Abstract
In August 1999, a 76-year-old man from the southern NSW town of Tumbarumba strangled his wife of almost 50 years to death and then attempted suicide. In the NSW Supreme Court in May 2001, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility because he was being treated for depression. The court was told that the man had taken five times the prescribed dosage of the antidepressant drug, Zoloft. Justice Barry O’Keefe in his decision said: ‘I am satisfied that but for the Zoloft he had taken, he would not have strangled his wife’. More than 100,000 Australians regularly take Zoloft or similar prescription drugs, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, to treat depressive illnesses. Zoloft and similar SSRIs such as Prozac are prescribed to millions of
people around the world. This was the first time that a criminal court in any country had linked a violent killing directly to one of these SSRIs. The paper draws upon news frame theory and risk theory to analyse national and international news coverage of this trial. Recent research has elaborated how risks are socially defined and acted upon, especially given changing media representations of risks. The paper investigates what role the media played in constructing risk knowledge about Zoloft and other SSRIs following the NSW Supreme Court decision.
News frame theory, which identifies the devices journalists use to routinely organise
news discourse, is used to analyse how news about the implications of the court case
are presented and made understandable to audiences. News frames set limits on the
information available to audiences who are trying to make sense out of the reported
event.
The paper concludes by questioning the role some prominent newspapers played in
setting fear and alarmist frames to define risk in this case, and demonstrates how
journalism can translate low-risk into high-risk with the potential of unnecessarily
heightening fear.
people around the world. This was the first time that a criminal court in any country had linked a violent killing directly to one of these SSRIs. The paper draws upon news frame theory and risk theory to analyse national and international news coverage of this trial. Recent research has elaborated how risks are socially defined and acted upon, especially given changing media representations of risks. The paper investigates what role the media played in constructing risk knowledge about Zoloft and other SSRIs following the NSW Supreme Court decision.
News frame theory, which identifies the devices journalists use to routinely organise
news discourse, is used to analyse how news about the implications of the court case
are presented and made understandable to audiences. News frames set limits on the
information available to audiences who are trying to make sense out of the reported
event.
The paper concludes by questioning the role some prominent newspapers played in
setting fear and alarmist frames to define risk in this case, and demonstrates how
journalism can translate low-risk into high-risk with the potential of unnecessarily
heightening fear.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | ANZCA03: Designing Communication for Diversity: Proceedings |
| Editors | Caroline Hatcher, Terry Flew, Joanne Jacobs |
| Place of Publication | Brisbane |
| Publisher | Brisbane Graduate School of Business, Queensland University of Technology |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| ISBN (Print) | 0646422138 |
| Publication status | Published - 2003 |
| Event | Australian & New Zealand Communication Association International Conference 2003, Designing Communication for Diversity - Brisbane, Australia Duration: 9 Jul 2003 → 11 Jul 2003 |
Conference
| Conference | Australian & New Zealand Communication Association International Conference 2003, Designing Communication for Diversity |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Australia |
| City | Brisbane |
| Period | 9/07/03 → 11/07/03 |
