‘It just seemed like your normal domestic violence’: ethnic stereotypes in print media coverage of child abuse in New Zealand

Abstract

Child abuse in New Zealand is a matter of ongoing concern for the government, public officials, health practitioners and wider society, with most information on the issue coming from mass media, which have played an influential role in forming public opinion. This study investigates the coverage of serious child abuse between November 2007 and November 2009 in three largest New Zealand newspapers: The New Zealand Herald, The Dominion Post and The Press. The analysis of 205 articles shows that three-quarters of the data described severe physical abuse and/or death, and one-quarter described sexual abuse. More than half of all media pieces (56%) represented reporting of ‘crime stories’, such as police and court reports, in addition to statistical data, recommendations and critique (44%). Two cases of Nia Glassie and the Kahui twins’ deaths were sensationalised by the media and were described or mentioned in 63 articles altogether. The dominant construction of child abuse as a ‘Māori issue’ was achieved through individual framing, focused on the personalities of the perpetrators and their inferred innate characteristics, such as being prone to violence and dysfunctional by nature, which were further generalised to Māori society as a whole.