Commentators: Rui Araújo (Jornalist) and José Manuel Mendes (CES)


Resumo

Trauma is news. For a society to function people need to know about the worst things that can befall individuals and their communities. But no area of news coverage arouses greater ambivalence. We may find ourselves gripped by the news, while simultaneously wishing that we had never seen it.  What does it take for journalists to navigate this minefield? Portraying the lives of people who have been  adversely exposed to traumatic events, such as sexual violence, street crime, armed conflict or other forms of human tragedy, requires research, knowledge and sensitivity -  and in some cases genuine personal courage.
Gavin Rees, the Director of Dart Centre Europe, will talk about why trauma awareness for journalists matters and, in particular, will look at the hidden aspects of trauma interviewing that rarely get talked about.

Bio

Gavin Rees, a journalist and filmmaker, is the director of Dart Centre Europe. Based in London, he co-ordinates the Dart Centre’s activities across Europe.  Over the last 13 years he has worked in a variety of broadcast media, producing business  and political news for Financial Times Television and CNBC and international news for Japanese networks. He has also worked on drama and documentary films for the BBC, Channel 4, as well as for other broadcasters and a number of independent film companies.

Gavin’s interest in how people relate traumatic narratives developed as a result of interviewing survivors of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima for a BBC documentary drama, which won an International Emmy in 2006. Afterwards Gavin took up a post as a research fellow at the Centre for Public Communication in the Media School at Bournemouth University, where he investigated how journalists interview people at the centre of stories which arouse strong emotions. Gavin has also done academic research into the political impact of violence on communities, and holds masters degrees in social anthropology, as well as in contemporary history and politics. Between 1997 and 1999 he was a Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Scholar. His writing has appeared in the British Journalism Review, the New Statesman, the Guardian and a number of specialist magazines on topics related to film, psychology and the media.

Activity within Centro de Trauma an the investigation project TRAUMA - Vítimas, trauma e processos institucionais: para além de uma ética da vítima.
 

Sponsors: