NCJ Number
124898
Date Published
1989
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This study examines the formal properties of child abuse "horror" stories in the media and the role they have played in the emergence and definition of this social problem.
Abstract
This study derives from a larger study of all newspaper stories on child abuse and neglect that appeared for 32 years (1948-1980) in "The Arizona Republic" and "The Phoenix Gazette," the two major newspapers in Arizona. Over the 32-year period, 623 news stories about child abuse and neglect appeared in these newspapers, with a tenfold increase in the number occurring after the passage of the State's first child abuse law in 1970. An ethnographic content analysis of the stories revealed five distinct properties: evocation of negative emotionality, accomplished either through ironic contrast or structural incongruity; disembodiment of interaction; decontextualization; the use of official sources; and the individualization of the causal agency. Disembodiment of interaction and decontextualization refer to the stories' failure to deal with any familial interactions and circumstantial factors bearing upon the abuse. The individualization of the causal agency pertains to the stories' tendency to present the abuser as the sole factor in the child's abuse. Mass media reports of child abuse and neglect have had a strong role in legitimizing this problem, presenting the official conception and definition of child abuse and promoting existing or planned official interventions, policies, programs, and budget requests. Large-scale reporting of such incidents, however, may result in citizens becoming psychologically "numbed" to the problem. 31 references.