Regimes of Visibility of Sexual Violence in the French Catholic Church (1950–2020): An Analysis Through Television News

Abstract

Sexual violence in the Catholic Church (SVCC) has recently become a major public issue, and mass media have played an important role in its visibilization. While to date, studies of media coverage of SVCC have mainly covered short time periods and concentrated on print media, our article covers a long time-frame (1950–2020) and focuses on television news. It provides an important contribution to the field of media and religion study by providing both a case study, focusing on France and delineating four “regimes of visibility” of SVCC in television news, and a methodological toolbox for similar studies in other countries.