This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Wardle, C. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Monsters and angels

Visual press coverage of child murders in the USA and UK, 1930—2000

Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. Address: School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University, Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NB, UK, wardlec{at}cf.ac.uk

The crime of child murder is considered the most heinous and least comprehensible of all violent crimes. This study examines the visual representation of 12 high profile child abductions and murders in broadsheet and tabloid newspapers from two countries over a 70-year time frame. The body of coverage produced almost 1000 images and these were examined using a content analysis of the individual subjects of these photographs, followed by a qualitative analysis of the main patterns which emerged. The study produced two expected findings: that the coverage has become increasingly visual, and that the visuals were overwhelmingly `personal'. Within these overarching patterns, it was clear that the content of the visuals has changed over the three decades studied (the 1930s, 1960s and 1990s). In the earlier decades the visuals emphasized the role of the criminal justice system in capturing the perpetrators and bringing them to justice. In the 1990s there was a far greater focus on the victims' families, as well as the emotional responses of society as a whole: both grief for the child, and anger towards their killers and the authorities which `enabled' them to offend. I explore these changes and the possible impact this visual coverage could have on public understanding of this crime, those who commit it, and how we treat them.

Key Words: children • crime • historical • newspapers • paedophilia • photographs

Journalism, Vol. 8, No. 3, 263-284 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1464884907076461


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. S. Knox Punctuating the home page: image as language in an online newspaper Discourse & Communication, May 1, 2009; 3(2): 145 - 172. [Abstract] [PDF]