In The Trauma Beat, award-winning journalist and trauma researcher, Tamara Cherry examines the impact of the media on trauma survivors, and the impact of trauma on members of the media.

As a true crime fan, this book was an eye opener for me. I’ve listened to the podcasts, watched the documentaries and tv shows, read the books, listened to the podcasts and (ignorantly) never really given a thought to the impact on the people in those stories, and how they feel about them.

I will be mindful of this in future. Cherry explores the impact of the media on trauma survivors with such care, empathy and open-mindedness. She is willing to own the mistakes that she has made during her journalism career and goes to great lengths to communicate ways in which trauma survivors can be better supported in both the immediate aftermath and years down the line. All the time informed by their feedback, experiences and feelings.

While not an easy read, The Trauma Beat is a must-read for journalists, media professionals, and anyone who consumes news (which is all of us, really). It’s vital that we understand the implications of telling the stories of others and how it has the potential to not just retraumatise them, but create further long lasting trauma and harm. Tamara Cherry deftly navigates this difficult topic, providing thought-provoking insights and perspectives, while asking the hard questions we should all ponder as storytellers or consumers.

Thank you to the author, ECW Press, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. I will be recommending this book to anyone who will listen and it will inform the way I consume trauma-related media moving forwards.

This was a great book and almost impossible to read.

This book covers how journalists approach sources when reporting on traumatic stories ( think murders, traffic accidents, mass shootings, sex trafficking, etc.). The author surveyed over a hundred people about their experiences with the media and it led to this incredible eye-opening and harrowing book.

I say it was almost impossible to read because it is unflinching. I'm not sure what magic the author used to fully convey the horror and absolute helplessness people will feel during media circuses around tragedies but I could only handle it in small doses. This book explores so many fine lines: how do we tell people's stories without making it gratuitous? How do we respect privacy while wanting to remain transparent? How do we consume media about disasters without glorifying the perpetrators (and yes, we're looking at you, true crime genre). How do journalists handle their own vicarious trauma?

The book was written during the pandemic and touches on recent North American tragedies with a big focus on Toronto and Canada, which my Canadian self appreciated very much. While unflinching, the book remains sensitive and respectful towards people affected the Toronto van attack or the Pulse club shooting, among other things. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time and pay special attention when I next see tragedy reported in the news.

Recommended for anyone who's ever taken an interest in the ethics of true crime, who has an interest in journalism, and who has wondered what privacy means in the age when everything sensational is recorded somewhere.

Thank you to NetGalley for kindly providing me with an electronic advanced reader's copy!

Cherry makes a powerful argument for trauma-informed reporting and in the doing so, gently prods the reader into thinking about how they consume bad news too. Highly recommended.

This book makes a poignant case for more trauma informed reporting for the sake both sides of the reporting, the reported on (or not reported on in some cases) and the reporters, there's a little bit about the viewers' responsibility at the end but it's definitely not a book that aims to make the news watcher feel bad. That being said I think this book is a great starting point for conversations we will need to have regarding the consumption of trauma as causal entertainment, the topic is touched briefly in the book but the focus is largely on legacy medias and it does not touch the topic of hobbyist reporters such as true crime podcasters.
The author managed to treat the topic with a lot of compassion and understanding towards all sides involved and with keeping in mind that the goal is not to ascribe blame to specific people but to question the systems that can be changed not to eliminate harm, something which the author recognizes is impossible, but to reduce it as much as possible. She also shows great humility and vulnerability in talking about her own role in those systems and her own shortcomings in applying her principles of harm reduction, something which anyone who's ever tried to apply principles of harm reduction will need to confront at one point or another in their journey.
This book brings forward questions on multiple topics outside of reporting such as how we handle the trauma of first responders and who we consider as first responders, how we prioritize the trauma of certain individuals and ignore that of others, it really does a lot of the leg work in preparing the ground for a much larger conversation on the topic of trauma.
Long story short, this book is a quick read with very emotional moments, it treats an important topic with a refreshing and down to earth, well researched approach, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who creates of consume news content.
One last thing, I received a digital ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I do not think this fact affected my review, but I would be remiss not to disclose this.

