NCJ Number
166018
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1997) Pages: 55-59
Date Published
1997
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The media is constantly criticized for sensational reporting of child abuse; however, it is necessary to shock politicians and the public to achieve any action in Australia's reactive, adversarial political system.
Abstract
In 1995 The Sydney Morning Herald reported that at least 19 children under the care and protection of the government's welfare system had died of severe child abuse over the past 2 years. Further stories led elected officials to reform the way child deaths were investigated and appoint an advisory panel. A child abuse expert had proposed such a panel more than a year earlier, but nothing had been done. The author, a journalist, had a similar experience in Melbourne, Victoria several years earlier. Experts complain abut reporters' gratuitous use of misery and death, but action occurs only when journalists present the most painful facts, hide nothing, and set the agenda for public debate. Social issues are not always prominent in the media, which tends to put wars and political crises on the front page. All media needs to examine the causes and prevention of child abuse, but the first rule for any journalist who wants to change something is to make a politician react.