Yu Wenting
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
J Child Sex Abus. 2021 Jul;30(5):524-545. doi: 10.1080/10538712.2021.1897916. Epub 2021 Mar 13.
This study investigated how the news media in China - a country influenced by collectivism, authoritarianism, and Confucianism - portrayed child sexual abuse to the public over the past decade. A content analysis of 501 newspaper articles published over that time period revealed how news portrayals of child sexual abuse changed following notable abuse cases and refinements in relevant laws in China. The results indicated that media attention to child sexual abuse increased dramatically after 2013, and a trend of shaping child sexual abuse as a social problem began in 2015. This study also found an interesting cultural difference in the application of framing theory. The Chinese news stories of child sexual abuse were more likely to present individual frames but societal frames. This apparent inconsistency was not seen in previous research with U.S. media and may be attributable to a cultural preference for victim blame and collective solutions. The findings provide insights into news portrayals of child sexual abuse in a developing society. In addition, this study points out potential problems in Chinese news reports on child sexual abuse and offers suggestions for journalists and advocates for children.
本研究调查了在受集体主义、威权主义和儒家思想影响的中国，新闻媒体在过去十年中是如何向公众描绘儿童性虐待的。对该时间段内发表的501篇报纸文章进行的内容分析揭示了在中国发生重大虐待案件以及相关法律完善之后，新闻报道中对儿童性虐待的描述是如何变化的。结果表明，2013年之后媒体对儿童性虐待的关注度急剧上升，且在2015年开始出现将儿童性虐待塑造成一个社会问题的趋势。本研究还发现了在框架理论应用方面一个有趣的文化差异。中国关于儿童性虐待的新闻报道更倾向于呈现个体框架而非社会框架。这种明显的不一致在之前对美国媒体的研究中并未出现，可能归因于对受害者指责和集体解决方案的文化偏好。这些发现为发展中社会关于儿童性虐待的新闻报道提供了见解。此外，本研究指出了中国儿童性虐待新闻报道中的潜在问题，并为记者和儿童权益倡导者提供了建议。
