Analysis of online child sexual abuse news and comments: The role of media coverage in supporting incorrect stereotypes about victims and perpetrators
Abstract
The objectives of the research were to determine what attitudes towards child sexual abuse
(CSA), victims and perpetrators are represented
in the direct comments on child sexual abuse
news, whether there is a difference in commenting with regard to the description of the victim,
perpetrator and abuse in the news and whether
there is an association between the specific
attitudes. Quantitative and qualitative content
analysis was used to analyze all CSA news published on the Jutarnji.hr news portal during
2015 (N = 78) and affiliated online Facebook
comments (N = 531). The frequency of different
attitudes and stereotypes within comments
was recorded for each CSA news. The most
prevalent were stereotypes about perpetrators, attitudes that shift responsibility from
perpetrators to other persons and institutions,
attitudes about CSA prevention and suppression and stereotypes about male victims. Use of
the pejorative terms to describe a perpetrator,
detailed descriptions of the CSA event, the disclosure of victims’ identities and consensual
words to describe abuse have supported stereotypes about victims and perpetrators in the
news comments. Such media coverage creates
an unfavourable environment for detecting CSA
and victims’ recovery.
Description
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Article
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Keywords
child sexual abuse, International Resources, Croatia, media coverage, online news comments, content analysis, attitudes towards CSA, stereotypes
Citation
Popović, S. (2016, May). Analysis of online child sexual abuse news and comments: The role of media coverage in supporting incorrect stereotypes about victims and perpetrators. In Sedma regionalna znanstvena konferencija. Vjerodostojnost medija: Novinarstvo i ljudska prava.