Media Coverage of Child Sexual Abuse: A Framework of Issue-Specific Quality Criteria

ABSTRACT

Sensationalist, stereotyping or otherwise biased media coverage of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) can harm survivors and is detrimental to rational, solution-oriented public debates on the issue. While the Public Interest Model (PIM) of normative media theory promotes generic quality dimensions, there currently is no framework of issue-specific media quality for reporting about CSA. This paper aims at developing such a framework, working deductively with PIM and inductively with different expert sources regarding quality criteria (QC) for CSA reporting. Our data collection covered four types of expert sources: journalistic guidelines, scientific publications, surveys with survivors and with counseling centers. All sources were content analyzed using reliable codebooks (κ = .79–1.00). Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were run. We present a framework comprised of 10 QC. Eight inductively generated QC for CSA media coverage are (1) thematic framing, (2) non-sensational reporting, (3) use of appropriate terms, (4) inclusion of stakeholders, (5) non-stereotypical reporting, (6) inclusion of prevention/intervention, (7) ethical treatment of survivors in interviews and (8) lawful reporting. Two deductively generated QC are (9) balance of survivors’ and alleged perpetrators’ interests and (10) disclosure and reflection of official sources. Limitations and implications for future media research and journalistic practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Child sexual abuse
• journalism
• media coverage
• public interest model of media quality
• media quality criteria

Acknowledgments

This study was made possible by the funding of the Independent Commissioner for Child Sexual Abuse Issues of the German government during the project “Qualität der medialen Berichterstattung über sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch: Beurteilungskriterien für Forschung und Praxis” [“Quality of Media Coverage of Child Sexual Abuse: Evaluation Criteria for Research and Practice”], conducted 10/02/17 – 03/31/18 (Grant Number Z2/21.31.10/P/17). Furthermore, we would like to thank all CSA survivors and CSA counseling centers for their participation in the surveys.

Disclosure of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical standards and informed consent

All procedures of the present study, in particular, the surveys of CSA survivors and CSA counseling centers, were conducted in accordance with the 2017 APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (American Psychological Association [APA], 2017), the 2007 WHO ethical and safety recommendations for researching, documenting and monitoring sexual violence in emergencies and the 2015 Bonn Ethics Declaration for Research on Sexual Violence (https://www.bmbf.de/files/Ethikerklaerung(1).pdf). Informed consent was obtained from all participants of the surveys. The analyzed documents are all publicly accessible and hence do not require further ethical considerations.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by a grant from the Independent Commissioner for Child Sexual Abuse Issues of the German government (Z2/21.31.10/P/17) to Nicola Döring, project leader.

Notes on contributors

Nicola Döring

Nicola Döring, Ph.D., is head of the research group Media Psychology and Media Design at the Institute of Media and Communication Science at Ilmenau University of Technology, Ilmenau, Thuringia, Germany.

Roberto Walter

Roberto Walter, M.A., is currently a research fellow and second year doctoral student at the research group Media Psychology and Media Design at the Institute of Media and Communication Science at Ilmenau University of Technology, Ilmenau, Thuringia, Germany.