Print media coverage of child maltreatment in Bangladesh: A content analysis

Abstract

Newspapers can be a vital source of information in Bangladesh for investigating child maltreatment (CM), since the epidemiological data on CM is underestimated. Yet, there is little information on how CM-related content is covered in newspapers. To investigate the distribution and news framing of different types of CM cases, 2,957 news reports were collected retrospectively from six national (four Bengali and two English-language) daily newspapers published from January to December 2017. Berelson’s quantitative content analysis technique (only manifest content) was used to analyze the stories. From the descriptive statistics, this study showed that sexual (30%) and physical abuse (29%) were highly reported in Bangladeshi print media. Although 72% of newspapers focused on episodic events, only 27% of CM stories were reported using thematic frame. Individual-level causal (72%) and solution frame (53%) were more prominent, whereas societal-level solution frame (18%) were poorly reported focusing on the larger context of the society. We recommend that authorities take necessary steps to encourage journalists to cover more thematic news with societal-level solution frames to help prevent CM.