Dr. Newman has an active research lab, Treatment and Assessment Center for Traumatic Stress. Major projects include studying journalism and trauma. All current major projects include studying journalism and trauma.
Dr. Newman is the Research Director for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The University of Tulsa houses the Dart Center Research Center and is one of 7 Dart Center offices across the world. The Research Center is conducting studies on the occupational health of journalists, scholarly literature reviews about the field of journalism in addition to understanding readers responses to particular types of news presentations about trauma. The TU office also produced the Dart Research Database. Dr. Newman regularly provides training to professional journalists both in the US and abroad. She has spoken at specialty trainings, journalism conferences all over the world, including Haiti, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Australia and several European countries. From January 2002-July 2002, Dr. Newman took a leave of absence from the University of Tulsa to create and directed the first satellite office of the Dart Center for Trauma and Journalism, dubbed Dart Center – Ground Zero Office. The Center provided educational and psychological support for journalists covering traumatic events.
Dr. Newman is a co-director of the Tulsa Institute for Trauma, Adversity, and iNjustice (TITAN), an interdisciplinary institute committed to evidence-based education, scholarship, research, and service that reduce the incidence and impact of trauma and adversity.
Current Research
Current projects include: journalists’ resiliency, covering mass violence, the effects of occupational and social support for journalists, substance abuse in journalists.
Previous Research (Dissertations)
Women Journalists’ Experiences of Online Harassment – Autumn Slaughter
Autumn’s dissertation examines factors that increase women journalists’ risk of experiencing online harassment and the resulting psychological outcomes.
The war on journalists: Pathways to posttraumatic stress and occupational dysfunction among journalists – Susan Drevo
This dissertation examines the extent to which occupational intimidation, sexual harassment, and moral injury impact journalists’ health and ability to perform their job relative to personal and coverage-related trauma exposure by examining hierarchical predictor models of posttraumatic stress symptoms and occupational dysfunction.
Aggression against journalists: Understanding occupational intimidation of journalists using comparisons with sexual harassment – Kelsey Parker
This dissertation introduces the construct of occupational intimidation as a form of occupation-specific aggression faced by journalists. In order to better understand the functioning of occupational intimidation, it is compared to an empirically supported model of the risk factors and consequences associated with sexual harassment.
Emotional intelligence as a predictor of occupational functioning and probable posttraumatic stress disorder in American journalists – Summer Nelson
This study aims to strengthen the research literature about journalists by exploring both PTSD and occupational dysfunction. Additionally, the utility of emotional intelligence as a predictor of both PTSD symptomology and occupational dysfunction is explored.
Trauma and journalism: exploring a model of risk and resilience – River Smith
The study examines the impact of covering work-related traumatic events. To expand upon previous research examining exposure to work-related trauma among journalists, a model of risk and resilience is explored.
Previous Research Completed by Lab
Newman, E., Madrigal, I., & Hight, J. (2023). The inconsistency of trauma-related journalism education goals and instruction. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958231167304
Durosky, A.*, Newman, E., & Holton, A. E. (2023). Perpetuating perpetrators: News coverage of perpetrators and victims of the Columbine and parkland shootings. Journalism Studies, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670x.2023.2173952
Pfefferbaum, B., Tucker, P., Nitiéma, P., Van Horn, R. L., Varma, V., Varma, Y., Slaughter, A.*, & Newman, E. (2022). Inconclusive findings in studies of the link between media coverage of mass trauma and depression in children. Current Psychiatry Reports. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-022-01328-1
Slaughter, A.*, & Newman, E. (2022). New frontiers: Moving beyond cyberbullying to define online harassment. Journal of Online Trust and Safety, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.54501/jots.v1i2.5
Patel, A.,* Newman, E. & Richardson, J.** (2022) A pilot study Adapting and Validating the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) and PTSD Checklist-5 (PCL-5) with Indian Women from Slums Reporting Gender-Based Violence. BMC Women’s Health, 22(1), 1–15.
Kovacevic, M.*, Patel, A.* & Newman, E. (2022) Mixed-Method Investigations Uncovering Tension, PTSD Symptoms, and Trauma-Related Difficulties Among Indian Women from Slums Reporting Gender-
Based Violence. Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry.
Patel, A.,* Kovacevic, M.,* Hinton, D. & Newman, E. (2021). ‘I put a stone on my heart and kept going’: An ethnopsychological model of how distress is generated and regulated among trauma-exposed women from Indian slums. Transcultural Psychiatry.
Newman, E. (2020). Managing moral outrage to avoid burnout. The Investigative Reports and Editors Journal, 34.
Pfefferbaum, B., Varman, V., Varman,Y., Nitiema, P. & Newman, E. (2020). Terrorism media effects in children: What have we learned since the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing? Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, 113(3), 111-116.
Pfefferbaum, B., Tucker, P., Varman, V., Varman,Y., Nitiema, P. & Newman, E. (2020). Children’s reactions to media coverage of war. Current Psychiatry Reports, 22(42). doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-020-01165-0.
Pfefferbaum,B., Nitiema, P. & Newman, E. (2020). The effect of interventions on functional impairment in youth exposed to mass terrorism: A meta-analysis. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 48(4), 449-477.
Brummel, B., Newman, E., Arnold, B., & Slaughter, A. (2019). Sexual harassment and sexual assault training needs analysis for journalists. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 12, 115-118. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-019-09494-9.
Pfefferbaum, B., Nitiema, P., Newman, E. (2019). Is viewing mass trauma television coverage associated with trauma reactions in adults and youth? A meta‐analytic review. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 32, 175-185.
Pfefferbaum, B, Tucker, P., Pfefferbaum, R. L, Nelson, S. D., Nitiéma., P. & Newman, E. (2018). Media effects in youth exposed to terrorist Incidents: A historical perspective. Current Psychiatry Reports, 20(2), 11. doi: 10.1007/s11920-018-0875-1.
Slaughter, A. Newman, E., Brummel, B.J. & Drevo, S. (2018). Journalists safety trainings: Effective for all? Australian Journalism. 40(2), 53-65.
Smith, R J., Drevo, S., & Newman, E. (2017). Covering traumatic news stories: Factors associated with posttraumatic stress disorder among journalists. Stress and Health, 34(2), 218 – 226. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smi.2775
Newman, E., Drevo, S., Brummel, B., Rees, G., & Shapiro, B. (2016). Online abuse of women journalists: Towards an evidence-based approach to prevention and intervention. In B. Gardiner (Ed.), New challenges to freedom of expression: Countering online abuse of female journalists (pp. 46-52). The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), an intergovernmental agency.
Newman, E. & Shapiro, B. (2014). Clinicians and journalists responding to disaster. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 24(1), 32-8. doi: 10.1089/cap.2013.0068
Newman, E. (2007). Summary of Empirical Questions Pertaining to Trauma Research. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 2, 57-59.
Pyevich, C., Newman, E. & Daleidan, E. (2003). The relationship among cognitive schemas, job-related traumatic exposure, and PTSD in journalists. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 16(4): 325-328,
Newman, E., Simpson, R. & Handschuh, D. (2003) Trauma exposure and post-traumatic Stress Disorder among Photojournalists. Visual Communication Quarterly, 10, 1.4-13.