Attend in person all day or for specific sessions, live Web stream available for main presentations

The 2015 Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop on
Sept. 17 will focus on "Enduring Trauma."

Covering trauma – a tragic accident, a horrendous attack, a sickening court case, a catastrophic weather event – exposes journalists and victims to complicated questions about ethics, privacy and responsibility. This year’s Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop will delve into significant topics including re-victimization, extreme crisis communication, campus sexual assault and the impacts of social media on trauma incidents and victims.

The workshop will be held on Thursday, Sept. 17, in the FirstEnergy Auditorium, Room 340, Franklin Hall. All students can attend for free, but registration is required. Professionals and educators can register online for a nominal fee; walk-ins are welcome.

What is Trauma?

The word trauma is highly charged and conveys many different meanings. To discover how industry experts, ethicists, journalists and educators explain this term, follow the “Defining Trauma” social media series.

Keynote Speaker and Workshop Sessions

Frank Ochberg, M.D., is this year’s keynote speaker. Ochberg is the nation’s leading expert in journalism and trauma. He helped define “Stockholm Syndrome” (the behavior of captives who bond with their captors), and he is a frequent analyst and expert in court cases, including at the sentencing hearing for the Cleveland man who kidnapped and tortured three young women for 10 years. He is a founding board member of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and recipient of their highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award. He served on the committee that defined post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and edited the first text on its treatment. His session will focus on “Coping with Cruelty.”

Another workshop highlight will be “Telling Johanna’s Story,” featuring Rachel Dissell of The Plain Dealer and Johanna Orozco, the young woman who at 17 was shot in the face by an ex-boyfriend. Orozco could have been a statistic: just another teen victim of extreme violence. Dissell could have done a quick news feature about Orozco and moved on to more exciting stories. Neither took an easy route. Read the original Plain Dealer series “Johanna: Facing Forward.”

Additional workshop speakers include journalists and media professionals who deal with trauma, media ethicists from The Poynter Institute and educators. Just a few of the other topics include:

• No Means No: Campus Sexual Assault
• Recognizing the Trauma of Covering Trauma: Journalists, PTSD and Self-Care
• How the Media Trample Trauma Survivors' Privacy
• Extreme Crisis Communications: Best Practices
• Amplifying the Trauma: Social Media, Online Journalism, Violence and Victims
  

Event Details

What: 11th annual Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop, “Enduring Trauma?”

When: 8:30 a.m. (registration and continental breakfast) to 5 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 17

A live stream of several sessions can be viewed on event day. Archives of all sessions also will be available online.

Where: FirstEnergy Auditorium, Room 340, Franklin Hall, on the Kent Campus. Parking is available in the R-1 Lincoln and R-1 Rockwell parking lots. Campus map: www.kent.edu/maps.

Cost: $25 for media and other professionals, $20 for educators and free for students

About the Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop

The Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop is a one-day training program for professionals, educators and students that examines critical issues and perspectives in media ethics. Moderated by distinguished ethics faculty from The Poynter Institute, the Media Ethics Workshop provides a unique forum for professionals and students alike to confront and discuss significant issues crucial to understanding media ethics and its effect on our world. School of Journalism and Mass Communication Associate Professor Jan Leach is the chairperson of the workshop planning committee. Previous workshops have addressed online ethics, sports media ethics, political media ethics, entertainment media ethics and the ethics of data mining. Established in 2004, the Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop continues its mission to strengthen media credibility and bolster citizens’ faith in media integrity.

Contact Jennifer Kramer, APR, in the College of Communication and Information, with questions at 330-672-1960 or jlkramer@kent.edu.