Dark Secrets of Childhood: Media Power, Child Abuse and Public Scandals

What is the cost of including stories about child abuse in the media? In this groundbreaking book, Fred Powell and Margaret Scanlon explore the relationship among the media, the presentation of child abuse, and shifting adult-child power relations, examining its effect on the range of laws, policies, and procedures introduced to address the explosion of interest in the issue. Analyzing twenty years of representation of child abuse in Ireland—including abuse by the church and schools—Dark Secrets of Childhood offers significant insight into the media’s influence on the issue and provides an important contribution to the international debate on child abuse as it is portrayed through the media.