Trauma awareness and barriers: how journalism educators respond to teaching work-related trauma in journalism practice

Recent studies in psychology and journalism consistently show that preparing future journalists to be resilient is crucial. Resilience enables journalists and media organizations to withstand challenges in their daily practice. However, despite the recent increase in embedding resilience and trauma literacy in journalism curricula, many barriers remain. This study, guided by the framework of ethics of care, uses a global survey and in-depth interviews to investigate how journalism educators approach trauma-informed education across diverse socio-cultural contexts amidst increasing conflict. The findings reveal that training of journalism educators is the most significant factor that shapes their work and the pedagogy they adopt. This supports our argument that journalism educators would benefit from more context sensitive trauma training, care focused pedagogy, and accessible resources. This would help educators to fulfil their duty of care and support future journalists in their roles.