Abstract
The paradox at the heart of newspaper and broadcast media reports of child abuse is that they have tended to offer only scant attention to the child who should be at the centre of the coverage. Instead, journalists have preferred to fabricate and focus on two oppositional portrayals of social welfare professionals. Both stereotypes have been highly unflattering, have influenced social work practice, hindered recruitment to the profession, but also helped to inform and shape public conversations about the appropriate policy response to such cases. Across 40 years of press coverage ranging from Maria Colwell (1973) to the Peter (‘Baby P’) Connelly tragedy (2007), journalists have presented social workers as either ineffectual wimps incapable of protecting children who were suffering physical or sexual abuse or, alternatively, as bullies whose unjustifiable interventions in the private affairs of families have resulted in their precocious break-up (Franklin 1998a, 1998b, 1999; Franklin and Parton 1991). This chapter explores a distinctive approach which places social media at the heart of its concerns by examining YouTube representations and reactions to the death of Peter Connelly in Haringey in 2007. It analyses the public conversation about the death of this child by conducting a qualitative analysis of a sample of the most popular videos (by viewing) uploaded to YouTube and viewers’ postings in response to them. The research ambition informing this chapter is to compare recent social media — especially YouTube — conversations about child abuse, with earlier journalistic accounts.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
‘A Song for Baby P’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGZuhqvKbt0 (accessed 21 November 2013).
Aldridge, M. (1994). Making Social Work News. London: Routledge.
Ayre, P. (2001). ‘Child Protection and the Media: Lessons from the Last Three Decades’. British Journal of Social Work 31(6): 887–901.
‘Baby P — NSPCC Campaign Action Group to Protect All Children’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oba80Hr8qrI (accessed 21 November 2013).
‘Baby P The 17 Month Old Baby Tortured’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwNXvROJaNU&list=PLwqXGZ1C66SZARjRe_0pTQlgg_EARFWc (accessed 21 November 2013).
‘Baby P The Whole Truth Part 1’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhLURjB99D0 (accessed 21 November 2013).
‘Baby P Tribute’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CrZ8YTgoac (accessed 21 November 2013).
Brennen, B. (2013). Qualitative Research Methods for Media Studies. New York and London: Routledge.
Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang.
CREA (Children’s Rights Alliance England). (2009). Children’s Rights and Equality in the Newspapers. http://www.partnershipforyounglondon.org.uk/data/files/Participation/childrens_rights_and_equality_in_the_newspapers_crae_may_2009.pdf (accessed 13 January 2014).
Davies, N. 2008. Flat Earth News. London: Vintage Books.
‘Disgusting Torture and Murder of Baby P. READ THE INFO’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea9–0qBx6QE&list=PLwqXGZ1C66SZARjRe_0pTQlgg_EARFWc (accessed 21 November 2013).
Elsley, S. (2010). Media Coverage of Child Deaths in the UK: The Impact of Baby P: A Case for Influence? Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.
Franklin, B. (1998a). ‘The SAS in Cardies …’. Community Care (10–16 December): 30–1.
Franklin, B. (1998b). Hard Pressed: National Newspaper Reporting of Social Work and Social Services. London: Reed Business Services.
Franklin, B. (1999). ‘Education … Education and Please, Less Prejudice’. British Journalism Review 10(1): 41–9.
Franklin, B. (2012). ‘The Future of Journalism; Developments and Debates’. Journalism Studies 13(5–6***): 663–81.
Franklin, B. and Parton, N. (eds). (1991). Social Work, the Media and Public Relations. London: Routledge.
Gaber, I. (2011). ‘That’s a Great Story! The Media, Social Work and Child Abuse’. British Journalism Review 23(3): 57–63.
Hunt, L. (2008). ‘Baby P: Social Work Campaigners Launch “Anti Witch Hunt” Petition’. Community Care (17 November). http://www.communitycare.co.uk/articles/17/11/2008/110000/baby-p-social-work-campaigners-launch-anti-witchhunt-petition.htm. ‘Justice 4 Baby P’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s1BaQE3–s4 (accessed 21 November 2013).
Kennedy, J. (2010). ‘Don’t You Forget About Me; An Exploration of the ‘Maddie’ Phenomenon on YouTube’. Journalism Studies 11(2): 225–42.
Kitchen, M. (1980). ‘What the Client Thinks of You’. Social Work Today (June).
Larkin, P. (1974). ‘Annus Mirabilis’. In High Windows. London: Faber & Faber.
Lasica J. D. (2007). ‘What is Participatory Journalism?’ Online Journalism Review. http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1060217106.php (accessed 13 January 2014).
McKay, H. (2009). ‘Child Abuse, Social Work and the Press; Baby P.’ Unpublished MA dissertation, London Metropolitan University.
Phillips, A. (2012). ‘Sociability, Speed and Quality in the Changing News Environment’. Journalism Practice 6(5–6)***: 669–79.
Plunkett, J. (2010). ‘Andrew Marr says bloggers are “inadequate, pimpled and single”’. Guardian, 11 October. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oct/11/andrew-marr-bloggers (accessed 13 January 2014).
Pugh, A. (2011). ‘Child protection reporting “vindictive” and “simplistic” in community care’. http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/47228 (accessed 10 December 2012).
‘RAW and EMOTIONAL’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzsuY-Kkaqw (accessed 21 November 2013).
Rosen, J. ‘The Definition of Citizen Journalism’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcYSmRZuep4 (accessed 21 November 2013).
Sabato, L. J. (1991). Feeding Frenzy: How Attack Journalism Has Transformed American Politics. Michigan: Free Press.
Santana, A. D. (Forthcoming). ‘Virtuous or Vitriolic: The Effect of Anonymity on Civility in Online Newspaper Reader Comment Boards’. Journalism Practice.
‘Shoesmith Wins Baby P Sacking Case’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1RW92d2A8o&playnext=1&list=PLwqXGZ1C66SZARjRe_0pTQlgg_EARFWc_ (accessed 21 November 2013).
‘The Munro Review to Look at Children’s Social Work and Frontline Child Protection’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBznWUQNtAY (accessed 21 November 2013).
‘The Peter Connelly Story’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E1rKYrP_DY (accessed 21 November 2013).
Treacher, R. (1988). ‘The Problem with Being on the Media Map’. Local Government Chronicle (22 July): 15.
Warner, J. (2013a). ‘“Heads must roll”? Emotional Politics, the Press, and the Death of Baby P’. British Journal of Social Work (published online 4 March). DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bct039.
Warner, J. (2013b). ‘Social Work, Class Politics and Risk in the Moral Panic over Baby P’. Health, Risk and Society (published online 1 March). DOI:10.1080/13698575.2013.776018.
YouTube. YouTube Statistics. www.YouTube.com/t/press_statistics (accessed 21 November 2013).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Bob Franklin
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Franklin, B. (2014). Citizen Journalists or Cyber Bigots?. In: Wagg, S., Pilcher, J. (eds) Thatcher’s Grandchildren?. Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281555_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281555_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-44821-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-28155-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)