Journalists are being asked to share their experiences on reporting tough subjects such as conflict, death are violence.

It is part of a research project being run by the Media School at Bournemouth University and the Dart Centre for Trauma and Journalism.

The project, Emotions and Journalism, is examining how journalists are trained to cover other people’s distress.

A series of focus groups is being held later this month, at which it is hoped that journalists will talk about how they tackle difficult subjects and what training they have had or think they should have to do this.

The project hopes to attract journalists from a wide spectrum, from foreign specialists who cover armed conflict to local journalists who interview people who have been bereaved, become victims of crime or are suffering from difficult medical conditions.

The focus groups will also ask how the public’s attitudes to talking to the media about emotional topics are changing.

Three one-and-a-half hour focus groups will be held at the Frontline Club in London on July 10 and again on July 19.

They will operate under Chatham House rules, and so contributions would be entirely anonymous, unless you gave your explicit approval to quoted.

The material will be used for an end of project report and a number of press and academic articles.