Framing Abuse

Jenny Kitzinger

Description

How does the media shape the way we think about child sexual abuse? Combining in-depth analysis of media representations of the crimes, with focus group discussions and interviews with around 500 journalists, campaigners and a cross-section of 'the public', Jenny Kitzinger reveals the media's role in contemporary society.



Which stories attract attention and why? Answering this and other questions, Kitzinger demonstrates how media reporting can impact on people's knowledge of the 'facts', perceptions of risk, sense of appropriate policy responses and even how we interpret our own experiences. Looking at feminist initiatives to challenge sexual violence, the emergence of incest as a social problem and the development of new survivor identities. She also explores stereotypes around sex offenders,interrogates protests against 'paedophiles-in-the-community' and presents a detailed analysis of the impact of scandals about disputed abuse accusations.



This book is essential reading for anyone interested in theories of media influence, identity and social change or who wishes to encourage responsible journalism. It is also a key resource for anyone concerned about sexual violence and the protection of children or who is attempting to design intervention strategies.
1. Introduction

2. The Debate About Media Influence

3. Transformation Of Private And Public Discourse: The Media Discovers Sexual Abuse

4. Media Templates: Controversial Allegations and Analogies

5. Story Branding And The Role Of Empathy

6. Story Placing: Representing Localities, Landscapes and Communities in the News

7. Social Currency, Stranger-Danger And Images Of Abusers

8. Audiences As Activists: The 'Paedophile-In-The-Community' Protests

9. The Zero Tolerance Campaign: Responses To A Feminist Initiative

10. Conclusion

Epilogue: Implications For Journalists and For Child Protection

Appendix

Notes

References

Index

Sujets

• Media Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 août 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783715633
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Framing Abuse
Media Influence and Public Understanding of Sexual Violence Against Children
Jenny Kitzinger
First published 2004 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Jenny Kitzinger 2004
The right of Jenny Kitzinger to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN    0 7453 2332 4 hardback ISBN    0 7453 2331 6 paperback ISBN    978 1 7837 1563 3 ePub ISBN    978 1 7837 1564 0 Kindle
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, England
Dedication
To Sheila and Uwe – with love
Contents
Acknowledgements
   1
Introduction  
The research that informs this book  
A guide to the book’s structure
   2
The Debate About Media Influence  
A review of some key approaches to audience research  
The current impasse: media influence versus active audiences  
My research approach
   3
Transformation of Private and Public Discourse: The Media ‘Discovers’ Sexual Abuse  
Constructing a new social problem: a brief modern history  
Placing narratives in historical context: recording personal accounts during the 1980s and 1990s  
From cultural vacuum to multiple media mediation: survivors’ accounts of the media’s role  
The preconditions for media discovery  
Critical reflections on coverage of ‘the incest survivor’  
Revisiting three media studies theories: active consumption, creative identification and agenda-setting  
Conclusion
   4
Media Templates: Controversial Allegations and Analogies  
The media’s discovery of contested cases  
The Cleveland scandal: a brief introduction  
Journalists’ retrospective references to Cleveland  
Public recollections of Cleveland  
Challenging templates: an alternative media account of the Cleveland scandal  
Discussion  
Conclusion
   5
Story Branding and the Role of Empathy  
Orkney in the news – an outline of the scandal  
Remembering Orkney as ‘the dawn raids case’  
Why the dawn raids made such an impression  
Reflections on the dawn raids branding  
Sources of alternative perspectives  
Conclusion
   6
Story Placing: Representing Localities, Landscapes and Communities in the News  
The significance of place in news reporting  
Locating the story in landscape and community: media accounts of Orkney  
People’s memories of how the media represented Orkney  
People’s impressions and beliefs  
Conclusion
   7
Social Currency, Stranger-Danger and Images of Abusers  
Beasts, devils, queers and sissies: images of sex offenders  
The danger that prowls our streets  
Public perceptions of abusers  
A reflection on representations of accused adults in contested cases  
‘Public’ and ‘private’ knowledge: extra-media influences and the significance of social currency  
Conclusion
   8
Audiences as Activists: The ‘Paedophile in the Community’ Protests  
The rise of the paedophile problem  
‘Moral panics and lynch mobs’?  
Theorising community and media protest  
Conclusion
   9
The Zero Tolerance Campaign: Responses to a Feminist Initiative  
The Zero Tolerance campaign  
Researching people’s responses  
Conclusion
10
Conclusion  
The media’s role in representing social issues  
How texts ‘work’  
How audiences ‘work’  
Reflections on key terms and the implications of audience activity for media influence  
Implications for future research
Epilogue: Implications for Journalists and for Child Protection  
Implications for child protection  
Implications for media professionals  
Reflections on the political economy of the media
Appendix
Notes
References
Name Index
Subject Index
