By Lizzy Nyoike, NABJ Monitor Digital
Professionals at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention unpacked the emotional downside that comes with covering systemic violence in Black communities.
The panelists outlined how journalists covering systemic violence are often not supported with enough resources, overexposed to trauma, and left to carry emotional burdens alone.
“Journalists are often sent to cover violence and tragedy without the support they need,” according to the 2025 Black Alder Lab Report, The Cost of the Story.
Delano Massey, Managing Editor at Axios, shared how years of breaking news coverage at CNN, particularly during the 2020 protests, left him emotionally drained.
“Hopping from tragedy to tragedy to and as a black man being often the only person that’s thinking about this through the lens of a black man and what does it mean to cover us getting killed over and over and over again,” said Massey.
Chelsea Fuller, now the Managing Partner and Senior Strategist at Black Alder LLC, said she remembers times she was asked to interview “a mother whose child had been killed by a cop or whose child had drowned in a pond because they had stolen a car and the chased them into a pond and watched them die.”
Journalists are often asked to cover traumatic events, becoming more sensitive when dealing with the Black community. Despite those traumatic events, she was left with little help.
“I didn’t have anybody in my newsroom that knew how to support me in managing the trauma that came with doing my job,” said Fuller.
Media coverage of systemic violence has often relied on trauma-related stories, with little consideration for the long-term impact on the surrounding communities.
“Seeing young Black men and women just like me and my people and the suffering that unfurls,” said Trymaine Lee, National Correspondent at MSNBC/NBC Universal.
Fuller called for newsroom leaders to rethink how they define professionalism and resilience. Advocating for embedded care directly in newsrooms, including hiring mental health professionals, and trauma-informed practices.
“People’s humanity has to come before the headline,” Fuller said.
The cost of resilience should no longer be paid solely by those telling the story.
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