Making and Managing the Discredited Victim: Reproduction of Sex Work Stigma in Canadian News Media, 2010-2019

Abstract

As changes to Canadian sex work policy were made in the 2010s, increased attention was positioned toward sex work broadly and, importantly, within news reporting. This analysis investigates the ways in which stigma is present and reproduced within, and aids in determining the framing of, this news reporting. Pairing a historical overview of sex work and a theoretical framework based in stigma, cultural studies, and narrative framing, a content analysis and discourse analysis of 100 news reports was performed to find themes that indicate the presence of stigma as reporting on sex work was divided into narratives positioning sex workers as villains, victims, or heroes. The results of these analyses indicate the presence of stigma explicitly in narratives framing sex workers as villains. However, amidst a discursive turn in the framing of sex work in news reporting corresponding with legislative change, the presentation of the sex-worker-as-victim was a role that was repeatedly discredited through more implicit stigma, and narrative frames associating sex workers with the hero role are presented as a new method of stigma management.