Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction
- Part One Lead-up to the passing of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act
- Part Two Implementation and impact of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act: the first five years
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
twelve - The media and the Prostitution Reform Act
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction
- Part One Lead-up to the passing of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act
- Part Two Implementation and impact of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act: the first five years
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
Summary
‘I think it's salacious [media reporting on sex work]. I think they like it because it's ear pricking, you know, it's eye popping, it's attention grabbing, you know. I don't think they care about sex workers. They just like the downside of it. You know, they like, recently there was that murder of a woman, who supposedly had worked in the sex industry. Even though her murder, it turns out, had nothing to do with sex work, but more domestic violence, I mean it’s, they, everyone's going after their angle, you know. I think anyone who targets sex work is lazy because we’re just easy targets anyway, you know. I think the media still portray us as, yeah, sleazy, dark, yeah, it's just by, it's just trying to, yeah, trying to get headlines through, yeah, sleaziness and like making, making out it is, even though it's not. It's more like, to me sex work's more like a service.’ (Dora, street worker, transgender)
Introduction
This chapter examines the role of the media in the context of the implementation of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act (PRA), policy that was developed to protect the human rights of sex workers and minimise the amount of harm incurred by their occupation. As highlighted in previous chapters, the PRA indicated a shift in policy, from a moralistic to a public health and human rights approach. This chapter considers whether the media coverage of the PRA reinforced existing moral discourses of sex work, or developed new discourses in this new policy context. It does this through a content analysis of print media reporting on the PRA, exploring messages communicated in and by print media in New Zealand between 2003 and 2006, and qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 58 sex workers about their experiences of the media coverage surrounding the PRA. The chapter highlights how, although most print media was descriptive and neutral, the print media did draw on dominant moral discourses of sex work. Print media reporting that did draw on moral discourses was particularly acknowledged by sex workers and described as reinforcing existing stigmatisation surrounding sex work. A key feature of this chapter is to recognise and describe how sex worker participants resisted dominant discourses in their everyday practices.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Taking the Crime out of Sex WorkNew Zealand Sex Workers' Fight for Decriminalisation, pp. 197 - 216Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2010