As professionals, journalists represent a family often required to delve into traumatic situations they may not always be ready to handle.

On the eve of First Amendment Day, a panel of decorated journalists gathered to address students and members of the ISU community on the topic of “Post-Traumatic ‘Press’ Syndrome and the State of the Media.”

Donna Alvis-Banks, a features writer for the Roanoke Times of Roanoke, Va., brought all in attendance to a common understanding – the traumatic events that took place at Virginia Tech University on April 16, 2007, could happen anywhere, even at Iowa State.

“It breaks my heart to think it could’ve been you,” Alvis-Banks said. “Our community is a lot wiser and a lot sadder as we approach our anniversary.”

Though the violence seen at Virginia Tech is a current example of the horrors journalists are required and expected to cover intimately, other instances that would normally go unnoticed can also bring a mental burden to professionals in the field.

Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, spoke about traumatic events such as death, rape and violence and the role those events play in a journalist’s psyche. He said reporting on such events is different for those writing for wire services and those who “write their hearts out” for newspapers – but in the end, journalists put themselves in a position to do the work that others in society aren’t willing to do.

“Most people go through much, if not all, of life without witnessing the brutalities that reporters see while on the scene,” he said.

Though he has covered a slew of events which could easily be categorized as traumatic, Bugeja said the event he remembers most came in the form of an obituary.

During a night where he found himself cooped up in the newsroom, Bugeja was asked by his editor to write not just any obituary – the obituary for his late father.

The reason he was given for the request?

“You knew him best,” his editor said.

Frank Ochberg, psychiatrist and chairman of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, supported each speaker with testimony from a different perspective. Ochberg said no training or preparation could ever prepare today’s journalists for the experiences they are bound to be engulfed in.

“There is really is no training for the journalist who has to go out and interview a mother whose child has just been killed,” he said.

Ochberg said that, even though fragile emotional situations are often hard on both journalists and those being interviewed, it is the duty of all journalists to make the emotion of a given situation come to life through text or any other medium.

Tina Croley, features editor at the Detroit Free Press, said that even though journalists are, in some cases, able to shoulder a heavier traumatic burden than most, in no circumstances can it be forgotten that they are still human.

In some situations, Croley said, events that take place are sometimes too graphic to even hit the presses.

“You have to consider how much is too much, and some stories couldn’t be written because they are too gruesome,” she said.

Alvis-Banks said that, while reporters are required to ask revealing questions in connecting with sources, the role of photographers is often overlooked.

She said that, even moreso than reporters, photographers are faced with recurring images of traumatic events, while reporters are able to “work through” the events.

All members of the panel, including moderator Steve Thomas, editor of the Quad-City Times, urged students to recognize their First Amendment rights and to acknowledge the sacrifices made by journalists in order to make the details of traumatic events known to the public.

“Many reporters have often been exploited to some of the most horrific things you can imagine,” Thomas said. “These are things we all need to be talking about.”