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank everyone who gave their time to my research projects and were prepared to talk to me so openly. I also wish to acknowledge financial support from the Economic and Social Research Council (award no. 000233657). The collection of most of the original data presented in this volume would not have been possible without such funds. I am grateful to former colleagues at Glasgow and my current colleagues at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies for their intellectual engagement in developing the ideas presented here. As always thank you also to my family and friends whose forebearance and support throughout the preparation of this volume have been invaluable. Special thanks to Diana, Martha and Sarah whose love and encouragement sustained me through difficult times.
Above all, this book would not have been possible without all those who have campaigned to challenge sexual violence. I am particularly indebted to the young women in the Cambridge Incest Survivors’ refuge during the 1980s. It was their courage in speaking out about their abuse, and their request for information about other survivors’ experiences, that first set me on the journey which has culminated in this book so many years later.
1
Introduction
We live in a media saturated society. What does this mean for how we make sense of the world around us? How do the facts, stories, images and ideas presented in the mass media relate to our common-sense knowledge and critical judgements? What rhetorical strategies do journalists and their sources use to persuade people of their point of view? How do we respond to what we are told and come to our own conclusions? This book examines the mass media’s role in defining, and sometimes transforming, social issues and influencing the way we think. It focuses on the media’s role in relation to one of the major social problems of our time, child sexual abuse. The book combines analysis of media coverage with interviews with survivors of childhood sexual abuse and with journalists and their sources. In addition it presents a detailed analysis of 79 focus group discussions exploring people’s assumptions and fears about sexual abuse, their opinions about controversial cases, and how they relate media representations to their own experience. This unique dataset permits an examination of the significance of media content and production processes and an examination of both the extent and the limits of media influence over time. The findings from this research engage with, but also challenge, many of the contemporary debates about audience reception processes and media power.
THE RESEARCH THAT INFORMS THIS BOOK
My work in this field stretches back over 20 years and evolved in parallel with commitments both within and outside the field of media studies. Like any research it is informed by the social, political and disciplinary context in which it was conducted. This introduction outlines the diverse research initiatives that inform this volume, provides a sense of the context in which each research project was carried out, and guides the reader through the book’s structure.
I first started studying sexual abuse as a result of my involvement in the Women’s Liberation Movement. One of the key aims of this movement was to challenge violence against women and children, especially abuse within intimate relationships. 1 Before the rise of second wave feminism, these acts of violence were often not taken seriously. Wife battering was dismissed as a domestic dispute, rape in marriage was not a criminal offence and child sexual abuse within the family was hardly acknowledged as a problem at all. During the 1970s, for example, headline news was attracted by the occasional child abduction, rape or murder, but discussion of the broader category of sexual exploitation of children in all its forms was largely taboo. There were also very limited services available for those enduring such abuse.
In the early 1980s I was part of a feminist collective in Cambridge, England, which set up a helpline and subsequently a refuge for sexually abused girls. The young women who contacted us needed accommodation and emotional support; they also desperately wanted images that reflected the reality of their own lives and they wanted to learn about other survivors’ experiences. At the time there were not many books on this subject. 2 At the request of some of the girls in the refuge I started to record interviews with adult women survivors and also with some mothers of sexually abused children. Interviewees were recruited from self-help groups, through notices in community centres and waiting rooms, and through personal contacts. These interviews addressed women’s experiences of abuse, its consequences and their strategies for survival. I explored how they had sought help (or not) as children and as adults, the responses of those around them and how they integrated the experiences of trauma into their political perspectives and life narratives. I conducted 40 interviews in all. This research was conducted over a time period which proved to be one of decisive social change – 1984 to 1989 – just as the media across the English-speaking world were beginning to confront the realities of sexual abuse. In the mid 1980s the topic started to be addressed in UK news and documentaries, women’s magazines, discussion shows and TV dramas. (The latter were often imported from the USA where this issue had begun to attract interest a few years earlier.) Journalists, editors, programme producers and scriptwriters started to confront the sexual exploitation of children as a widespread social problem affecting all strata of society. They also began to recognise that when ch