A Study On Psychological Trauma And Stress Of Reporters

Emergent disasters have occurred frequently in Asia in recent years, such as the Wenchuan Earthquake in2008,2011Tokyo Earthquake, and the2011Shanghai Jiaozhou Road Fire, etc. Within the first hours, once the channels for information dissemination are unavailable, communication with the disaster areas would not be reached. In this case, media workers, especially journalists, will rush to the scenes to give first-time news reports. As a special group with professional responsibilities, they send reports full of passion, appeal the whole society to offer their compassion and powers, overcome hardships with the people in the stricken areas, and sometimes even try to save the people struggle on the verge of death with rescuers. In the areas after earthquakes, fires or mining collapses, they stay in the environments that they have to forget fatigues and their own safety. As a result, as the journalists are close to disaster cases and spots, tough environment and working pressures shall burden them with stress and suffering in both physical and psychological forms. More alarming, psychological illness hit some of them. The public focus their attention on the people and the rescuers in stricken areas while the media workers in disaster sites are always neglected. They make contribution to overcoming difficulties after disasters together with other rescuers, and the status of their health and pressure should be paid more attention by the whole society.This research intends to learn the experience of media workers of China in spots of emergent disasters, difficulties they have encountered, pressure and psychic trauma after their work in these tough cases through investigations, and will try to seek manners for pressure release and psychotherapy through analysis and comparison.During the empirical investigation, qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaires were the first step conducted to media workers who had ever participated first-scene reports of emergent disasters, through which examples were collected, i.e. difficulties, working pressures and psychological trauma they suffered in the special situation. As a result, their experience including the following specific factors could be understood. Secondly, types of difficulties and degrees of their traumas and pressures brought by experience in areas stricken by disasters were understood through analysis of the data acquired, psychological stress test and evaluation system and test result. Finally, similar researches and solutions of other countries were introduced to make a comparative study, which served to propose means to remit mental pressures of media workers after experience in disaster-stricken sites.