现役的新闻

A thunderous boom shook the ground, filling the air with dust and deafening a group of nine soldiers. 离他们站立的地方只有几英尺远, their long-range cannon had just fired a 95-pound projectile miles through the air. It was one shot of over 1,000 that each of the men would see in the next nine months.

丹尼尔•约翰逊博士学位.D. 学生在 北卡罗来纳大学新闻与媒体学院他就是其中之一. 2016年，在“伊斯兰国”势力鼎盛时期，他曾在美国国务院任职.S. 作为部队记者被派往伊拉克.

“When I volunteered to be the journalist, I didn’t know what AP style was,” Johnson explains. “我也不知道怎么拍照和录像.”

现在，他正在攻读博士学位.D. 顶尖新闻学院的课程, his photos and videos have been used by the Associated Press and MSNBC, 他的作品也启发了国会立法.

But his path to this point has been defined by loss and a struggle of his own.

积极的新闻

而约翰逊被训练成一名步兵军官, he quickly realized the importance of journalism during his time in the Army.

“I covered the activities of 1,500 people over dozens of locations,” he shares. “这让我从更大的角度看待事物.”

在伊拉克的战壕里, Johnson experienced the rise in atmospheric pressure upon the firing of heavy artillery. 这被称为爆炸超压. 在《太阳城娱乐城》杂志最近的一篇文章中,他这样描述那些冲击波, which caused a dull pain in his head “like I had just gotten hit in the face.”

爆炸超压会造成颅脑损伤, 或创伤性脑损伤, much like those we associate with hard hits on the football field. Over time, TBIs can lead to long-term effects, one of the worst being 慢性创伤性脑病这是一种大脑退化性疾病.

约翰逊说:“我们队里很多人都是18岁、19岁和20岁. “他们身心都很痛苦.”

But his job was to cover the positive moments within the drudgery of war for army families and the public — topics like U.S. 个人的进展和概况-不可能的tbi.

很多家庭都很喜欢这种保险. 包裹和信件将从美国到达.S. 里面有约翰逊文章的片段, along with notes or phone calls expressing how nice it was to read about their sons and daughters risking their lives thousands of miles away.

他的文字和形象产生了实实在在的影响.

“The most rewarding part was when the families saw the articles,约翰逊说. “但我们一到家，情况就变了.”

推动政策

一回到美国.S. in 2017, Johnson reflected on his and his peers’ struggles with mental health. Post-traumatic stress disorder was prevalent among the returning men and women. 自杀并不罕见. Within six years of homecoming, seven of the soldiers that Johnson deployed with died by suicide. 其中两人来自炮兵部队.

这些只是他知道的和知道的.

从历史上看, the military has tied high rates of suicide to being comprised predominantly of young men — the demographic with the highest rate of suicide. 在军队里自杀的年轻人 高80% 比同年龄段的平民要多.

约翰逊为自己的心理健康寻求军方支持, 但是电话号码, 网站, 而且提供给他的资源已经过时了. 他通过写作来唤起人们对这个问题的认识板岩.”

现在在卡罗莱纳, he structures his 研究 to align with requirements for his classwork, 揭露军人心理健康的数据.

“Because I was in the military, I know where to find the data,约翰逊说.

美国国防部公布了军人自杀的数据, 包括年龄和军种. 他们还发布心理健康政策和官方备忘录, 但这些和数据之间存在脱节, which shows increasing suicide rates even as support systems are updated and resources are improved.

“The policies say one thing, but talking to a soldier, you may hear another,” he says.

Soldiers who seek mental health support often face a stigma of being weak, 以及那些经历更常见心理健康症状的人, 比如焦虑和抑郁, 有时会被拒之门外. 约翰逊甚至在寻求帮助时遭到了抵制. 结果，他的工作和职责发生了变化.

He writes about what he discovers and publishes it in outlets that have a much broader reach than most class assignments, 像“板岩,《太阳城娱乐》和《太阳城娱乐》,等等.

“我写作是为了对公众和政策产生影响，”他说.

他的工作就是这样做的. 卡罗莱纳已经接到了五角大楼的电话, 想和约翰逊谈谈他的研究和写作. 国会已经改变了 立法 在他研究和写作的基础上, 太, using his work on broken and outdated suicide prevention links to make a change to the military’s support system.

Each department of the military must “review any information relating to suicide prevention” on their respective military 网站, 如有需要，对该等资料作出更新,，并向国会确认它是最新的.

In the “板岩” article that detailed blast overpressure and TBIs, he used his courses as an opportunity to 研究 the relationship between blast-related TBIs and mental health, including his own experiences to elucidate areas where the armed forces can make improvements and how policy could make the men and women in the military safer.

“This is why I turn my 研究 into journalism articles: to be part of the public pressure to effect change,约翰逊说.

从壕沟到教学

Johnson finished his master’s at Carolina in 2022 and is now in his second year of the Ph.D. 程序. During that time, he worked as a teaching assistant for Intro to Journalism and Advanced Journalism.

这个即将到来的秋天, he will teach Intro to Journalism as the professor while continuing to work on his dissertation about the use of technology and social media on the war in Ukraine.

正式地说，约翰逊从未学过新闻学. 当他在2016年自愿成为他所在单位的记者时, he had a degree in criminal justice and no experience writing for news outlets.

“我在那一刻学会了，”他说. “I learned the power and importance of words and their effect on the world.”

他来到太阳城娱乐，向学生们传授这种力量, using his failures and successes to prepare them better than he was to have so much influence in their hands — and the mess of ethics, 研究, 随之而来的是数据和框架.

“When I was in school, a lot of people helped me out,约翰逊说. “我来这里是因为我也想做同样的事情——回馈社会.”