Abstract
The use of sperm donation by single women has provoked public, professional and political debate. Newspapers serve as a critical means of both broadcasting this debate and effecting a representation of this user group within the public sphere. This study uses the theory of social representations to examine how single motherhood by sperm donation has been represented in the UK news over time. The study sampled news coverage on this topic in eight British newspapers during three 4‐year periods between the years 1988 and 2012. The dataset of news reports (n = 406) was analysed using a qualitative approach. Findings indicated that UK media reports of single women using donor sperm are underpinned by conventional categories of the ‘personal’, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘natural’ that when paired with their corollaries produce a representation of this user group as the social ‘other’. The amount of coverage on this topic over time was found to vary according to the political orientation of different media sources. Using key concepts from social representations theory, this article discusses the relationship between themata and anchoring in the maintenance of representations of the social ‘other’ in mass mediated communication. Findings are explained in relation to theoretical conceptions of the mass media and its position within the public sphere. It is argued that the use of personal narratives in news reports of single mothers by sperm donation may have significant implications for public understandings of this social group. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Highlights
More recently met with disapproval from politicians (McCandless & Sheldon, 2010), fertility professionals (Lee, Macvarish, & Sheldon, 2012) and the general public (Kailasam, Sykes, & Jenkins, 2001), it is clear that despite changes to prior emphases on children’s ‘need for a father’ in the legislation on assisted reproduction (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, 2008), single women using donor sperm remain at the heart of concerns about the choice to have a child, the meaning of motherhood, and the future of family life
As in previous research (Correia & Broderick, 2009; Michelle, 2007), the findings of this study demonstrate that single mothers by sperm donation are consistently represented in the British press as ostensibly ordinary, yet deviant
Results make clear that the content of news coverage on this topic is subject to surface changes, it is evident that the representation of single women using donor sperm as ‘other’ retained its potency in the British press from 1988–2012
Summary
Arguments against single women using donor sperm have pervaded debates about who ought to be permitted access to assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) in the UK since. Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd More recently met with disapproval from politicians (McCandless & Sheldon, 2010), fertility professionals (Lee, Macvarish, & Sheldon, 2012) and the general public (Kailasam, Sykes, & Jenkins, 2001), it is clear that despite changes to prior emphases on children’s ‘need for a father’ in the legislation on assisted reproduction (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, 2008), single women using donor sperm remain at the heart of concerns about the choice to have a child, the meaning of motherhood, and the future of family life. This article seeks to contribute to understanding the social responses to single mothers by sperm donation by scrutinising UK media representations of this social group through the lens of social representations theory
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