Those Who Told.
Those Who Told The Story: Journalism, Trauma, and the Act of Witnessing a Sex Abuse Scandal is a visual book about the journalists who documented the USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University sex abuse scandals in the fall of 2017 and spring of 2018. This is a story about second-hand trauma experienced by journalists, which manifests in unique and variable ways based on location, age, and life circumstances.
These stories unite in this book to start a conversation about the act of witnessing and covering traumatic stories, specifically related to sexual abuse against children, and how it affects journalists personally and professionally. Through the use of portraiture and still-life imagery, readers will experience, in variable ways, the impact of these stories on journalists. Each journalist is profiled in a two-page spread, sharing their challenges faced and lessons learned during the course of covering this national scandal.
In creating this book, each journalist was asked to choose a location with significance to their role in making this tragic circumstance known to the public. Some decided on courthouses, others went back to their newsrooms, and still, others found places of solace – a park they frequented, a tree they used to study in on campus, and their home, where the truth was revealed only after the loss of one’s lifelong partner. Following the portrait session, the journalists were asked to write in a reporter’s notepad the answer to this question: What was the most important lesson you learned as a result of your part in telling this story?
Those Who Told The Story is available for purchase in both print and digital editions. It features 82 pages of photos and interviews.
Purchase online.
Available in both hardback and digital editions.
The hardcover edition is available to purchase on Amazon. Expect it to arrive in 2-3 weeks after you make your order.
The digital edition is available for purchase here. You will receive your digital copy immediately via email.
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What People Are Saying
"I am not ashamed to say that every time I pick up the book and read passages, your words, bring tears to my eyes. Powerful."
– Bob
"A beautifully told and unique perspective of a well known crisis. Cheers to all of those that bear witness on a daily basis. May your stories also be heard and valued so that your cups may be full and your story writing may continue. Thank you, Rachel for creating this incredibly important and impactful work."
— Brigitte
"What a powerful and beautiful job you did with all our stories and perspectives. I am honored to be a part of it."
– Joan
Media
Interview by Robert Gracin on Medium
Get an exclusive look into the creation of Those Who Told The Story — what it was like to tell this story, why it’s increasingly important, and what I hope readers learn from the book:
superego photojournalist @rachelhitchphoto elaborates on second-hand trauma experienced by journalists. The phenomenon is a central focus in her visual book @thosewhotold, which tells the story of the journalists who covered the 2018 sex abuse scandal at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics.
“Second-hand trauma is a very real response for some journalists and it manifests itself in a variety of ways. Second-hand trauma is unique in that people — journalists — experience the raw emotions of victims — survivors — of horrible events, then their bodies also respond to that pain. The pain develops from another’s lived experience, but it manifests into a lived experience for the journalist. It is so hard for journalists, and others alike, to come to terms with this reaction because it doesn’t stem from their own experience. They can feel like imposters, guilty for feeling so poorly when what they are upset about isn’t their pain to begin with. But it becomes their pain, a second-hand pain.”
Read more on superego’s Medium.