Abstract:

The main function of mass communications is to inform the society. Every extraordinary situation that occurs in society and occurs outside of routine events is a news character. The news of children is important because it is interesting to the community. Especially the child allegedly involved or committed a crime is always placed in the media as a news. The most important thing in this process is how the child and the crime are communicated. Because the way the news is created through the media has a significant impact on people’s views and thoughts on issues or issues related to children. Research has shown that in many news on children, the presentation of the news and the language of the news used mark them instead of contributing to the solution of children’s problems. Because children are necessary assets to be protected, it is important for the protection of the child to ensure that all the news concerning children, including the news about the criminalized children, are made in accordance with the rights and ethical principles of the child. This study examined the children and crime news published in the Hürriyet, Time and Republic newspapers between January 1 and September 1 2014. 113 news suitable for evaluation were studied by content analysis method. The study found that the newspapers did not take sufficient attention to issues such as the use of children’s identity information and photographs, the lack of opinions about the incident, the headlines and content of the news contained signs and, despite many legal and ethical arrangements for the protection of children, the ethical principles in the news relating to the alleged children were ignored. However, the perception that the newspapers will create about the children allegedly committed crimes is very effective in bringing these children to society. From this point of view, the action in the framework of the rights of the child and the ethics of journalism will contribute to the social sensitivity and therefore the provision of the children committed to crime to the society. Keywords: newspaper, child crimes, content analysis, news and ethics