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Girls in Crisis: Newspaper Coverage of Adolescent Girls

Clemson University

Norma O. Pecora

Ohio University

Within the past several years, a growing body of scholars have exposed the media-generated crisis discourse surrounding youth — a discourse resulting in the construction/ definition of youth as a problem. Informed, in part, by this scholarship and grounded in frame theory, this study analyzes how U.S. newspapers covered the lives of adolescent girls during a particularly noteworthy period — the mid- to late 1990s, a time when a number of high-profile studies of girls' lives were published. During this time, the press, through the choice of topics covered, sources quoted, and overall organizing themes employed, perpetuated a discourse that constructed girls as a social problem in need of a solution. The authors argue that this construction of girls as weak and vulnerable denied them any form of agency and presented to the reader a dire situation in which adult intervention was needed to save these girls in crisis.

Key Words: girl's studies • adolescent girls • newspapers • frame theory • crisis discourse • journalism

Journal of Communication Inquiry, Vol. 31, No. 1, 6-27 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0196859906294712


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