An evaluation of the media coverage of Aisling Brady McCarthy, through ‘The Boston Nanny’ Case: Distinguishing the differences between localised, tabloid and broadsheet Irish print media and American print media reports.

McCabe, Amy (2016) An evaluation of the media coverage of Aisling Brady McCarthy, through ‘The Boston Nanny’ Case: Distinguishing the differences between localised, tabloid and broadsheet Irish print media and American print media reports. Masters thesis, Griffith College.

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Abstract

Aisling Brady McCarthy featured in global headlines in January 2013, when she was first charged with the death of a baby which had been in her care for several months, whilst she worked as a nanny in America. Comparable to all murder stories Aisling’s case received a high level of attention, as the case had strong evidence weaknesses from the start. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the manner in which Aisling was reported on throughout the ‘Boston Nanny Trial’, with particular examination of Irish and American print media organisations. My research was centred on a content analysis approach using media framing, coding and tonality assessments. The data sample involved three Irish print media organisations and one American print media organisation, The Boston Globe, The Irish Daily Mail, The Anglo Celt and The Irish Independent. The basis for this data sample selection was to include, a broadsheet, tabloid, American and local example of a print media establishment. This dissertation analysed data from 2013 until the trail ended in 2015 when Aisling was exempt of the murder charges. The dissertation aims are to determine whether there are any similarities between the Irish and American print media organisations as well as any diversity in the reporting of the ‘Boston Nanny Case’ by the chosen Irish newspapers. The content analysis highlighted a wide range of similarities in the Irish and American case coverage with the Irish Daily Mail and The Boston Globe having increased news coverage in 2015, while The Irish Independent and The Anglo Celt seen its highest rate of news coverage in 2013. Overall, the attribution of responsibility frame was the most dominant throughout the data, with the human interest frame utilised most often by The Anglo Celt. The tonality of nearly all of the newspapers proved to be generally neutral with The Anglo Celt producing the most positive articles concerning Aisling and her case. The Boston Globe’s coverage of the ‘Boston Nanny Case’ presents a very different interpretation of the mainstream US media, by reporting on the case in a generally neutral way, with some opinion based reports suggesting the evidence surrounding Aisling’s case to be faulty. Moreover, The Anglo Celt, which was selected as a local print media example displayed some signs of favouritism and a non-objective tone towards Aisling with an early judgement of her innocents.

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