My Year In Graduate School
How I used my Social Journalism degree to serve victims of emotional abuse
I just finished one of the most challenging, emotional, draining, valuable, educating and exciting years of my life. When I rode up the elevator to the third floor on my first day of orientation at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism only 11 short months ago, I was full of nerves but also incredibly excited. Being part of the third cohort of the social journalism program at CUNY seemed like it was meant to be. I already knew exactly what my final project was going to be focused on when I applied for the program, and I couldn’t wait to get started. Now, less than a year later, I’m one of only 39 people in the world with a degree in social journalism.
Why Social Journalism?
For those reading this who don’t know what social journalism is, imagine it this way: it ditches the more traditional way of journalism and turns the entire reporting process around to ensure that the content you produce as a journalist is the best it can be and actually makes a difference. In class, we always talked about listening to and observing and engaging with a community to find out how to best serve its members. To a traditional journalist, this may sound a little odd at first, but it actually makes so much sense.
As a journalist, you want to know that the story you’re working on will actually inform and be helpful to your audience. Traditional journalists, generally speaking, follow leads that they feel would make a good story, report on it, publish the article and then hope that someone will read it.
Social journalism goes to the reader first and asks them to tell us journalists what it is that they want to know. It’s then up to us to figure out how to best answer those questions and which medium we should choose to reach as many people as possible. Your content will improve even more if you build and establish a level of trust, which can only be done by showing empathy. That’s when your community will come to you with incredibly valuable input that you can use your already existing journalistic skills for to work your magic.
I feel incredibly lucky to be one of the few people who was specifically trained in this area, as I do agree with my professors by saying that this is what the future of journalism will (and has to) look like.
My Community: Emotional Abuse Victims
To practice first-hand what we were learning in grad school, we were asked to pick a community to serve throughout the year. This wasn’t a challenge for me, as I had known for a long time that I wanted to work for one particular cause, which was also another reason why I decided to go for the social journalism degree.
As I explained in a Kickstarter assignment from the fall semester, it all started with a vision in my head two years ago. I was a senior in college, and I was suffering from the consequences of a toxic relationship that I just got out of, after two years of having to deal with constant verbal and psychological abuse. During the course of the relationship, I had no idea that what was happening was abuse. I was oblivious to the fact that words that hurt just as much as physical violence and are actually abuse as well. It took my heart a while to start healing, but I felt good because the more I began looking into what emotional abuse is, the more I understood that my experience is not individual to me, but it happens so many times, to all kinds of people in the world. I started thinking how I wish I had known about the fact that emotional abuse exists a lot earlier because I always thought, since I wasn’t experiencing physical abuse, that nobody would take me seriously, and I would look ridiculous for trying to seek help.
I thought a lot about why this had to happen to me, and I decided to find the silver lining. I didn’t want this experience to be something that was just a dark time in my life, I wanted it to have a positive outcome. So to shine light on the issue, I chose this community.
Emotional abuse can cause depression, it can result in low self-esteem and lack of self-worth, and it can have other effects that are similar to physical violence. It also wasn’t until I started graduate school that I realized how little the number of resources are that actually exist on emotional abuse. I knew that this was the sign that I was on the right track and that I should pursue this mission further.
So I set myself two goals this year: The first was to make victims realize that what they’re going through is abuse, and the second one was to connect victims and survivors to helpful resources and raise awareness. I wanted to connect victims to the right resources, and I wanted to create a platform where people can go and feel safe and find the strength to improve their lives.
So I used my own experience and the passion I have for making a difference in my work with this community. I had an understanding of what needs these victims may have, and what resources they could benefit from.
The experts I’ve spoken to say that the biggest problem is education. People are not educated enough on emotional abuse, or the cycle of abuse, or even how to spot abusive behavior in a person. This is why I decided to focus on this community. So I could create content that will help start a conversation and raise awareness.
