Covering Haiti with ‘Dart Heart’

The work of six Dart Society fellows who covered the earthquake in Haiti last January has been compiled in a video presentation that was shown at the 2010 conference of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies. The 11-minute video, edited by Patricia McInroy, features the voices of these journalists describing the emotional impact of covering the catastrophe, and are descriptions that in most cases were given to Dart Society colleagues soon after the fellows’ arrivals in Haiti.

In all the voices there is a grasp of the journalists’ awareness of his or her professional and human concern for the victims and the country, but it is the expertise of their coverage of tragedy that enables viewers and other journalists to connect as a caring community. The video documents how these journalists managed the story psychologically, and is a teaching tool for those who have yet to bridge the personal-professional divide, that of journalist as human being.

The ISTSS media presentation, “My Heart is Breaking in Haiti: Journalists Explain Why,” was created earlier this year by Frank Ochberg, MD, one of the founders of ISTSS and the chairman emeritus of the Dart Center. For 11 years, journalists have attended ISTSS to learn about trauma science, to improve their craft, and to hone their sensitivities to the demands of covering catastrophic events.

In the abstract, Ochberg wrote, “When there is the drama of shocking news, stories almost write themselves, and photojournalists have ample illustrations. When heroic rescue and resilient survivors are the subject of stories, the journalist and the news consumer can celebrate. But too many traumas have nothing but heartbreak, and these are the challenges we face collectively — those who suffer and we who study the depth of pain and loss.”

During the panel discussion, Moni Basu of CNN, Phil Williams of the Australian Broadcasting Corp., and John Moore of Getty Images each described the psychological and intellectual implications of covering Haiti, and how reporting on previous horrors — the murders of children in Beslan, for example — has provided a journalistic dialectic that enables them to keep doing their jobs.

For Williams, the Haitian earthquake was an Act III story (see Frank Ochberg’s Three Acts of Trauma News here). Haiti had already endured so many years of strife, of hurricanes, political unrest, starvation, AIDS.  The earthquake that killed 200,000 people was but another horror that Haitians would have to get through.

“At one level, it’s daily news, but it is unremittingly horrific, and there is not a ‘happy ending,’” Williams said. “You can’t improve their lives; there’s no way to bring back their fathers and mothers — they’ve already suffered so many indignities. You hope that in some small way what you do can help — especially help prompt people to donate money.”

When Williams arrived within days of the earthquake, there was no food, no water, no government to address the wailing, the pleas to the Christian and Vodou gods, no police to stop the beating of the naked man he saw dying in the street or management of the mass of dead bodies. He said his senses were deluged with one dominant emotion, fear, and all he could do was report and get out, hoping the images transmitted to the world would do some good, would prompt people to help Haiti.

Moore arrived a month after the earthquake to relieve Getty colleagues. He said the Haitian journalists, fixers, and translators he met outside the Plaza hotel were dealing with incredible strife; many had lost family members. They needed to keep working. He was mindful of his role, of what he was bringing to the situation.

He had covered earthquakes in India, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes that he said brought down mountains and wiped towns off the map. He photographed Benazir Bhutto as she was assassinated in a blast that killed dozens at the scene. Moore thinks about what sorts of things break journalists down when covering trauma and tragedy. For him, he said, it’s a personal loss associated with a story.

His heart didn’t break this trip, he said, perhaps because he saw resilience and strength in the Haitian people who did not seem to have lost their humanity.

Basu’s heart broke. And for her, there was a personal loss associated with the earthquake story — the traumatic experience of Falon Maxi, a 22-year-old business student from Port-au-Prince who was trapped under rubble for seven days. After the rescue Basu, with great trepidation, reached out to Maxi’s sister, who encouraged her to speak to Maxi. The young woman’s recovery has been difficult, Basu said. She doesn’t want to sleep inside a building that could come crashing down, and left her tarpaulin only last week to take cover from hurricane Tomas.

Maxi’s rescue was one of 138 miracle rescues, Basu said, but it is the one that has compelled Basu to keep attention on Haiti even as the 24-hour news cycle presses her to move on.

“I don’t know why it affected me so much,” she said. “Falon Maxi’s rescue was my personal Act I, and I went back to Haiti — I saw her in Act II, and in two weeks I’m going back again.”

The video, produced by the Dart Society, also includes the voices and images of fellows Lisa Millar of the Australian Broadcasting Corp.; Ron Haviv of VII, and freelance journalist Huascar Robles.

For a copy of the video, contact Deirdre Stoelzle Graves at dstoelzle@yahoo.com.