The issue of trauma in journalism has never been more urgent, but it is finally getting some well-deserved attention. As conflicts intensify and the risks to reporters grow, newsrooms and training institutions are increasingly recognizing the need for trauma-aware reporting and training — not only to better center victims and survivors with compassion in conflict zones, but also to prepare and protect journalists themselves.
This has been the deadliest year for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists began tracking fatalities, with at least 126 journalists and media workers killed as the year comes to an end, according to data from CPJ. Last year, the group counted 124 deaths, making that the previous deadliest year on record since they started gathering data. In response, more reporters are seeking and receiving preparation in covering war and human suffering with care, as well as access to trauma support when the work takes its toll.
That goes for demonstrations in this country as well, where journalists have regularly been put at risk covering immigration raids and accompanying protests. They often get targeted by authorities or caught up in violence unintentionally. Organizations like the Journalist Trauma Support Network are part of a growing effort to ensure journalists are not left to carry these burdens alone at home or abroad.
The JTSN is a program of the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma, a nonprofit organization with funding from Humanity United, the MacArthur Foundation and Press Forward. The organization mission is “dedicated to informed, innovative and ethical news reporting on violence, crisis and tragedy, and to the psychological resilience of journalists worldwide.” Its focus is on both helping journalists report more humanely and compassionately on victims and survivors suffering through war, conflict and upheavel, but also helping train those trauma-facing journalists to cope better with those difficult situations. Decades ago, virtually no one did this for my generation of war and conflict correspondents, though we could have used it.
Against this backdrop, I was interviewed recently by a French student reporter about my days as a war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune for the following piece — a conversation that begins with a look at the more basic question of survival. The first rule of war correspondents is to work intentionally and carefully with the help of colleagues and locals to survive, so you can tell the story. I suppose to this day, trauma lingers for many of us.
Sometimes, I still do a reflexive, deep knee bend, almost unconsciously, when I hear a surprise explosion, or fireworks unexpectedly in the lead up to July 4. We always tried to report with extra empathy and compassion in areas of conflict out of respect for our subjects, who were suffering through it, but we had no formal training in trauma. I wish we had.
I was contacted this fall by a professor at the City University of New York, who had a French student, Violette Bardouil, interested in interviewing war correspondents. As a teacher, I always try to help students, so I agreed. Violette did a very professional job with the interview and the writing, and she published the piece in October. I am republishing it in full here. It opens onto a larger discussion about reporting, responsibility and resilience in an increasingly perilous profession.
The following story first appeared in L'Œil d'Assas (The Eye of Assas), the well-known student group and newspaper associated with the prestigious Paris-Panthéon-Assas University, often called “Assas” or “Paris 2.” It focuses on journalists covering war and trauma. If you or someone you know is looking for support, please visit jtsn.org.
–Storer Rowley
Bearing Witness: Storer Rowley on the Challenges of Foreign Correspondence
By Violette Bardouil, 31 October 2025
Storer Rowley, former foreign correspondent and professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, has spent decades reporting from some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones. From Central America to the besieged streets of Sarajevo and the volatile Middle East, he has witnessed history unfold under fire.
©Storer Rowley on Marshall Tito Street in war-torn Sarajevo covering the bloody, brutal war in Bosnia as the former Yugoslavia disintegrated, 1992.
Covering wars, he explains, has always depended as much on the experience of others as on courage itself. “The main way you cover a war is to go and talk to the reporters who have been there before you,” he said. In the past, few journalists received formal safety training. Real preparation came through camaraderie, swapping tips with returning correspondents, learning which areas were safe and understanding how to move through danger. Those lessons often meant the difference between life and death.
Telling Stories That Matter
For Rowley, taking risks was never the goal but an unavoidable part of telling the truth. “The only protection you have is this : I’m here to tell your story,” he explains, a conviction that guided him through more than a dozen wars. During the siege of Sarajevo in 1992, he and a colleague faced daily shelling and chaos in a city under siege. If journalists hadn’t been there, Rowley believes, “those people would’ve died in darkness and that’s why it matters.”
Empathy lies at the center of good reporting. “Your generation of journalists is more attuned to empathy, it’s how you get people to trust you, to tell you what matters.” Yet, Rowley knows empathy brings its own dilemmas. Reporting on a mother in Gaza who had just lost her sons, he asked himself, “Was I exploiting her? Maybe. But if we don’t tell their stories, who will ?” Such moments define the emotional cost of war journalism, the tension between witnessing suffering and respecting it.
Integrity and accuracy, he insists, are equally vital. “You have to tell the truth, do evidence-based reporting. If one side is lying, you call it out. That comes with a cost. But it’s the only way to be an honest reporter with integrity.” To him, courage means more than surviving danger, it’s about maintaining fairness and discipline even when truth is inconvenient or risky.
A Changing Landscape
The profession itself, however, is changing. “Something like 40% of young Americans get their news from TikTok and YouTube,” Rowley observes. Today’s journalists must adapt to a digital audience, learning not only to report accurately but also to understand how people consume stories online. Mastery of social media, video storytelling and personal branding now complements traditional skills like interviewing and fact-checking. “The goal for a young journalist,” he explains, “is to figure out where the audience is, how you like to tell stories and how your audience wants to receive them.” Adaptability, once a tool for survival in war zones, has become essential in the new media landscape.
War reporting, Rowley reminds, is not for everyone.
It is terrifying, heartbreaking, and sometimes deadly. “The skin would peel from my palms on the plane over because I was so terrified,” he recalled. “But the only thing I feared more than dying was not having what it took to do my job.” For those willing to face this, foreign correspondence offers a rare privilege : to witness events that matter, tell the stories that might otherwise remain untold and give voice to people living in darkness.
Even as the tools of journalism evolve, Rowley believes the principles remain unchanged : integrity, empathy, and courage. “War is the most important story in some ways, it tells us about ourselves,” he concludes. “But you can also make a difference. Get out there and tell the stories that show the best values of people.”