Child Abuse And Neglect Analysis

In an era in which the amount of media coverage of child maltreatment and neglect has risen considerably, it is time for communication scholars to examine the character of that coverage. The media have played an important role as an active agent of information in the historical transformation of the problem of child abuse and neglect. From the very beginning of the social recognition of the existence of “cruelty to children” as a social problem in the late nineteenth century, the media, particularly newspapers, were at the very center (Gough & Stanley, 2007). The media discovered, unveiled, and constructed the social problem out of a once minor private charity concern (Gough & Stanley, 2007). The media helped to establish the individual problem …show more content…
While acknowledging the inherent limitations of media coverage, studying media representation of child abuse and neglect is a key factor in understanding popular opinion about the issue. In discussing why media coverage of an issue is consequential, Scheufele (2000) utilized a memory based model of information processing, and states that mass media influences the salience of certain issues as perceived by the audience affecting the ease with which these issues can be retrieved from memory thereby setting an agenda in the minds of the readers. This perceived issue salience then, Scheufele (2000) added, influences the role that these considerations play when the audience judges an actor, according to the priming …show more content…
A good example of child emotional abuse comes from the news article of “Emotional abuse worst of all for children.” A court case was presented in a Staten Island, New York, where a child by the name of David was emotionally abused by his father. David was often shunned by his father. He became overwhelmed by feelings of guilt for being so bad, and an embarrassment for remaining in a house where his father did not want him. David’s father’s emotional abuse made David feel guilty about wearing clothes and eating food purchased by his father’s hard labor, and because he ate that food and wore those clothes, he hated himself. This case sheds light on the effects of emotional abuse in the media. Nonetheless, people should seek to establish the authenticity of articles written by the media. It is our knowledge that the purpose of the media is to provide information to the public. In contrast, people should know the major goal of the media is to make a lot of money out of it. Additionally, the media normally targets to get a lot of