Reporting on Domestic Violence: Storytelling with Care Webinar Takeaways

At The Pivot Fund, we believe journalism can be a tool for healing as well as for truth-telling — especially when covering topics as sensitive and urgent as domestic violence.

That’s why we partnered with the Blue Shield of California Foundation to produce a webinar aimed at strengthening trauma-informed reporting practices across the country. Together, we spotlighted the Foundation’s playbook for journalists, which offers clear, compassionate strategies for covering survivors’ stories with dignity and care.

For us, this partnership was about creating real change in how newsrooms approach stories of violence, trauma, and survival. It was about providing tools that build trust with communities too often harmed by careless reporting.

In the webinar, pediatrician and freelance health reporter ChrisAnna Mink shared how to cover domestic violence with care—treating it as a public health issue: do no harm, be curious not judgmental, and build trust so survivors can share their stories with dignity. Even when policy change is slow, these stories foster solidarity and incremental impact.To explore the Blue Shield Foundation’s journalist playbook for covering domestic violence with care, visit https://journalists.letsenddv.org.

Presenters

ChrisAnna Mink, Pediatrician and freelance health reporter

Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin, Communications Associate Blue Shield of California Foundation 

Jenna Lane, Communications Officer Blue Shield of California Foundation 

Moderator

Susan Smith Richardson, Managing Director The Pivot Fund