Constructing 'reality': The portrayal of Internet child luring by Toronto-based newspapers 1998--2008

Abstract

Often simplistic and misleading, the reporting of child sexual abuse has long been a staple of commercial news media's portrayal of crime and criminal justice. A mixed quantitative/qualitative content analysis methodology is applied to the study of three Toronto-based newspaper's construction of Internet Child Luring, between the 1st of January, 1998, and August 1st, 2008. Erected as a serious problem, above which a sober appraisal of known facts could sustain, a Textual Panic is said to exist within newsprint's rendering of the information-age crime. Rational cogitating offenders, undeterred by weak legislation and underfunded police forces, are described as exploiting the communication medium in attempts to lure defenseless children into illicit sexual activity.