Last Thursday, Dean Davis of Grady College at UGA hosted a panel of journalists to discuss covering trauma. Panelists included CNN’s Jan Winburn, Moni Basu and Tim Crockett, as well as Diana Keough.

Crockett is a hostile environments trainer, and has worked with CNN journalists who venture abroad to report on war and conflict. He’s worked with Basu, who recounted a story from one of her stints in Iraq, in which she fled the base shower camp, rather than staying low in the shower, when a warning siren went off. As she told the story, she looked over at Crockett and acknowledged that her decision to run was counter to his training. He laughed, saying that she made the right choice because she was okay.

Keough shared a story in which she accompanied a minor on an airplane as they headed for the same hospital in Atlanta. She was traveling to cover a story, and he was on his way to see his family, who awaited the outcome of injuries sustained by his sibling in the same accident Keough went to cover. Keough traversed the duties of a reporter and held a caretaker role for this boy, all the while knowing that she should repeatedly identify herself as a journalist for ethical reasons. Still, her act of shepherding the boy to the hospital gained her access to the family and the event, which the parents happily granted her, in gratitude of her role on protecting their son.

“Never forget that you’re a human being first, then a journalist,” Basu said. The panel agreed.

This applied not only to Keough’s story, but to the art of getting the story. Whether you’re writing obits, or interviewing a war veteran or a grieving parent, the key to connecting with their story is maintaining humanity. It makes the difference between stenography and journalism. The panel came to the concensus that the key to getting the story is to listen.

Winburn explained the magic that happens during a breakthrough. Trauma victims have “talking points” that they tell about their experience. The breakthrough happens when, after the talking points come to an end, the journalist continues asking questions and listening to what the person has to say about the experience. Without a reaction of surprise or pity, instead treating the person with dignity and respect, the person being interviewed begins to relax. “You can see it in their eyes,” Winburn said, when they begin to trust you and really open up.

I learned a lot from the panel about what it takes to be a journalist covering trauma. I know that to be able to tell a great story, I will have to learn to listen, keenly and unconditionally. And of course, be a human first.

The event was held in conjunction with the traveling photography exhibit, “The Iconic Image” from The Ochberg Society for Trauma Journalism. The photos document traumatic events in three acts, from the moment the tragedy breaks, through the aftermath of the event. From the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, to images of war, to the faces of grieving families.

The exhibit is composed of work by 21 photojournalists exploring major tragedy. The compilation is based on trauma psychiatrist Frank Ochberg’s “Three Acts of Trauma News.” It is curated by Kim Komenich and edited by Deirdre Stoelzle

- See more at: http://www.ochbergsociety.org/ochberg-society-photographers-present-the-iconic-image/#sthash.GIKEAsFx.dpuf