Soft-spoken and sympathetic: Gendered news-media social worker narratives in Aotearoa New Zealand
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol37iss2id1229Keywords:
Media, Social Work, Newspaper, Gender, Narratives, public perceptionAbstract
INTRODUCTION: Social work is a female-dominated profession. This study aims to answer the question: what are the gendered narratives of social workers as portrayed in Aotearoa New Zealand newspapers. Despite previous studies investigating the portrayal of social workers in newspaper media in association with crises or specific events, this research investigates a current gap in the literature by focusing explicitly on the role of gender in media reporting across period of 3 months in 2023.
METHODS: Newztext was used to search regional and national news media publications between January 1, 2023 and April 1, 2023 for any mention of social work or social workers. In total, 36 articles were included in the final sample, and content analysis was conducted by combining a qualitative and quantitative approach to identify both latent and manifest narratives.
FINDINGS: Social work is portrayed as a feminised profession, with key themes of altruism and nurturing combined with dominant terms of help and support reinforcing the historical perceptions of social work as women’s work. The findings also evidence unfavourable working conditions experienced by the profession.
CONCLUSION: Although further research is needed, this study recommends that collaboration between the social work profession with the media is vital to challenge current portrayals of social work to better inform public perceptions. This will subsequently help improve the value and treatment of social work and care work within society, the public, and across other professions and disciplines.
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