Everyone knows what trauma means. How we get it, and how we deal (or don’t deal with it). This is not a book that will tell you how to deal with your trauma. This is not a self help book. Instead, this is a retelling of trauma situations by a reporter that allows you to see how the trauma of given situations is imposed upon those that meet it first hand… the police, medics, reporters, etc. A rare glimpse into the lives of others affected other than the perpetrators and the victims.

I found this to be a refreshing take and look into those situations from the first responders and people on the ground.

Highly recommended for those true crime junkies and anyone that likes to see situations from alternate points of view.

For 15 years, Tamara Cherry served as a crime reporter for the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, and CTV News Toronto.

In May 2020, Tamara launched a research project examining the impact of the media on trauma survivors, and the impact of trauma on members of the media. This project has gathered the experiences of more than 100 trauma survivors and journalists across Canada and the United States, with the goal of producing trauma-informed educational materials for journalists, victim service providers, and justice-sector partners.

"The Trauma Beat: A Case for Re-Thinking the Business of Bad News" largely comes out of this research project, Tamara's own background as a crime reporter, and her subsequent work in founding Pickup Communications and working to find new and better ways to report the business of bad news.

"The Trauma Beat" is, somewhat miraculously, not a particularly traumatizing book itself despite the fact that the book is, essentially, a presenting of case after case of those who participated in the research project and, at times, also those cases that Tamara Cherry reported on over her years as a crime reporter.

This doesn't mean, of course, that those who've experienced trauma won't reflect upon their own trauma while reading "The Trauma Beat." In fact, I practically guarantee you will. However, it's clear in the use of language and structure here that there's a very strong effort to not create trauma while discussing trauma.

For the past 30 years, I have been an outspoken activist in the area of violence prevention, especially domestic violence and child abuse, and have dealt with the media throughout those years with both helpful and harmful experiences.

One experience kept coming back to me time and again while I was reading "The Trauma Beat," an experience that I had toward the end of my 30 years of sharing my own trauma experiences and learning how to steer media appearances and interviews toward a healthier discussion of issues around trauma.

Most of my own activism has come in the form of an annual special event. As a paraplegic/double amputee, I have traveled over 6,000 miles by wheelchair raising awareness and funds for organizations supporting survivors of violence while sharing my own experiences. It was toward the end of my 30 years, a benchmark at which I officially "retired" from the road though I have offered at least one event since then, that I encountered the opportunity to do an extended interview with a college publication. Initial discussions were positive and I felt comfortable that this would be a meaningful discussion. I wheeled into the college town and fulfilled a couple of speaking obligations. All was well.

The interview with this publication ended up being one of the most traumatic experiences in my 30 years of activism to the point that at one point I even stopped the interview to express my concerns about the direction the reporter was going into what was clearly "selling the drama" questions and areas I had made it clear I would not discuss. It became clear he wanted to mark his senior year with an award-winning piece. However, in so taking this approach I largely shut down because, of course, anyone who has ever experienced significant trauma will tell you that it never completely goes away.

After the interview was complete, I expressed my concerns about the interview and this reporter seemed completely clueless. After a few more minutes of discussion, it became clear to me that the intent was not to "sell drama" but that he simply was ill-equipped to handle such a challenging interview. The final piece, in fact, was surprisingly timid despite the fact that I ended the interview significantly traumatized by it.

With "The Trauma Beat," Tamara Cherry explores these types of situations and the ways in which the business of bad news can, in fact, perpetuate that bad news by traumatizing survivors of violence, those reporting the violence, and even our first responders.

"The Trauma Beat" is largely built around those individuals who responded to the research project and how their dealings with the media after their particular traumas impacted them.

