Quand la DPJ fait la une! Une analyse du traitement médiatique de la maltraitance au Québec1

Abstract

Cet article porte sur la place qu’occupent la maltraitance et les situations impliquant les services de la protection de la jeunesse dans la presse écrite au Québec. Deux questions sont examinées : Quelle est l’ampleur de la couverture journalistique de la protection de la jeunesse? Comment la problématique de la maltraitance et les services de la protection de la jeunesse y sont-ils présentés? Pour ce faire, le contenu des principaux quotidiens a été analysé sur une période de 24 mois, par la constitution de deux corpus de données (N = 1211; N = 451), le premier afin de dénombrer le nombre d’articles et d’identifier les battages médiatiques, le second afin de décrire le contenu de ces nouvelles. Il ressort de cette étude que la maltraitance est un sujet qui retient, comme ailleurs, beaucoup l’attention des médias québécois. Cette couverture médiatique surreprésente les formes de maltraitance les moins fréquentes et, dans l’ensemble, porte un jugement neutre à l’égard des services de la protection de la jeunesse.This article examines the printed media’s coverage of child maltreatment and child protective services in the province of Quebec. Two questions are examined : What is the scope of this coverage? How are child maltreatment and child protective services presented? In order to do so, the content of the province’s main daily newspapers has been analysed for a period of 24 months. This has led to the constitution of two datasets (N = 1211; N = 451). The first one has allowed us to identify trends in the number of articles published over time as well as statistical relationships between the number of articles published and specific news events. The second dataset was used for a more in-depth content analysis of news stories. Findings reveal that child maltreatment is the object, in Quebec as elsewhere, of an important amount of media coverage. This coverage has been found to over represent the least frequent types of child maltreatment and, overall, to provide a rather neutral assessment of child protective services

The Role of Media in Reporting Child Abuse

“…The stories reported on are often sensational and may involve tragic outcomes such as injuries or even death (for an example, see Meunier, 2011). Indeed, when the media report on child maltreatment, it mainly covers events that are rare, unusual, or unpleasant (Aldridge, 1994;Franklin & Parton, 1991;Galilee, 2005;Laliberte, Larson, & Johnston, 2011;Saint-Jacques et al, 2010). The types of maltreatment that fall into these categories mainly include sexual and physical abuse.…”

“…However, we cannot affirm that the overall media coverage of maltreatment presents a negative image of social services and their workers. The content analysis of 451 articles dealing with child protection published in the five main French-speaking newspapers in the Province of Québec revealed that, overall, these articles provided a rather neutral assessment of child protective services (Saint-Jacques et al, 2010).…”