It has long been true in the United States that there is widespread public response to media coverage of child abuse and neglect. Newspapers and magazines in the 19th century and, more recently, radio and television coverage of child maltreatment issues have been useful and effective means of publicizing needs in this area.

As early as the 1870s, when the now-famous Mary Ellen Wilson case was written about in the New York Times, reporters and editors recognized the public's interest in child abuse. Some observers have drawn a correlation between the increase in media coverage of abuse and neglect and the response via private organizations and public agencies that seek to protect children and prevent child maltreatment. Whether or not there is a cause-and-effect relationship and despite some critics' charges that sensational reporting often does little more than titillate its audience, it is clear that, beginning in the late 19th century, the media in all its forms has promoted greater public awareness of child abuse and neglect.

Following C. Henry Kempe's report, "The Battered-Child Syndrome," in the July 7, 1962, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, many professional journals, popular magazines and newspapers increased their coverage of a wide range of child maltreatment issues. Numerous articles detailed the problem, focusing particularly on the psychopathology of abusing parents and varieties of physical abuse cases but also reported on other facets such as sexual abuse and corporal punishment.

According to one source, over the last three decades there have been over 1,700 articles published in professional journals alone, pieces that focus on child abuse and attendant issues. Likewise, newspaper coverage of the topic has grown enormously. In the 30-year period between 1950 and 1980, the New York Times Index lists 652 articles on child abuse. And popular magazine coverage of abuse and neglect increased as well. For the 10 years following publication of Kempe's article in the AMA journal, 28 articles about child abuse were printed in magazines read by the general public, a figure contrasting sharply with the previous decade during which only three stories on abuse were published.

It is apparent to many experts that, in the 1970s and 1980s, changes in public policy regarding child abuse and neglect were precipitated to some degree by greater coverage of the subject. In this respect, the 20th century is similar to the previous century, when public and private agencies were established in apparent response to news coverage of child protection issues. In this sense, the media has positively influenced the heightened public awareness of and interest in child abuse and neglect.

Reference: Gerbner, George, Catherine J. Ross, and Edward Zigler, eds. Child Abuse: An Agenda for Action. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.

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