Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T21:50:00.219Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Journalists as agents and language as an instrument of social control: A child protection case study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Chris Goddard  and
Bernadette Saunders
Chris Goddard
Affiliation:
Child Abuse & Family Violence Research Unit Department of Social Work Monash University Wellington Road, Clayton, Vic 3168. Email: [email protected]
Bernadette Saunders
Affiliation:
Child Abuse & Family Violence Research Unit Department of Social Work Monash University, Victoria, 3168.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In recent years there has been considerable analysis of how the media create images of crime. The relationship between child abuse and the media has also been subject to greater scrutiny. This article examines the role of one newspaper in a child protection case. The part played by the newspaper in the court case led to an examination of the language used by the media in their representations of children. The researchers found that a child may be objectified in language even when the child’s gender is previously identified. The ‘gender slippage’ may in extreme cases lead to the ‘textual abuse’ of children, where child abuse is rewritten to lessen the impact on the reader. The authors conclude that the actions of journalists and the language they use require more critical analysis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , 2001 , pp. 26 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aldridge, M. (1994) Making Social Work News, London, Routledge.Google Scholar
Bell, A. (1991) The language of news media, Oxford, Blackwell.Google Scholar
Benthall, J. (1993) Disasters, relief and the media, London, I.B. Taurus & Co. Ltd. Google Scholar
Bernoth, A. (1997) ‘Children in care crisis “worsens”’, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 July.Google Scholar
Black, J., Steele, B. & Barney, R. (1999) Doing ethics in journalism: A handbook with case studies, Boston, Allyn and Bacon (Third edition).Google Scholar
Burstin, F. (1997) ‘Secret plans for baby grab’, Herald Sun, 1 March, p.2.Google Scholar
Burstin, F. (1997) ‘Seized baby home’. Herald Sun, 25 March, pp.3.Google Scholar
Burstin, F., Pountney, M. & Coffey, M. (1997) ‘Snatched: Exclusive: State takes baby minutes after birth’, Herald Sun, 28 February, p.1.Google Scholar
Butterworth, D. (1997) ‘Letter’, The Guardian, 23 June.Google Scholar
Child Abuse Review (1996) Volume 5(5), Special Issue.Google Scholar
Edwards, A.R. (1973) ‘Images of deviance in the press’, In Edwards, A.R. and Wilson, P.R. (eds), Social Deviance in Australia, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, pp. 59–74.Google Scholar
Ericson, R., Baranek, P. & Chan, J. (1987) Visualizing deviance: A study of news organisation, Milton Keynes, Open University Press.Google Scholar
Ericson, R., Baranek, P. & Chan, J. (1991) Representing order: Crime, law and Justice in the news media, Milton Keynes, Open University Press.Google Scholar
Fairclough, N. (1995) Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language, London, Longman.Google Scholar
Franklin, B & Parton, N. (eds) (1991) Social work, the media and public relations, London, Routledge.Google Scholar
Fraser, S. (1995) ‘A string of stranger sexual assaults: The construction of an orthodox account of rape’, In McCormick, C. (Ed), Constructing Danger: The mis/representation of crime in the news, Halifax, Fernwood Publishing, pp.16–35.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. (1998) Semantic analysis: a practical introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. (1996) ‘Guest Editorial: Read all about it! The news about child abuse’, Child Abuse Review, 5:301–309.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. (1997) When does the media coverage of child protection amount to child abuse?, paper presented at the Sixth Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, Adelaide, October.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. & Liddell, M.J. (1993) ‘Child abuse and the media: Victoria introduces mandatory reporting after an intensive media campaign’, Children Australia, 15, 12–15.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. & Liddell, M.J. (1995) ‘Child abuse fatalities and the media: Lessons from a case study’, Child Abuse Review, 4, 356–364.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. & Saunders, B.J. (2000a) ‘The Gender Neglect and Textual Abuse of Children in the Print Media’, Child Abuse Review, 9(1): 37–48.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. & Saunders, B.J. (2000b) ‘The Role of the Media’, in Project Axis – Child Sexual Abuse in Queensland: Selected Research Papers, Brisbane, Queensland Crime Commission.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. & Saunders, B.J. (in preparation) The media and child abuse, Issues Paper, Melbourne, Australian Institute of Family Studies.Google Scholar
Graber, D. (1980) Crime news and the public, New York, Praeger.Google Scholar
Grabosky, P. & Wilson, P. (1989) Journalism and Justice: How crime is reported, Sydney, Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Gregory, P. (2000) ‘Baby theft trial begins’, The Age, 6 June, p. 7.Google Scholar
Hartley, J. (1982) Understanding news, London, Methuen.Google Scholar
Herald, Sun (1997) ‘Editorial: A babe in whose arms?’, Herald Sun, 1 March, p.22.Google Scholar
Hulteng, J.L. (1985) The messenger’s motives: Ethical problems of the news media, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall (Second Edition).Google Scholar
Kempe, C.H., Silverman, F.N., Steele, B.F. et al. (1962) ‘The battered-child syndrome’, Journal of the American Medical Association, 181(1), 17–24.Google Scholar
Kermond, C. & Boreham, G. (1997) ‘Lobbyists bade ruling to take child’, The Age, 1 March.Google Scholar
Kinsman, G. (1995) ‘The Mount Cashel Orphanage inquiry: The inscription of child abuse’, in McCormick, C. (Ed), Constructing Danger: The mis/representation of crime in the news, Halifax, Fernwood Publishing, pp.76–93.Google Scholar
Kitzinger, J. (2000) ‘Media templates: patterns of association and the (reconstruction of meaning over time’. Media, Culture & Society, 22 (1):61–84.Google Scholar
Lazarsfeld, P.F. (1948) ‘The role of criticism in the management of mass media’, Journalism Quarterly, 25(2), 115–126 (cited in Bell (1991)).Google Scholar
Lotz, R.E. (1991) Crime and the American press. New York, Praeger.Google Scholar
Meyers, M. (1997) News coverage of violence against women: Engendering blame, Thousand Oaks, Sage.Google Scholar
Nelson, B.J. (1984) Making an issue of child abuse: Political agenda setting for social problems, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Philo, G. (1993) ‘From Buerk to Band Aid: the media and the 1984 Ethiopian famine’, in Eldridge, J. (ed), Getting the message: News, truth and power, London, Routledge, pp 104–125.Google Scholar
Saunders, B.J. & Goddard, C. (in press) ‘The textual abuse of childhood in the English-speaking world - The contribution of language to the denial of children’s rights’, Childhood.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, P. & Tumber, H. (1994) Reporting crime: The media politics of criminal justice, Oxford, Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Smitherman-Donaldson, G. & van Dijk, T.A. (eds) (1988) Discourse and discrimination, Detroit, Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
Stanley, J. & Goddard, C. (in press) In the firing line: Relationships, power and violence in child protection work. New York and Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Stephens, M. (1988) A history of news: from the drum to the satellite, Harmondsworth, Penguin.Google Scholar
van Dijk, T.A. (ed) (1985) Handbook of discourse analysis: Volume 4 Discourse analysis in society, London, Academic Press.Google Scholar