City Research Online

Abstract

Journalism frequently throws up difficult ethical issues for journalists to confront in pressurised situations. This is particularly true of the “death knock,” where journalists interview family and friends in the aftermath of a sudden death (Duncan 2012). These stories, because they are stressful and disliked, are often given to young, inexperienced journalists (Cooper 2012), but the consequences can be devastating for both family and journalist (Newton and Duncan 2012, 2014). This paper argues that by using the approach of forum theatre (Flores 2000), in which situations are both acted out and interrogated, journalism students could have a simulated experience of confronting such issues in a brave space. It examines three workshops carried out with final year undergraduate journalism students as part of a core ethics module between 2023 and 2025. Students discussed the ethical questions raised by death knocks, before sessions in which they used forum theatre techniques to imagine and experience the roles of journalist, photographer and family member, while questioning how best to do it. At the end of the sessions, students reported a better understanding of the issues involved and the potential threats to their own mental health, as well as more confidence in carrying out such interviews.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© The Authors. Published by Taylor and Francis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons: Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Publisher Keywords:	Journalism, forum theatre, trauma, death knocks, interviewing, ethics
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity School of Communication & Creativity > Department of Journalism
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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