HELP OR HARM?

Abstract

This paper describes the impact of extensive journalistic coverage on a small community in Quebec that experienced the murder of a teenage girl by a local man. Press coverage of the case was intense, as journalists converged on the small rural town to cover the story and the subsequent arrest of the suspect and his parents. In presenting the voices of both local residents and a journalist, this paper illuminates the secondary trauma and symbolic violence that can result from some forms of news coverage of a traumatic event. Five key themes regarding the impact of the media on community residents arose from the data: alienation from the community, anger at the media's public construction of the community, intrusion on community life, intrusion on the private processes of grief, and triggering renewed feelings of loss and grief. Implications for journalists are discussed, including being aware of the dynamics of symbolic violence and secondary trauma and incorporating positionality, empathy, and reflective practice into their reporting praxis.

Keywords:

• communities
• media coverage
• reflective practice
• secondary trauma
• symbolic violence
• trauma

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was supported through a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Ottawa, Canada. Parts of this paper were presented at the 1st Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, London, Ontario, February 10, 2008.

Notes

1. The names of all participants are pseudonyms.