NCJ Number
182693
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: January-February 2000 Pages: 49-61
Date Published
January 2000
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper argues that media coverage of child abuse has had both positive and negative consequences in Victoria, Australia, in that it has almost certainly helped produce more equitable and effective child protection policies and practices, although much media coverage has tended to be sensationalist and simplistic.
Abstract
Such coverage arguably has a broader social conservative political agenda, which is to defend traditional institutions and values such as the family, rather than being primarily concerned with identifying necessary reforms to child protection policies and legislation. Local coverage of recent high-profile child abuse cases and debates within the two daily Melbourne newspapers, The Age and the Herald Sun, demonstrate these points. The tabloid Herald Sun has consistently followed a broader social conservative agenda based on defending traditional nuclear families from allegedly subversive or deviant groups such as incompetent or authoritarian government social workers or individually abusive parents. In contrast, the quality daily The Age has generally avoided simplistic coverage of individual cases in favor of broader structural reform agendas. The media will probably continue to have a crucial role in bringing the deficits of child protection systems and the importance of children’s rights to public attention. Therefore, human services professionals should actively engage the media in an attempt to channel their energies into constructive and realistic problem diagnosis and outcomes. 63 references (Author abstract modified)