The real power of "The Trauma Beat" lies in the fact that Cherry doesn't let herself off the hook. This isn't a case of "I got everything right and here's how you can too!" Instead, "The Trauma Beat" is also sort of a journalistic memoir as Cherry is confronted by everything she got wrong during her time on the crime beat - the words she said, the actions taken, the postures - just about every little moment is reflected upon here as she reflects upon those things she could have done differently and those ways in which she became part of the problem.

To be honest, it was refreshing to have a journalist essentially say "I meant well, but I didn't always do well."

With "The Trauma Beat," Cherry exposes a system that is practically set up to fail both survivors of trauma and the journalists covering trauma. She looks at why some families experience a storm of attention, often unwanted, while others sit on the sideline wondering if their loved ones actually matter to anyone.

"The Trauma Beat" covers everything from murders to traffic fatalities to sexual violence to mass violence. The majority of the cases seem to from Cherry's native Canada, though there are cases from all across North America.

"The Trauma Beat" is a book that contains all the journalistic details you would expect, though for the most part it avoids "selling the drama" and instead focuses on the research and on the interviews that would often follow in which one can practically feel Tamara Cherry moving from ignorance to understanding through her shame for the areas and times in which she fell short of her desired standards and into a sort of healing in which she realizes she can and will do better and she will support others in doing the very same.

There were times I undoubtedly reflected upon my own experiences with trauma and my own experiences, good and bad, with the media in discussing the trauma. However, "The Trauma Beat" also reinforces that there are many journalists, human beings, trying to bring some humanity to situations that often feel inhumane. There are humans within the systems that often set everyone up to fail.

How do we change those systems?

"The Trauma Beat" presents, indeed, a case for re-thinking the business of bad news. However, at times, I do wish it spent a little more time reflecting on how we actually do that re-thinking. How do we change things? While each case has these reflections, at times brilliantly so, how can we create better systems that don't set up survivors or journalists to fail or to perpetuate the trauma?

As an activist who has spent a good majority of my adult life discussing trauma, there's much I loved about "The Trauma Beat" and it's a book I wish I'd have been able to read early in my activism days as I think it would have been such a valuable guide for me in dealing with media and also for me as an activist trying to create safe spaces for people to acknowledge their most painful life experiences. Yes, "The Trauma Beat" reminded me that even as an activist sometimes I failed in my own lofty standards.

"The Trauma Beat" is a well-informed, emotionally honest, and heartfelt book that is also grounded deeply within research, data, and Tamara Cherry's own life experiences. The end result is a thoughtful, groundbreaking, and necessary book for anyone working within the field of trauma whether that be direct service, advocacy, media, emergency response, or in a myriad of other ways.

Thank you for the advance eARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a widow, as a woman whose lost her mum and as someone who has seen a 30 year elderly care nursing career, I have seen more than my fair share of death. Those things were the reason I picked this book. Trauma invades everyone’s life at some stage. We all see the loss of someone we love. What this book has done, is opened up all angles. How the police sat in the car before they went to the house struggling to find the words. Yes, it meant the widow heard about it on TV but we have to consider the police too. How do you find those words. I’ve had to say those words. Many, many times. Even to my own dad when I confirmed that mum had passed away.
This book looks at how everyone feels. The media on the lawn outside that have a job to do - they’re not focused on the trauma, they want the story. The police delivering the news - they may have worked with the deceased and now have to tell his wife/husband the news - the police are focused on their job and an intense grief for a colleague and friend. The survivor of the incident that wants things done/dealt with and may be angry or frustrated at the speed of an investigation or the result of one - grief is driving that anger.

Our author has handed this all to us in the pages. It’s without judgement to anyone and with compassion. Thank you Tamara Cherry.

As an experienced reporter, Cherry draws on her first hand knowledge of asking the difficult questions to grieving family members in "The Trauma Beat" along with he more important question of "Why are we doing this." More of a narrative discussion on specific cases than an exploration of grief and trauma itself.