At the outset, moderator Kawahara explained:\u00a0“How to listen to and convey the stories of people who have suffered deep psychological wounds\u2014be it from disasters, wars, or abuse\u2014is a crucial issue. Recognizing trauma leads to a deeper understanding of humanity.”<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0She stated that the event aimed to share insights from the Korean journalism community, which has worked to formalize an approach to trauma-sensitive reporting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ◾️Lee\u2019s Personal Interest: Sparked by Coverage of Child Sexual Abuse Cases<\/p>\n Chong-ae Lee joined SBS(Seoul Broadcasting System),\u00a0one of the three major terrestrial broadcasting networks in Korea, which is the\u00a0private broadcasting company, as a journalist in 1995. She currently serves as\u00a0News Headquarters Future and Vision Desk Deputy Executive Director,\u00a0which handles mid- to long-term issues.<\/p>\n In her fourth year as a journalist, she was assigned to the news magazine program\u00a0News Pursuit<\/em>, a newly launched investigative reporting program, where she worked for about five years. This experience marked a turning point for her.<\/p>\n “I thought News Pursuit was an ideal form of journalism and was thrilled to join the team. However, the reality of the job involved undercover reporting at drug parties in the U.S. and chasing after the\u00a0<\/em>bod<\/em>y<\/em>\u00a0of infants\u00a0that had been\u00a0abandoned in the Han\u00a0River\u00a0<\/em>in Korea\u2014tasks that carried significant risks. At the time, there was no awareness of the dangers journalists faced, and no training existed for handling hazardous reporting or exposure to death. I began to feel that education on these aspects was necessary.”<\/em><\/p>\n A particularly impactful experience came when she reported on an eight-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted. The child appeared to be in a highly vulnerable state and in urgent need of help. Lee wondered what meaning her job had if she could not assist such individuals. She sought out a hospital with a child psychiatry department, but due to strong societal stigma against psychiatric care at the time, the family quickly discharged the girl.<\/p>\n “If I couldn’t help her, wasn’t I merely exploiting her?”<\/em>\u00a0Lee was consumed by guilt. She repeatedly asked herself:\u00a0“Have I ever truly tried to understand\u00a0<\/em>what\u00a0the people\u00a0go through and what state they are in when as a journalist approaches them<\/em>?”<\/em>\u00a0Eventually, after transferring to a different department, she began attending night school for graduate studies. She sought out psychologists and organizations supporting survivors of sexual violence to learn about the dangers of certain types of questioning and the best ways to conduct interviews that would actually benefit survivors.<\/p>\n She then re-interviewed ten individuals\u2014people she had previously reported on for\u00a0News Pursuit<\/em>\u00a0as well as families who had spoken to other news outlets. Through this, she discovered that while recounting traumatic experiences in interviews could cause suffering and even physical illness, some individuals found that public exposure of their stories helped them gain social support, positively altering their perceptions of the world around them.<\/p>\n In 2011, in her 16th year as a journalist, Lee discovered that the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma was accepting applications for a week-long Asia fellowship and decided to apply. When she shared her painful experiences with journalists from other countries, she realized that many had gone through similar struggles and that these were not just personal issues. She also learned that trauma responses are caused by hormonal changes in the brain and are not simply a matter of personal resilience.<\/p>\n Journalists, too, can suffer trauma, but in Korea at the time, such reactions were dismissed as a sign of weakness. Through her studies, Lee came to understand that these were normal responses to exposure to extreme events.<\/p>\n In 2013\u20132014, she continued her studies as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, focusing on journalism and trauma. While this was originally a personal academic pursuit, she was soon invited by the Korea Broadcasting Journalists Association to give lectures on the topic. Around this time, the sinking of MV Sewol occurred.<\/p>\n ◾️Korean Society\u2019s Focus on “Trauma” Following the 2014 Sewol Ferry Disaster<\/p>\n In 2014, the sinking of the Sewol ferry claimed the lives of many high school students, bringing the concepts of “trauma” and “PTSD” into the national discourse in Korea.<\/p>\n This was also the first major incident in Korea where not only traditional media outlets but also online and independent media fiercely competed to cover the event. The cutthroat competition led to ethical breaches in reporting. In the early stages of the disaster,\u00a0most major\u00a0news outlets reported that all passengers had been rescued\u2014an erroneous claim that, despite being based on official information at the time, fueled public distrust. Korean journalists were ridiculed under the derogatory term\u00a0“giregi”<\/em>\u00a0(a combination of “journalist” and “garbage”).<\/p>\n At the request of the Dart Center, Lee wrote an article reflecting on these challenges, based on interviews with ten SBS journalists who covered the Sewol ferry disaster. The discussion included insights on recognizing trauma responses in survivors and bereaved families. *Update (March 2026): It is now available on the website below: At that time, experiments began to emerge in exploring different ways of covering disasters, regardless of domestic or international media.\u00a0CNN\u00a0chose to air only the voices of grieving parents without showing their faces, while SBS reported on survivors returning to school using illustrations instead of real footage. There was some debate over whether illustrations were appropriate, but it became clear that sorrow could be conveyed without using direct imagery.<\/p>\n Following this, the Korea Broadcasting Journalists Association organized a discussion session where the Sewol ferry\u00a0victims\u2019 families\u00a0and journalists engaged in an open conversation. Families shared their experiences and offered advice:\u00a0\u201cPlease don\u2019t ask, \u2018How do you feel?\u2019 when words cannot possibly express our emotions.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u201cSome journalists offered incense at the memorial altar, and that made me feel they genuinely shared in our grief.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u201cSomeone asked me questions without revealing they were a journalist, and when I later found out, I felt betrayed. Please be upfront from the beginning.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Journalists must consider new ways of asking questions\u2014ones that do not deepen a sense of helplessness in interviewees but instead contribute to their recovery.<\/p>\n Various efforts were made to rethink and improve reporting approaches.<\/p>\n In 2015, with Lee\u2019s help, the Korea Broadcasting Journalists association invited Dr. Cait McMahon, a psychologist who served as the director of the Dart Centre Asia Pacific (Melbourne) at the time to help the victims\u2019 families and also conduct a workshop for journalists. In 2017, the first Korean educational video for journalists related to trauma was produced, and since 2019, every four years, Korean broadcast journalists have been sent to the Dart Centre Asia Pacific for training.<\/p>\n ◾️Survey: 80% of Journalists Have Experienced Work-Related Trauma (2021)<\/p>\n Following the Sewol disaster,\u00a0the Korea Broadcasting journalists Association and Korea press foundation\u00a0began providing\u00a0trauma\u00a0training for new journalists and those\u00a0usually\u00a0covering\u00a0disasters.<\/p>\n However, since there was little baseline data on the effectiveness of such education, when Google News Initiative and Dart Centre Asia Pacific suggested a survey of Korean Women Journalist related to online abuse and trauma, the Journalists Association of Korea, the Korean Women Journalists Association persuaded them to conduct a first nationwide survey including both male and female journalists, and both related to online and offline, with title of “Journalists and Trauma” in 2021.
\nhttps:\/\/dartcenter.org\/content\/chong-ae-lee-on-koreas-national-tragedy<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/gcjt.org\/content\/chong-ae-lee-on-koreas-national-tragedy<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/dartcenter.org\/resources\/eight-out-ten-korean-journalists-report-work-related-trauma<\/a><\/p>\n
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