Very little of what goes on in the newsroom makes it any easier to bear up under stress. You're not supposed to acknowledge anyone else's discomfort, you're not supposed to offer help. An admission about emotional trouble to management is perceived as a sign of weakness. The tendency of TV news, radio stations and newspapers to report on interpersonal violence, bombings, fires and disasters has generated controversy and inquiry. The Rocky Mountain Media Watch , in a 1995 survey of TV newscasts in 58 U.S. cities, found that crime stories dominate the content on local stations, with one in Louisville devoting nearly 85 percent of its news to crime stories.
Violence is the currency of competition.
Given the media's emphasis of covering violence, Simpson and fellow researchers have begun to look at what can be done to improve this coverage and the ways trauma affects the journalists who report it. Simpson's interest in journalism and trauma was triggered in the late 1980s when he invited a counselor from Seattle Rape Relief to talk with students in his ethics in journalism class. Most victims can talk and will talk, but reporters had never been alerted to the subtleties of victims' responses.