Farmington Veteran Center says the proportion of veterans suffering from PTSD may be nearly three times higher for Iraq than for Vietnam. Part three, The Search for Combat Trauma Solutions, turns from veterans' suffering to their treatment and recovery. It ends by returning to John Collard, who we met in part one with a gun in his mouth, fighting back two-decade-old memories of the year he spent "covered in blood" as a medic in Vietnam. He was diagnosed with PTSD and began treatment five years ago.

"At 60 years old, I'm about to get my life together," he said. "It's been since 1969 that I've been dealing with this, and to this day, I look back and it's still hard to make sense of it. But I'm 60 years old and I have a future."

Military Psychiatric Screening Lags

In the Hartford Courant, Matthew Kauffman and Lisa Chedekel report that, despite the Pentagon’s promises to the contrary, the military continues to refer a far smaller proportion of troops to mental-health professionals than actually have mental-health problems. Less than 1 percent of deploying troops are currently referred, even though several military studies show that nearly 10 percent have mental-health problems.

The Courant won awards for its 2006 coverage of mentally unfit soldiers. Later that year, the Pentagon claimed it would improve this screening process, but an infographic accompanying this week's story reveals that the subsequent increase in referrals was only temporary.

Kauffman and Chedekel's story comes on the heels of the first hearing of a class-action lawsuit against the VA filed by two veterans’ groups, demanding improved screening and treatment of potentially suicidal veterans. As of the end of 2005, 144 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed suicide, the AP's Bradley Brooks reports. During the hearing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder expert Dr. Arthur Blank testified that up to 30% of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan suffered from PTSD, a statistic which headlined John Koopman's coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle.