![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
This article introduces the concept of `media templates' and explores how these templates operate in relation to existing theories around key events and news icons. Drawing on focus group discussions, content analysis and interviews with media personnel, I demonstrate how templates help to shape news narratives and guide thinking not only about the past, but also about the present and the future. The argument is illustrated by examining the position of the `Cleveland scandal' (and the subsequent `Orkney crisis') in discussions of child sexual abuse. The discussion explores how templates such as Cleveland are established and maintained by source strategies, social power relations and journalistic/audience reception processes. The article concludes by outlining the implications of templates for media production practice, media studies theory and audience reception research.
| Aldridge, M. (1994) Making Social Work News. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Ashendon, S. (1994) `Governing Child Sexual Abuse', PhD thesis, Birkbeck, London. Google Scholar | |
| Atmore, C. (1996) `Cross-Cultural Media-tions: Media Coverage of Two Sexual Abuse Controversies in New Zealand/Aotearoa', Child Abuse Review 5(5): 334-45. Google Scholar, Crossref | |
| Bennett, W.L. and R.G. Lawrence (1995) `News Icons and the Mainstreaming of Social Change', Journal of Communication 45(3): 20-39. Google Scholar, Crossref, ISI | |
| Burke, P. (1997) Varieties of Cultural History. Cambridge: Polity Press. Google Scholar | |
| Campbell, B. (1988) Unofficial Secrets. London: Virago. Google Scholar | |
| Chibnall, S. (1977) Law-and-Order News: An Analysis of Crime Reporting in the British Press. London: Tavistock. Google Scholar | |
| Corner, J. , K. Richardson and N. Fenton (1990) Nuclear Reactions: Format and Response in Public Issue Television. London: John Libbey. Google Scholar | |
| Curran, J. (1987) `The Boomerang Effect: The Press and the Battle for London 1981-6', pp. 113-40 in J. Curran, A. Smith and P. Wingate (eds) Impacts and Influences. London: Methuen. Google Scholar | |
| Dayan, D. and E. Katz (1994) Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Donaldson, L. and S. O'Brien (1995) `Press Coverage of the Cleveland Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry', Journal of Public Health Medicine 17(1): 70-6. Google Scholar, Medline | |
| Elliot, P. and P. Golding (1974) `Mass Communication and Social Change: The Imagery of Development and the Development of Imagery', in E. Dekadt (ed.) Sociology of Development. London: Macmillan. Google Scholar | |
| Entman, R. (1993) `Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm', Journal of Communication 43(4): 51-8. Google Scholar, Crossref, ISI | |
| Fisher, K. (1997) `Locating Frames in the Discursive Universe', Sociological Research Online 2(3), www.socresonline.org.uk Google Scholar, SAGE Journals, ISI | |
| Franklin, B. and N. Parton (1991) `Media Reporting of Social Work', pp. 2-19 in B. Franklin and N. Parton (eds) Social Work, the Media and Public Relations. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Gamson, W. (1992) Talking Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Gamson, W. and A. Modigliani (1989) `Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach', American Journal of Sociology 95(1): 1-37. Google Scholar, Crossref, ISI | |
| Gitlin, T. (1980) The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left. Berkeley: University of California Press. Google Scholar | |
| Goffman, E. (1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York: Harper & Row. Google Scholar | |
| Golding, P. and S. Middleton (1982) Images of Welfare: Press and Public Attitudes to Poverty. Oxford: Martin Robertson. Google Scholar | |
| GUMG (Glasgow University Media Group) (1980) More Bad News. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Google Scholar | |
| Guy, C. (1996) `Feminism and Sexual Abuse: Troubled Thoughts on some New Zealand Issues', Feminist Review 52: 154-68. Google Scholar, Crossref | |
| Hall, S. , C. Critcher, T. Jefferson, J. Clarke and B. Roberts (1978) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order. London: Macmillan. Google Scholar | |
| Hechler, D. (1988) The Battle and the Backlash: The Child Sexual Abuse War. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Google Scholar | |
| Jenkins, P. (1992) Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain. New York: Alpine de Gruyere. Google Scholar | |
| Kepplinger, H. and J. Habermeier (1995) `The Impact of Key Events on the Presentation of Reality', European Journal of Communication 10(3): 371-90. Google Scholar, SAGE Journals, ISI | |
| Kessel, R. (1989) `(Mis)understanding Cleveland: Foundational Issues and the Sexual Abuse of Children', Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 3: 347-52. Google Scholar, Crossref, Medline | |
| Kitzinger, J. (1993) `Understanding AIDS: Media Messages and What People Know', pp. 271-304 in J. Eldridge (ed.) Getting the Message. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Kitzinger, J. (1996) `Media Coverage of Child Abuse Risks', Child Abuse Review 5: 319-33. Google Scholar | |
| Kitzinger, J. (1998) `The Gender Politics of News Production: Silenced Voices and False Memories', pp. 186-203 in C. Carter, G. Branston and S. Allan (eds) News, Gender and Power. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Kitzinger, J. (1999a) `A Sociology of Media Power: Key Issues in Audience Reception Research', pp. 3-20 in G. Philo (ed.) Message Received. London: Longman. Google Scholar | |
| Kitzinger, J. (1999b) `The Ultimate Neighbour from Hell? Stranger Danger and the Media Framing of Paedophiles', in R. Franklin (ed.) Social Policy, the Media and Misrepresentation. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Kitzinger, J. (in press) Framing Abuse: Media Influence and Audience Reception of Child Sexual Abuse Coverage. Google Scholar | |
| Kitzinger, J. and D. Miller (1992) ` “African Aids”: The Media and Audience Beliefs', pp. 28-52 in P. Aggleton, P. Davies and G. Hart (eds) AIDS: Rights, Risks and Reason. London: Falmer Press. Google Scholar | |
| Nava, M. (1988) `Cleveland and the Press', Feminist Review 28: 103-21. Google Scholar | |
| Neustadt, R. and E. May (1988) Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers. London: Collier Macmillan. Google Scholar | |
| Pan, Z. and G. Kosicki (1993) `Framing Analysis: An Approach to News Discourse', Political Communication 10(1): 55-75. Google Scholar, Crossref | |
| Philo, G. (1990) Seeing and Believing. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Schlesinger, P. (1978) Putting `Reality' Together: BBC News. London: Methuen. Google Scholar | |
| Schudson, M. (1992) Watergate in American Memory. New York: Basic Books. Google Scholar | |
| Skidmore, P. (1998) `Gender and the Agenda: News Reporting of Child Sexual Abuse', pp. 204-17 in C. Carter, G. Branston and S. Allan (eds) News, Gender and Power. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Tuchman, G. (1978) Making News: A Study of the Construction of Reality. New York: Free Press. Google Scholar | |
| Whitney, D. and E. Wartella (1992) `Media Coverage of the “Political Correctness” Debate', Journal of Communication 42(2): 83-94. Google Scholar, Crossref, ISI |