My Approach
One of the first things we learned in our Community Engagement class this year was that in social journalism, you have to establish trust between you and your community. So I decided the best way for me to do that was to start by telling my own story, so that I could have something to show when I approached my community.
I then thought it would be helpful to create some kind of brand name, or initiative, that would state a clear mission and purpose. So I came up with the name Broken Angels Project, which was inspired by a song by the band Boyce Avenue that talks about the abusive relationship between a daughter and his father.
I started by making a Facebook page, and I wasn’t really sure what my strategy would be, or what kind of content I would be posting, because I still needed to figure out how to reach the most amount of people. I ended up with about 175 likes on the page, which isn’t bad, but I figured out that an open Facebook page wasn’t going to build the safe environment that victims need. I made call outs for victims to tell their stories which didn’t really work on that Facebook page. I also asked for people to fill out a survey, and I only had about 21 submissions. So I wanted to keep looking for a space where these victims may already be coming together. Then I came across a closed Facebook group, which then led me to a few more. Some only had a couple hundred members, some had up to a couple thousand. So I requested to become a member myself and that is what really helped me to dive into this community and be able to listen to their needs.
By asking questions in these groups and by monitoring comments and posts, I was able to find out that what the community needs the most is information. Information on how to spot abusive behaviour early on, information on where to go to seek help, and information on legal advice. The other need they expressed to me was to feel safer. These victims are in need of comfort and support, as experiencing abuse can have incredibly dangerous effects and can even lead to suicide.
So I then started my own publication on Medium, also called Broken Angels Project, and wrote articles that focused on the different aspects of abuse, such as what drives a person to become an abuser, how abuse relates to gender, I looked at how difficult it is to prove emotional abuse in court, I wrote a profile on a lovely young author who is a victim of narcissistic abuse and who has written many books on the topic. I wrote about self-care, and I also wrote about my own story of recovery.
I also started a podcast series where I featured victims who told their stories anonymously, and experts such as a social worker who answered some of the questions I received from the community, and I produced 3 PSA videos in hopes to raise more awareness.
To compile everything together and dedicate a space on the internet where people can find information exclusively on emotional abuse, I made a website or hub that has all of my own content and also features other helpful resources such as a quiz, phone numbers for hotlines, a link to submit one’s own testimony, and so on. I noticed in my research that there is no official website dedicated to only emotional abuse yet, which is another indicator to me why my work in this community is so important.
Deliverables
- Broken Angels Project Facebook page
- Medium publication
- Broken Angels Project hub/ website
- 3 Broken Angels Podcast episodes
- 12 stories published on Medium
- 3 Videos (watch here, here and here)
- Magazine
- Broken Angels Project Pinterest page
Metrics and Outcomes
The majority of my content was posted on Medium, in my publication I created there. Looking at the most basic form of metrics, I received over 1100 views on there, with the highest read ratio being 64 percent. I received these views from sharing each post not only on my own social media platforms, but also in Facebook groups and online forums such as Reddit threads. A lot of times when I shared my stories, I also asked for feedback from the community, and in a few cases, this led to some community members opening up about their own experiences in relation to the story I was posting. One Reddit user sent me a long message on how she was able to move on from her life with an abusive husband when I posted my most recent story giving five tips that helped me not go back to my own abuser, which was very interesting.
In my community, I noticed that the most meaningful impact and engagement I received was when I was either personally present and talked to people, or when I showed my own vulnerability with this issue through the language I used when I posted my content online. When I first started pushing content or questions out to the community, I was quite formal and tried to be as professional as possible. However, I didn’t get much feedback, and those who I heard back from didn’t seem to be legit (this was on Facebook). So I changed my language and tried to sound more personable, and like someone who when it comes down to it, is also a victim and just wants to do something good after experiencing something bad. When other victims on social media realized that I was “one of them,” I was a lot more successful in receiving feedback or responses to questions.
