Images of Children in Romanian Newspapers
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Images of Children in Romanian Newspapers A study about the images of children and young people in the Romanian written media Alexandra Spinu Master in Media Studies University of Oslo Department of Media and Communication Autumn 2012 Abstract Children and youth are present in almost every form of media. The starting point of this thesis was the desire to investigate how children and young people are presented in the media, especially in the newspapers coverage. The media is both a source of knowledge as well as having a significant contribution to our identity. The ways the media present children and young people can influence the way their identity is constructed in the public discourse, as well as the public‟s general assumption towards children and young people. In this master‟s thesis I have analyzed the ways in which the Romanian media present the children. In this study I have used both qualitative and quantitative contents analysis. Children and young people are rarely present in the Romanian newspapers that this study is based on. Thus this study reveals a certain under-representation of children and young people in the newspapers. As a solution for this, several newspapers focused on children and young people by creating pages dedicated especially for them. These pages are placed at the end of the newspaper or come along with the newspaper. The articles presented here focus on children as gifted, present attraction sites destined for children and young people. The materials are written both by professional journalists and by the children themselves. An important finding of this study was that the high focus on violence in the Romanian newspaper coverage of children. One of the clearest findings in my study was that children and young people were often mentioned in connection with crime and violence. Forward I would first and foremost want to thank my supervisor, Professor Birgit Hertzberg Kaare, for her great support, commitment, suggestions and her feedback. I would also like to thank my family for their support during all this period. Warm and affectionate thanks to my work colleagues, Sonia, Kasia and Magda who were very understanding and supporting. I would also want to thanks my friends, Raluca, Mira, Fa, and Brenda who each in their very special ways have helped me. I would like to thank my professor Mihaela Berneagă, from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iaşi, Romania, who helped me in contacting the interviewees for this study. Finally, a grateful thank you to the journalists interviewed in this study for sharing their experiences and knowledge. 2 Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 8 1.1 The media – creator and disseminator of attitudes towards children ......................................... 8 1.2 The media have a say in how we see ourselves............................................................................ 9 1.3 Presentation of the research questions ...................................................................................... 10 1.4 Methodological and theoretical approach ................................................................................. 11 1.5 Quantitative and qualitative content analysis ............................................................................ 12 1.6 Qualitative interviews ................................................................................................................. 14 1.7 The newspapers as an arena for public debate .......................................................................... 15 1.8 Children’s right to information and participation ....................................................................... 15 2. Research about children ......................................................................................................... 17 2.1 The concept of childhood ........................................................................................................... 17 2.2 More research on children.......................................................................................................... 19 2.3 Children’s rights .......................................................................................................................... 23 2.4 Summing arguments ................................................................................................................... 26 3. Theory ................................................................................................................................... 27 3.1 Media Presentations, media frames and stereotypes ................................................................ 27 3.2Children as a social group ............................................................................................................ 29 3.3 Mass-media as a producer of images and realities about children ............................................ 31 3.4 Negative representations of children in the media .................................................................... 32 3.5 Moral panic, children and the media .......................................................................................... 34 3.6 Children and Media Panic ........................................................................................................... 34 3.7 The children as receivers and users of media ............................................................................. 36 3.8 The agenda setting of media ...................................................................................................... 37 3.9 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 37 4. Methods ................................................................................................................................ 38 4.1 Why newspaper articles? ............................................................................................................ 38 3 4.2 National newspapers .................................................................................................................. 39 4.2.1 Libertatea ............................................................................................................................. 40 4.2.2 Adevărul ............................................................................................................................... 40 4.2.3 Jurnalul Naţional .................................................................................................................. 41 4.2.4 Evenimentul Zilei .................................................................................................................. 41 4.2.5 România Liberă .................................................................................................................... 42 4.3 The collection of material ........................................................................................................... 42 4.4 Quantitative content analysis ..................................................................................................... 44 4.4.1 Reliabilty ............................................................................................................................... 45 4.4.2 Validity ................................................................................................................................. 45 4.4.3 Coding the material .............................................................................................................. 46 4.5 Age .............................................................................................................................................. 46 4.6 Topics .......................................................................................................................................... 47 4.7 Qualitative content analysis ........................................................................................................ 48 4.8 The verbal level ........................................................................................................................... 49 4.9 Citations ...................................................................................................................................... 49 4.10 Angle and genre ........................................................................................................................ 50 4.11 Qualitative interviews ............................................................................................................... 50 5. Quantitative content analysis ................................................................................................. 52 5.1 How are children and young people presented in newspapers? ............................................... 52 5.2 The distribution of articles according to the geographical area ................................................. 54 5.3. Distribution of the articles according to age groups ................................................................. 55 5.4 Topics .......................................................................................................................................... 56 5.4.1 Crime .................................................................................................................................... 58 5.4.2 Infractionality ......................................................................................................................