Child Abuse and Mass Media

Child Abuse and Mass Media

Mass media can have a tremendous impact on child abuse and neglect, particularly upon the ways that these issues are valued and regarded by members of society. For example, as of the writing of this paper on July 23rd, 2012, the media has been able to adequately push forward the breaking news about the penalties imposed on Penn State University, in light of the recent child abuse scandal. "The NCAA on Monday hit Penn State with a $60 million fine, banned the football team from bowl games for four years and vacated all of its wins from 1998 to 2011 in the wake of the university's child sex abuse scandal…All of Penn State's victories from 1998 through 2011 will be vacated. Coach Joe Paterno's record will reflect the vacated victories, meaning he no longer will be recognized as the NCAA's all-time winningest coach" (Kane, 2012). In this example, the mass media is able to help transmit a message of cultural change, and thus play a part in helping to create that cultural change. The rampant cases of child abuse that occurred at Penn State were able to continuously occur because of a climate of secrecy, obsessive privacy and one which had their values pathologically out of whack. The media has not only played a part in exposing this university for these unfathomable errors, but now, in the light of a conscientious decision for change and a retooling of their value system, the media can help in passing along the message that child abuse will simply not be tolerated.

The triumph of this story is not only the huge fines that will be imposed on Penn State by the NCAA nor simply the fact that all that money will go to a fund for victims of child abuse, but the fact that all of the wins that Penn State achieved during the years the child abuse occurred, are stricken from the record, as one can argue that they were all made at the expense of the souls and safety of children. While the NCAA has set an example of zero-tolerance for child abuse and is gravely punishing this university, the media plays the role of being able to convey this message to the rest of the world, thus in turn, enabling the example to be set of zero-tolerance for child abuse.

Drumming up livid outrage from the nation at years of ongoing child abuse in the case of the Penn State scandal, simply by exposing the facts is something that media can do rather effectively and something that needs to occur. Public outrage draws attention to an issue that needs to be addressed and outrage can be the catalyzing force that prevents unacceptable actions from occurring again and thus can be the origins of societal change. Once the Freeh report had been made public, the outrage of journalists, bloggers and the general public acted as a tremendous impetus for change: "There was this big, respected university with an iconic legend as its football coach. It also had a pedophile operating in its program. School officials knew this back in 1998 and covered it up. They chose this "humane" route of covering up, turning their backs and protecting themselves rather than kids for more than a decade as boys went on being raped in the campus showers and on football trips. They did this because it benefited them, was easier for them and protected what they valued most -- the football program. Could former Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno have stopped Sandusky? 'It's a very strong and reasonable inference that he could have done so if he had wished,' Freeh said'" (Engel, 2012). Here in this case, the media is also doing a tremendous favor to the general public in that they're showing things as they are. They're exposing this iconic, heroic football coach for the human being he actually was, someone so unfathomably flawed and disturbed, he would look the other way at child rape.

The media can also shed light on how certain scandals have a degree of ubiquitousness and can impose pressure for cultural change upon other institutions. As some journalists have brought up, this scandal is evocative of the scandal with the Catholic Church and demonstrates how a marked upheaval in the way universities and institutions are conducted (Hamilton, 2012).

The media, while impartial, can often be a moral compass for the rest of the world. Few people can forget the horrors of the reactions of Penn State's college students when the scandal just broke, upon the firing of Joe Paterno: the media captured how the students rioted the streets, acting out, even turning over a news van. The rest of the world watched in revulsion: these college students, by sympathizing with Paterno, someone who had essentially protected and sheltered a pedophile, these young college students were sympathizing with Sandusky, the pedophile in question. "It's difficult to look at the images of the Penn State University students performing pep rally chants and turning over a media van to protest Joe Paterno's firing and not think: Shame on us all. Shame on us for creating a culture where thousands of students are so caught up in idol worship that they can't see how repugnant it is to pine for a man who essentially looked the other way as serious allegations of rape and child abuse were leveled at his top aide" (Pierre, 2011).

It was important for the media to document this and to capture this footage so that the rest of the country could unite up in arms, voicing their outrage at this reaction and the sunset of decency that had occurred at the school. Even though the community at Penn State was not expressing initial outrage at what had occurred to the victims, but rather what was happening to their beloved football coach, the media, by recording this unsatisfactory reaction, helped to create a national situation that realigned the moral compass on behalf of the victims of the scandal.