Moving the Media towards Prevention

By Cordelia Anderson and Joan Tabachnick, co-hosts, Ending Child Sexual Abuse (ECSA) Web Conference Series

The second Ms. Foundation for Women Web Conference featured the Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) and Frameworks Institute discussing their research about working with the media to end child sexual abuse. The messages of the two presentations intertwined eloquently, bringing fresh insights to media work.

First, Pamela Mejia described the BMSG research, pointing to the dramatic change in reporting after the Penn State tragedy. Pamela first offered an excellent summary of their two recent reports commissioned by the Ms. Foundation, Case by Case: News Coverage of Child Sexual Abuse and Breaking News: Early Coverage of Penn State. The research highlighted a shift in media reporting of Penn State towards institutional (rather than individual) responsibility. Pamela also discussed the important opportunity that advocates had in the days immediately following the arrest of Sandusky. BMSG recommendations included:

• monitoring the media,
• piggybacking on breaking news,
• writing opinions,
• developing relationships with journalists, and
• being very intentional about the language used.

Moira O’Neil followed with an overview of the public perception research the Frameworks Institute has done with Prevent Child Abuse America and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Moira discussed findings from both studies and described their process of finding the right frame to change the public’s understanding of the child sexual abuse. Key pre-existing frames to overcome include:

• the idea of the family bubble, which reinforces individual parents and child’s responsibilities to protect themselves from harm, and
• the belief that the harm resulting from adverse childhood experiences is not all that bad and the sense that “what didn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

She noted that people tend to think our media messages are going into an open mind, but offered a helpful reminder that the mind is more like a swamp and it is easy to get stuck and hard to get through. She offered the following example: although most people know CSA is a problem perpetrated by those they know, when they get to solutions they revert to thinking about stranger danger. Finally, Moira echoed BMSG recommendations on the importance of focusing the media on the role of communities in prevention and the social causes of child sexual abuse rather than relegating the response to individual choices.

Our closing message: while the media is powerful, it can also be a powerful tool for solutions. We need to build a bigger choir of voices singing the stories of solutions, including stories of organizational and community change in the face of child sexual abuse.

Courageous Conversations – The Place to Be

By Cordelia Anderson and Joan Tabachnick, co-hosts, Ending Child Sexual Abuse (ECSA) Web Conference Series

The Ms. Foundation for Women (MFW) has made the courageous decision to direct a significant portion of its resources towards ending child sexual abuse. Monique Hoeflinger, Senior Program Officer, Safety at the Ms. Foundation laid the ground work for why MFW chose this issue as one of its priorities by saying,

“Ending child sexual abuse is one of the most strategic things we can do to improve the lives of women and communities.”

Given the frequency of sexual abuse against children and the life-long impact of that abuse, focusing on child sexual abuse prevention makes sense. Among the approaches that MFW supports are those that move beyond traditional child-focused strategies and instead, engage adults and communities in prevention efforts.

As just one part of their broad efforts, the Ending Child Sexual Abuse (ECSA) Web Conference Series is designed to bring the best thinking, programs, and insights they have seen to a larger community of stakeholders. Through this exciting new partnership with us (Cordelia and Joan), Prevent-Connect, and most importantly – all of you – we hope to build a stronger and more effective movement to end child sexual abuse. The goals of this series are to:

• Raise visibility and dialogue within prevention community
• Engage new communities in this movement
• Increase knowledge, resources and strategic action on child sexual abuse

Over the next nine months, we plan to cover the following exciting topics:

• Including Child Sexual Abuse in the Sexual Violence Prevention Movement
• Media and Prevention
• Preventing the Perpetration of Child Sexual Abuse
• Voices of Experience: the role of direct experiences in social change
• Healthy Sexuality and Caring Connections: Foundations for Prevention
• Policies Promoting and Derailing Prevention
• Depictions of Children in Media and Pornography: Implications for Prevention
• Activism in Prevention
• Using Art as a Catalyst for Social Change and Social Action

Look on the MFW or the Prevent-Connect websites for dates and time and more details. And if you miss one of them, don’t worry! Both the slides and audio are available to anyone.

We hope you will join us for one of these future web conferences.