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ERIC Number: ED468276
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2002-Feb
Pages: 25
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Coverage in Context: How Thoroughly the News Media Report Five Key Children's Issues.
Kunkel, Dale; Smith, Stacy; Suding, Peg; Biely, Erica
This 1991 study investigated how thoroughly the news media reported stories about children's issues, focusing on the two media by which most Americans receive their daily news: television and newspapers. It analyzed a broad sample of news coverage including 12 major newspapers from across the country and newscasts on four leading national television networks. For each source sampled, news products were monitored daily for 3 months. News stories were judged to determine whether they contained a primary focus on children and/or child-related issues. They were further scrutinized to determine whether they fell into any of five topic areas (child abuse and neglect, child care, child health insurance, teen childbearing, and youth crime and violence). Analysis of these stories indicated that youth crime/violence and child abuse/neglect received extensive coverage in the news, collectively accounting for more than nine out of every ten stories across all five categories. The other topics were consistently overlooked. Stories on youth crime/violence and child abuse/neglect were framed in episodic fashion, emphasizing breaking news and developments. They had dramatically low rates of important contextual information. In the areas of child care and teen childbearing, three out of four stories included some important contextual information. (SM)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Maryland Univ., College Park. Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families.
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A