Moral Tales: Representations of Child Abuse in the Quality and Tabloid Media
| Published date | 01 December 1999 |
| Date | 01 December 1999 |
| Author | Kate Sinclair,Ania Wilczynski |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486589903200305 |
262
Moral Tales: Representations
of
Child
Abuse in the Quality and Tabloid Media
AniaWilczynski
Keys
Young
Kate Sinclair
University
of
Sydney
Although child abuse is a favourite topic
for
media stories, there has
been
little
research on
how
the media portrays such issues.The
present research examined the media construction of child abuse in a
comprehensive sample of all 1302 reports on the subject during 1995 in
arepresentative quality and tabloid newspaper in
NSW
It was found
that: the focus was on 'hard news' reports of individual
cases
and the
most atypical and sensational 'child
abuse
horror
stories'; irony
or
incon-
gruity between the offence and the offender was emphasised; child abuse
was popular as a topic
for
'soft news' (human interest) media stories;
criminal justice agencies
were
the predominant sources used
for
the
stories; child abusers were individualised and demonised by the press
and used
to
promote 'law and order'
agendas;
and there was little cover-
age
of
the social
causes
of
abuse and prevention
issues.
Although both
the quality and tabloid press demonstrated these features, there were
some marked differences between the coverage in the
two
sources,such
as a much greater
emphasis
on individual
cases
in the tabloid press.
"Priest jailed for seven years over child sex spree" (M. Cowley,
Daily
Telegraph
Mirror,
16thJune 1995, p. 38)
"The
Devil's advocates: How Australia became obsessed
with
satanic abuse" (R.
Guilliatt,
Sydney
Morning
Herald,
31st August 1996, p. 1
Spectrum)
Headlines such as these are
common
fare in our newspapers. We regularly read
stories
about
children
being
battered
to
death,
'perverts'
sexually
molesting
children, and inept agencies failing to protect children. But
what
do these stories
tell us about how child abuse is constructed as a social problem?
There
is a strong body of criminological literature examining how
the
media
portrays crime. Three key themes in this literature are:
the
concept of 'moral panic'
in explaining media reporting of crime;
the
identification of factors which make
crime stories 'newsworthy'; and
the
emphasis on strong 'law and order' messages.
Address
for
correspondence:
Dr Ania Wilczynski,
Keys
Young,
PO Box 252,
Milsons
Point
NSW
2061, Australia.
Email:
ania_wilczynski@optusnet.com.au
THE AUSTRALIAN
AND
NEW
ZEALAND
JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY
VOLUME
32
NUMBER
3 1999
PP.
262-283
MORAL
TALES:
REPRESENTATIONS OF
CHILD
ABUSE IN THE QUALITY
AND
TABLOID
MEDIA
First, 'moral
panic'
theories have
been
frequently used to analyse
the
media
portrayal of crime (see, for example, Goode &Ben..Yehuda, 1994).
The
'deviancy
amplification' cycle associated with 'moral panic' involves: experts defining a social
issue as a problem (particularly one perceived to threaten traditional values);
the
identification of proposed solutions; continued distortion and dramatisation by
the
media to create stereotypes; and increased deviance and confirmation of stereotypes
(Cohen, 1980, p. 199). 'Folk devils' are also identified for the purpose of scapegoat
..
ing so
that
attention
is diverted from more fundamental social ills.
These
'folk
devils' provide "visible reminders of what we should
not
be" (1980, p. 10).
Secondly, the literature indicates
that
the
'newsworthiness' of a crime event is
determined by a matrix of 'news values', or what Ericson et al (1987, pp. 133-38)
term
a"vocabulary
of
precedents".
These
values result in crime stories which:
concentrate on individual offences of a more unusual nature, such as 'violent and
predatory street crime'; are constructed primarily from official
criminal
justice
sources; and place little emphasis on
the
social causes of crime (Surette, 1992, pp. 59,
63-4
). Katz also argues
that
crime stories are used as a powerful ritual form of 'moral
tale' to highlight broader social pressures which readers must face in everyday life
(1987, pp. 56, 67, 70).
Crime
reports therefore focus on offences perceived to
threaten traditional moral values such as the sanctity of the
family,
and often involve
victims perceived as 'innocent' such as children (Grabosky &Wilson, 1989, p. 13).
Thirdly,
the
media
often
plays a powerful role in reflecting
and
reinforcing
punitive' criminal justice policies. As Brown
and
Hogg (1998) demonstrate,
the
media has played a key role in promoting
the
theme of 'law and order commonsense'
which has come to strongly influence criminal justice policy and debate in NSW,
elsewhere in Australia, and overseas jurisdictions such as America. This 'common
..
sense' theme portrays crime as of ever..increasing gravity and requiring urgent and
punitive policies, such as tougher penalties
and
increased police powers, and as a
result does
not
facilitate informed debate about effective, long..term crime control
strategies (1998, pp. 4, 18-44). A key strand in these 'law and order' debates has
been
the
concept of 'dangerousness', focusing
on
the
identification, isolation
and
punishment of dangerous offenders (Craze &Moynihan, 1994; Pratt, 1997).
Prior
Research
Despite
the
considerable literature
that
exists
on
crime stories, there is nonetheless
apaucity of research
on
the
presentation of
child
maltreatment
by
the
media,
either as a criminal matter or as a more general social issue. This presents a stark
contrast to
the
vast
amount
of literature produced on child abuse generally since
the
1960s.
What
literature there is suffersfrom some key limitations. First, most researchers
have
used very selective samples
which
concentrate
on
the
most
extreme
and
sensational instances of either: one or a small number of more sensational maltreat
..
ment
cases in
the
media, such as
the
'Children
of
God'
satanic
abuse case in
Victoria and New
South
Wales (Goddard, 1994); sub..groups of child maltreatment,
such as satanic or ritual abuse (Rowe &Cavender, 1991); or media criticism of
the
actions of child protection workers in maltreatment cases (Hillman, 1988; Franklin
&Parton, 1991).
THE AUSTRALIAN
AND
NEW
ZEALAND
JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY
263
To continue reading
Request your trial