2025 | "The Spectacle of Fearsome Acts": Violence, Journalism and the Democratic Future

Recorded May 12th, 2025. The Trinity Long Room Hub Annual
Humanities Horizons Lecture for 2025 was delivered by Bruce
Shapiro, on "The Spectacle of Fearsome Acts": Violence, Journalism
and the Democratic Future. Are today’s journalists the unwitting
enablers of autocrats or the last bastion of democratic defence?
Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director of the Dart Center for Journalism
and Trauma at the Columbia University Graduate School of
Journalism, reflects on how stories get told amid sweeping
catastrophes and surging authoritarianism. The Annual Humanities
Horizons Lecture was established in 2013 to provide a significant
contribution to reflection on and advocacy for the Arts and
Humanities. About Bruce Shapiro Bruce Shapiro is Executive Director
of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of Columbia
Journalism School, encouraging innovative reporting on violence,
conflict and tragedy worldwide. An award-winning reporter on human
rights, criminal justice and politics, Shapiro is a contributing
editor at The Nation and U.S. correspondent for Late Night Live on
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National. He also
teaches ethics at Columbia Journalism School, where he is adjunct
professor and Senior Advisor for Academic Affairs. His books
include Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative
Journalism in America and Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and
America's Future. Shapiro is recipient of the International Society
for Traumatic Stress Studies award for "outstanding and fundamental
contributions to the social understanding of trauma." He is a
founding board member of the Global Investigative Journalism
Network. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub