Dates and Times
20 November 2019
11:30 - 12:30
Event for
Location
Organiser
News & Media Research Centre
Speakers
Professor Kerry McCallum
Enquiry
Event about:
Introducing the 'Breaking Silences: Media and the Child Abuse Royal Commission' project
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2013-27) changed the national discourse around child sexual abuse, lifting the taboo and demystifying how institutions covered up or took responsibility for crimes committed inside their walls. The Breaking Silences project is investigating how this national conversation played out in a rapidly changing media environment. This seminar will first provide an overview of the project’s development, case studies, and team, and will report on initial research analysing news coverage of the Royal Commission.
Additional Information
The Breaking Silences project is the first Australian research to explore the nexus between media and commissions of inquiry in the digital era. Through a case study approach the project team will investigate the interplay between the RCIRCA’s media practices, news media reporting, and the role of social media activism in enabling victim’s voices to be heard.
We are particularly interested in the role of journalism and social media in triggering, shaping and keeping alive the Royal Commission findings. Whose voices were heard in the Royal Commission process, which institutions got the most attention, and whose voices were lost in the mediation of the inquiry?
Initial analysis of the Commission’s media monitoring found that despite extensive reporting of all hearings, the overshadowing pattern of news attention at times worked against the Commission’s ‘listening for justice’ approach. Entrenched news values directed media attention to already powerful and influential voices, with the Catholic Church and Australia’s most senior cleric, Cardinal George Pell, receiving the most consideration, while Indigenous and marginalised groups received little coverage. The study shows how news media works to both shed light and overshadow the voices of victims of child sexual abuse in institutional contexts.
UC acknowledges the Ngunnawal people, traditional custodians of the lands where Bruce campus is situated. We wish to acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of Canberra and the region. We also acknowledge all other First Nations Peoples on whose lands we gather.