Media International Australia, May 2011, 139: 42-52

Two recent child abuse cases in New Zealand flooded the local media spotlight and captured the public’s attention. In both cases, the mothers were not charged with murdering their children. Yet, both mothers received extensive scrutiny in media coverage. This qualitative analysis found two central narratives in media content: that of the traitor and of the hedonist. In drawing upon such archetypal mythologies surrounding motherhood, the media constructed these women as simplistic deviants who did not possess the qualities of a mother. These framing techniques served to divert scrutiny away from civil society and exonerated social institutions of any potential wrongdoing while also reaffirming a persistent mythology that remains damaging to women. Abstract. This paper available online is the final draft version of the published article. Readers wishing to cite this work for scholarly purposes are advised to consult the definitive, published version. Report #3787