Good Press, Bad Press, or Neither: Identifying Sociolinguistic Practices Shaping Child Welfare System Portrayals in Media Coverage of Child Maltreatment Fatalities

Background and Purpose:  Media coverage of child maltreatment fatalities can have major impacts on policy, organizational culture, service provision, and public perceptions of the child welfare system.  Advocates and scholars have called for strategies to improve the relationship between the child welfare system and the media.  Such calls often assume that most child fatality coverage portrays the system negatively and that these negative portrayals result from issues of confidentiality and the child welfare system’s lack of communication and transparency.  However, little research has systematically analyzed how the child welfare system is portrayed in media coverage of child maltreatment fatalities and the means through which such portrayals are created.

Through conducting a critical case analysis of online news articles covering the course of a child maltreatment fatality case in Detroit, Michigan, this study explores how sociolinguistic practices in articles on child maltreatment fatalities shape the ways in which the child welfare system is portrayed. 

Methods:  A critical case method was used to analyze online news coverage of a child maltreatment fatality case, which was selected because two child protective services (CPS) workers were charged in connection with the death.  A two-step methodology was utilized to create an article database.  Key word searches using the names of people in the case were conducted using Google Search Engine and targeted searches of news source websites.  Articles were also identified through following embedded links within news articles themselves.  Findings included a total of 17 articles published between March 2016 and January 2017. 

Following Norman Fairclough’s(1995) critical discourse analysis method, each article was analyzed individually, focusing on identifying the different sources and types of information used in the articles, how content was structured in the article, and how information and structure shaped the portrayal of the child welfare system in the case. 

Findings:Over half (58%) of the 17 articles focused on the role of the child welfare system in the child fatality case.  30 sources of information were identified in these articles, with one third (33%) of the sources being associated with the child welfare system.   The majority of article content on the child welfare system focused on the specific details about the CPS investigation that occurred prior to the child’s death, such as timelines of events, case notes written by the CPS workers, the CPS workers’ actions, and testimonies from different individuals who were directly and indirectly involved in the investigation.  This content was structured around emphasizing contradictions between different details about the investigation, portraying the CPS investigative process as being complex and uncertain.  Common types of contradictions discussed were between worker’s case notes and worker’s actions, worker’s actions and agency procedures, and different individuals’ evaluations of the child’s wellbeing. 

Conclusions and Implications:  Findings demonstrate how sociolinguistic practices in media coverage of child maltreatment fatalities create complex portrayals of the child welfare system.   This study provides a methodology for identifying these sociolinguistic practices which are a key part in developing strategies for more productive engagements between the child welfare system and the media.