ABSTRACT

This article focusses on the Australian online news’ effectiveness to set the agenda for disseminating constructive messages. It explores obstacles reporters and editors encounter when covering a sensitive issue like domestic violence for the online news platform. By drawing on information from 2324 domestic violence articles in three most-accessed Australian online news sites, and interviews with 12 reporters and editors, this article details how these challenges are best overcome. Content analysis and interview results indicate reporters and editors have made efforts to increase constructive coverage, which continues to remain episodic and lacks meaningful context that helps tackle social factors leading to the abuse. Because much of the domestic violence reporting focusses on murders, reporters and editors are restricted by legal guidelines as to how much context and detail they can provide. Through eight specific guidelines, this study provides insights into how the obstacles can be overcome to improve the coverage. It suggests future research areas which could investigate how a more constructive reportage cognisant of victims’ suffering could be achieved.

摘要

本文重点关注澳大利亚在线新闻在设定议程以传播建设性信息方面的有效性。它探讨了记者和编辑在为在线新闻平台报道家庭暴力等敏感问题时遇到的障碍。通过利用三个访问量最大的澳大利亚在线新闻网站的 2324 篇家庭暴力文章中的信息，以及对 12 位记者和编辑的采访，本文详细介绍了如何最好地克服这些挑战。内容分析和采访结果表明，记者和编辑已努力增加建设性报道，这些报道仍然是偶发的，并且缺乏有助于解决导致虐待的社会因素的有意义的背景。因为很多家庭暴力报道都集中在谋杀上，记者和编辑在可以提供多少背景和细节方面受到法律准则的限制。通过八项具体指南，本研究提供了有关如何克服障碍以提高覆盖率的见解。它提出了未来的研究领域，可以调查如何实现对受害者痛苦的更具建设性的报道文学认识。