Full Description
Over the past few decades, relationships between social workers and the media have become increasingly challenging. Social workers feel aggrieved by media reporting of their profession and believe that journalists lack sufficient knowledge and experience of the social services to report matters adequately and sensitively, whilst some journalists have urged social workers to adopt a more proactive public relations strategy. This book, first published in 1991, analyses the causes and consequences of the negative portrayal of social work within the media and considers various ways in which this image might be improved. The authors consider a variety of developments during the 1990s designed to redress imbalances in media reporting and present a more accurate picture of social workers and the people with whom they work.
This title remains very relevant in light of the high profile cases related to the social service that continue to feature in the British press, and will be of particular value to students and researchers with an interest in the relationship between the media and social policy.
Contents
List of tables and figures; List of contributors; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I: Media Reporting of Social Work 1. Media reporting of social work: a framework for analysis Bob Franklin and Nigel Parton; Part II: Journalists, Broadcasters and Public Images of Social Work 2. The professional press: social work talking to itself Terry Philpot 3. Reporting social work: a view from the newsroom Anne Fry 4. Social work: 'image' and images on television David Perrin 5. Do-gooders on display: social work, public attitudes and the mass media Peter Golding; Part III: Social Work under Scrutiny 6. A receptacle for public anger Martin Ruddock 7. Social work and the media: pitfalls and possibilities Valerie Howarth 8. Hidden agendas and moral messages: social workers and the press Louis Blom-Cooper 9. Press reporting of Kincora Marie Smyth; Part IV: Remedies and Strategies: Improving the Public Image 10. Promoting positive images of people with learning difficulties: problems and strategies Steve Dowson 11. Growing old in the eyes of the media Tim Dant and Malcolm Johnson 12. Running a campaign: appropriate strategies for changing times Rom White 13. Speaking up: community action and the media John Callaghan 14. Public relations and social services: a view from the statutory sector Lynne Walder 15. The social work profession and professional public relations Sally Arkley and David Jones; References; Index
