Roberto Walter, M.A., PhD candidate at the Media Psychology and Media Design Group, successfully defended his dissertation thesis on the topic „Sexueller Kindesmissbrauch: Qualitätskriterien und Qualitätsmessung der Presseberichterstattung in Deutschland“ [“Child Sexual Abuse: Quality Criteria and Quality Measurement of the Press Coverage in Germany" on Tuesday, July 11, 2023.
In three consecutive studies, Roberto Walter dealt with the complex issue of the quality of child sexual abuse media portrayals. Study 1 first focused on the definition and theoretical foundation of quality criteria that should be applied to the media coverage of child sexual abuse. In Study 2, a quality analysis of press articles on the case of the Odenwaldschule was conducted and various quality deficits were identified. Study 3 concluded by analyzing the media audience's perspective on the quality of the child sexual abuse coverage by conducting an online experiment. As a result of the three studies, conclusions were derived for future research, news production, and the media literacy of the audience.