Newspaper Portrayals of Child Abuse: Frequency of Coverage and Frames of the Issue

Abstract

For several years, child welfare advocates have claimed that the U.S. news media misrepresent child abuse and fail to highlight its societal dimensions. To investigate the accuracy of this diagnosis, the following study examines findings of a content analysis of child abuse coverage in major national and urban U.S. newspapers from 2000 to 2008. First, we determine how frequently newspapers covered the different types of child abuse. Second, we analyze whether child abuse has been framed as either an isolated phenomenon (episodic and individual frames) or a broadly systemic and public problem (thematic and societal frames). Third, we look for changes in coverage frequency and media frames over time. Findings are mixed: On one hand, different types of child abuse receive varying degrees of coverage, with sexual abuse receiving a disproportionately large amount; on the other hand, the topic of child abuse in general has predominantly been framed thematically as a problem that has societal causes and solutions. However, there was no clear pattern in the way these causes and solutions have been framed over the years. Based on these findings, we suggest that child welfare advocates should focus on communication goals other than influencing media frames.