Children in the news: subjects and objects of crime

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to characterize how children are mentioned in the news they lead, assessing its relation with crime cases. Content analysis was applied to 1321 news from the three major newspapers in Portugal: Correio da Manhã, Público and Jornal de Notícias. Results point to media construction of the child around themes where children lead as subjects or objects of crime, with a sensationalist rhetoric amplifying their image either of fragility as victims or of social blame as criminals.

Children; News; Crime; Sensationalism; Newspapers; Content analysis