I was also able to see this effect when I stood in the Union Square subway station for 1.5 hours and invited passers-by to participate in my third PSA video. Many of those who did stop by were interested in my project and really wanted to listen, and a couple of them then opened up completely and told me about their own suffering and experience with abuse.
I always felt like I was struggling a bit when it comes to finding victims who are open to talk about their experiences. But when I met them in person and told them about myself and the purpose of my project, I was incredible to see their reactions and how much more comfortable some of them became to speak about themselves.
I really felt like a social journalist when I realized this because I was able to see first-hand that simply by showing empathy and by becoming part of my community, and embracing it, the responses I received were a lot more meaningful and therefore, I feel that my impact did as well.
What I This Year Has Taught me
Although I’m part of this community, I felt it was an incredible learning experience to approach emotional abuse and it’s victims using social journalism principles. I really had to try to ignore my own opinions from time to time and really let my community members inspire me and guide my reporting process. When I think about how I approached journalism only a year ago, it feels like a whole different world. I can’t imagine ever using any other approach.
However, even though I’m excited about the work I’ve done, I still see my project as only the very beginning. This year, for me, represented only the first baby steps on the path leading to a project that is a lot bigger and even more meaningful.
The reason for that is because, as helpful being part of your own community can be, it also has its downsides. There were numerous times this year where I felt incredibly triggered by constantly thinking about this issue. It brought back a lot of painful memories, and I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t have a big effect on me at times. So my advice in that regard to any future social journalism students would be to check up on yourself and take care of your mental health from the very beginning. Choosing a sensitive community, especially when you’re part of it, requires a strong mental foundation. I had a lot of dreams and goals for this year, many of which didn’t turn out the way I had imagined them because I struggled with mental health issues which were worsened at times due to my work with this community.
So this is one of my biggest pieces of advice. One of my last pieces I wrote was a listicle on self-care ideas for victims of abuse (or anyone else). The inspiration came from a Reddit thread that popped up on my feed, and it dealt with PTSD and depression as a result of emotional abuse. I could obviously relate, so I decided to focus on this aspect. I posted in on Reddit a few days later, and according to my stats on Medium, most of the readers came from there. Also, I use this listicle myself on a regular basis and it does help me refocus my thoughts when I’m feeling down. Knowing that I not only help myself, but many others with this particular story made me realize that my work is important. So, again, it all comes down to our mental state and how much we can handle, and if we can recognize our more difficult moments and turn them into something useful.
For anyone who has the desire to serve this community, I’d give the advice to start off by simply listening. When I joined online Facebook groups and went to support groups in person, I gained a lot of insight from just taking notes and observing. Especially the groups I visited in person had a few concerns about me being a journalist and pulling out my notepad and pen, and asked if what I was doing was confidential. So I had to find ways to make them realize that I wasn’t there to expose them or exploit their pain, but that I was actually one of them just trying to gain more insight. After we had established that, it was easier for them to be open and honest with me. This was a good lesson that helped me during the remainder of the year. Victims can be very hurt and insecure individuals who are in need of someone who listens to them and is there for them, so this was something I always tried to get across as well, which made a difference when connecting with members of my community.
Moving Forward
Now that I’m all done with grad school, I need to think about what’s next in store for me and this community. Since this is personal to me, I will never stop thinking about it or writing about it, and as I mentioned above, my work represented only the beginning of a long road to actual change. I’m proud of the work I’ve done, but it’s far from over.
I want to continue to raise awareness, I want to continue to inform people on the issue and urge them to educate themselves, and I want to continue to build this community and use my skills as a social journalist to make an even bigger impact.
I’m excited about the future, but also sad that my time at CUNY-J has come to an end. It was a crazy year, but I couldn’t be more thankful for everything I got to learn, everything I got to do, and everyone I got to meet and learn from. CUNY-J has fulfilled my biggest dream, and the Social Journalism program has changed my life and work as a journalist forever.
Thank you CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and Professor Carrie Brown, our fearless leader, for everything. It’s been an honor being part of the CUNY-J family.
