George Pell, the third most powerful man in the Vatican, accused of the stigmatic offence of assaulting two boys of age 16 sexually

Running Head: REPRESENTATION OF NEWS BY TRADITIONAL MEDIA
REPRESENTATION OF NEWS BY TRADITIONAL MEDIA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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REPRESENTATION OF NEWS BY TRADITIONAL MEDIA
George Pell, the Australian Prelate and the former third most powerful man in the
Vatican was accused of the stigmatic offence of assaulting two boys of age 16 sexually. The
offences were committed in the year 1996 and early 1997. After the long procedure of
judgment, finally, his sentence is scheduled for 13th March 2019 (the Guardian, 2019). The
purpose of the study is to analyze how two different traditional media of Australia- The
Sydney Morning Herald and ABC TV News covered the news. The study also aims to
observe their angle of focus, approach of framing the news, the key message they want to
deliver to the target audience, the agenda derived from their way of representation along with
the perception created by these two media outlets.
The angle of representation of The Sydney Morning Herald was realistic. It stated that
Australian media was unable to reveal the verdict due to the suppression of the order.
Recently, Peter Kidd, the chief judge of the country court has withdrawn the order of
suppression, which was stopping media from propagating the result of the trial as well as the
retrial. Along with this, the newspaper has also focused on the previous accusations of Pell.
In the year 1970, Pell was accused of abusing boys inside a swimming pull (Gleeson, 2016).
It was the lack of evidence for which the suppression order had been lifted. Finally, this
newspaper report focused on the statement of Pell, which reflected his depression and shame,
and denial of the accusation (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2019).
Hence it can be said that The framing of the news is concrete. This structure allows
step by step revelation of truth. This newspaper has looked at the story through the prism of
truth and reality and negativity. It dealt with the serious issues of child abuse consciously.
On the contrary, ABC TV News has looked at the story from the angle of sympathy. It
revealed that the first jury employed to hear the case was discharged, because they were
unable to agree to a unanimous decision. Moreover, some of them had become emotional and

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REPRESENTATION OF NEWS BY TRADITIONAL MEDIA
could not control their tears. Finally, after hearing the plea by the barrister of Pell, the judge
allowed him a reprieve of short duration for his knee surgery (ABC News, 2019).
Hence, it can be said that, the framing of the news by ABC TV News is capable of
evoking the feeling of empathy in the minds of the viewers. The angle of representation is not
at all realistic and tried to evade the serious crime of child abuse. The outlook is
unnecessarily positive.
The agenda of both the traditional media is to inform the target audience-older
generation who are not very much familiar with internet; about the stigmatic incident. Both
the media have treated the controversial story differently from which another agenda can be
derived. The agenda of The Sydney Morning Herald was to highlight the stigmatic issue of
sexual harassment to children and attacking Pell with the dire tone of the language (Marr,
2014). The agenda of ABC TV News was to highlight the agony of Pell and the merciful
attitude of the judges (Middleton, et al., 2014).
The target audience, which were the older generation, will be impacted deeply by the
sympathetic tone of ABC news, but the very few younger target audience who can also
access the internet will not be influenced easily by these traditional media. They will remain
neutral and carry on investigation over the internet.
In the conclusion, it can be stated that, both the media had focused on the sentence
received by Pell, irrespective of his power and position. This reflected the fair judiciary
system of Australia. This is also indicative of the support of both the traditional media to the
government of Australia.

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REPRESENTATION OF NEWS BY TRADITIONAL MEDIA
References
ABC News. (2019). Pell abused two choirboys. One of them didn't live to see justice.
Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-26/george-pell-guilty-child-
sexual-abuse-court-trial/10837564
Gleeson, K. (2016). Why the continuous failures in justice for Australian victims and
survivors of catholic clerical child sexual abuse?. Current Issues in Criminal
Justice, 28(2), 239-250.
Marr, D. (2014). The prince: faith, abuse and George Pell. Black Inc.
Middleton, W., Stavropoulos, P., Dorahy, M. J., Krüger, C., Lewis-Fernández, R., Martínez-
Taboas, A., ... & Brand, B. (2014). The Australian Royal Commission into
institutional responses to child sexual abuse. Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Psychiatry, 48(1), 17-21.
the Guardian, M. (2019). George Pell: cardinal found guilty of child sexual assault. Retrieved
from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/26/cardinal-george-pell-
vatican-treasurer-found-guilty-of-child-sexual-assault
The Sydney Morning Herald, A. (2019). Cardinal George Pell found guilty of child sex
abuse. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/cardinal-george-
pell-found-guilty-of-child-sex-abuse-20181214-p50m86.html?
ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed