The Framing of Child Sexual Abuse in the Media: Who is Responsible?

• In Event: Let's Talk About Sex: Communicating About Sexual Health

Abstract

Abstract

Analyzing newspaper articles and television transcripts, this study examines how the national news media has framed child sexual abuse (CSA) in the United States from 2002 through 2012. This content analysis seeks to define and apply attributions of responsibility, categorized as individual or societal level causes and solutions, to the framing of CSA in news articles. Implications derived from the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.
Keywords: child sexual abuse, mass media, content analysis, framing, framing of responsibility, institutional failure

Author

• Jane Long Weatherred, University of South Carolina