If it bleeds it leads – Bruce Shapiro on documenting the violence of modern life
From wars with global consequences to violent crimes in the suburbs, trauma underpins so much of the news cycle. It’s something award-winning journalist Bruce Shapiro came to understand intimately when, as a young crime reporter, he was stabbed. It changed his whole perspective on his profession, dedicating a large part of his career to the question of how trauma in yourself - or your source - changes the way you approach a story. Hear how trauma became newsworthy, how reporters learned to better tell those stories, and what it all means in 2025. The Annual Humanities Horizons Lecture is organised by Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. The Lecture was established in 2013 to provide reflection on and advocacy for the Arts and Humanities. The content of the lecture is the intellectual property of the speaker Bruce Shapiro. Speaker Bruce Shapiro Executive Director of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma at the Columbia Journalism School
Big Ideas · Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (mediacore-live-production.akamaized.net) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
From wars with global consequences to violent crimes in the suburbs, trauma underpins so much of the news cycle. It’s something award-winning journalist Bruce Shapiro came to understand intimately when, as a young crime reporter, he was stabbed. It changed his whole perspective on his profession, dedicating a large part of his career to the question of how trauma in yourself - or your source - changes the way you approach a story. Hear how trauma became newsworthy, how reporters learned to better tell those stories, and what it all means in 2025.
The Annual Humanities Horizons Lecture is organised by Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. The Lecture was established in 2013 to provide reflection on and advocacy for the Arts and Humanities. The content of the lecture is the intellectual property of the speaker Bruce Shapiro.
Speaker
Bruce ShapiroExecutive Director of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma at the Columbia Journalism School