Background
Ethics involves comprises the moral principles governing the conduct or behavior of a person or entity in accomplishing a given activity. News reporting is one of the major areas that affect the social, economic, psychological, and beliefs of the readers. Consequently, a news agency must report information that may have a positive impact on the audience. For instance, matters such as trauma should be reported with clarity and the attention it deserves to help the traumatized audience. Some journalists have reported informative and fulfilling articles on trauma, which reveals their ethical journalism and professionalism. The two articles explored in this report provide scientific and evidence-based insights regarding various concerns regarding trauma and related events. The recollections from the articles are also crucial to further support characteristics of ethical news reporting.
Summary of News Articles
Article 1
In this article, Ashwini Padhi explores how various traumatic issues affect employees in different organizations and gives some of the ways through which one can deal with such problems. The author reveals that the client with a pseudo name Kate is experiencing pressure at her workplace, which but is unaware that she is suffering from workplace trauma. It is noted that this type of trauma often affects frontline workers such as police officers, doctors, nurses, and firefighters. Padhi reveals that trauma can affect an employee’s productivity, job performance, and attendance (Padhi, 2022). Moreover, the writer posits that job-related trauma can be direct or indirect, depending on the cause, which may comprise sexual assault, severe injury, loss of loved ones, or bullying. Furthermore, this type of distress can lead to a post-traumatic stress disorder, which affects various people across the globe (Littleton et al., 2018). The writer further shows that Kate’s problem may have resulted from a long-kept secret about her troubled childhood.
Padhi provides a rich background of the disorder’s origin and its effects on Kate. The writer goes further to give the possible solution to the client’s problems. For instance, after sharing with the therapist, Kate revealed that she felt as if the weight she bore for years had been lifted from her shoulders. The writer indicates that some of the solutions to traumatic distress include the regulation of one’s emotions to help the individual improve their self-worth (Padhi, 2022). The therapy offered to Kate began with making her aware of the sources of her stressful feeling, which arise from exposure to inappropriate workplace sexual innuendoes. She was then assisted to communicate her feelings about issues that affected her and how to speak for herself (Padhi, 2022). Most importantly, she came to a full realization that there are things she could not control when she was young, but as a grown-up, she had the responsibility to ensure she lived a fulfilling life.
Article 2
This article on the effect of workplace trauma was written by Nicole Spector to address sexual harassment issues at workplaces and how to deal with them. The author noted that the problem is not new as it has affected several notable people such as Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and Louis C. K. (Spector, 2017). The writer reveals that sexual harassment can trigger severe symptoms of anxiety and depression or make a health issue reoccur. Moreover, the article indicates that sexual harassment affects both the physical and emotional states of the people who experience them. It registers as a trauma, which becomes challenging for the patient to handle, making the body readjust and eventually become overwhelmed (Littleton et al., 2018). Such situations if left unattended can result in more severe health issues such as heart disease.
Spector goes further to indicate that colleagues can play a crucial role in helping a person who is traumatized and provides some ways of treating the condition. Firstly, the author reveals that there is a need for the affected person to desire to speak out about their experiences. Secondly, the team members or friends of the victim can help by speaking on the patient’s behalf, but such should happen formally and not as workplace gossip. Thirdly, different methods work for different people, and for some, silence may be the best way to cope with the problem and heal from it (Spector, 2017). However, the writer notes that a case of sexual harassment should not go unaddressed because it can escalate to more serious consequences.
Response to the Two Articles
The article by Ashwini Padhi focuses primarily on workplace trauma and how the affected people can deal with the issue. Several traumas result from a given job environment since there are diverse people who interact with each other. Such complex diversification can result in different experiences, some of which may not please certain individuals. In most cases, workplace trauma has been associated with sexual harassment, though other issues can result in one’s distress (Littleton et al., 2018). Kate had a toxic relationship with her mother after her family separated, making her mother degrade her (Padhi, 2022).
She felt unwanted and unappreciated, something that may have resulted in her feeling the same at her place of work. She may have acted against her wishes to please her colleagues but deep inside, she was hurting. This is in line with the course content, which revealed that a traumatized person may have different faces or personal identities. Trauma victims typically report that they are not the same people they were before their traumatic transformations. It causes the two-ness in a person in addition to missing oneself.
The article by Nicole Spector addresses workplace traumatic events resulting from sexual harassment. Indeed, sexual harassment affects most people in any workplace, with women being the most vulnerable (Littleton et al., 2018). The workplace policies mostly prohibit any form of harassment and provide the framework for reporting any instances. However, most people who suffer attacks do not use such avenues for fear such as losing their jobs or friendship (Spector, 2017). There are several forms of sexual harassment, making it quite a broad concept to fully address, perhaps which is why most people continue to be victimized. This article ties in with the course content, as it addresses a similar issue as that of the sexual assault of Susan Brison, who gives her account of the trauma resulting from sexual harassment.
In conclusion, trauma is a distressful episode that affects people based on their past experiences. There are several forms and causes of trauma, and each can be managed and treated using various therapies. The most common types of trauma result from workplaces, due to the diverse employee demographics and family and gender-based factors. Major workplace traumatic events mostly affect frontline workers such as police, doctors, nurses, firefighters, and ambulatory officers. These workers may meet some distressing scenes, and since they are obligated to assist, they must do it even though they remain with the mental scars of the events. moreover, sexual assault is one of the primary causes of trauma, especially among women, who are the most vulnerable.
Reference
Littleton, H., Abrahams, N., Bergman, M., Berliner, L., Blaustein, M., Cohen, J., Dworkin, E., Krahe, B., Pereda, N., Peterson, Z. and Pina, A. (2018). Sexual assault, sexual abuse, and harassment: Understanding the mental health impact and providing care for survivors: An International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Briefing Paper. International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Web.
Padhi, A. (2022). Workplace trauma can affect anyone in any occupation. How can we deal with it?The Guardian. Web.
Spector, N. (2017). The hidden health effects of sexual harassment. Web.