A De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) lecturer has written the 'most comprehensive and valuable' book yet written on child abuse and the media, according to a world-renowned academic.
In Child Sexual Abuse and the Media: from false memory to global memory, Professor Jason Lee, Head of DMU's Leicester Media School, has examined the way in which child sexual abuse has been presented in the media and popular culture through time, along with how it fits in with our belief systems.
Traversing media coverage of this controversial subject, from the 1980s to the current day, it also discusses the UK's Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse setup in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal exposure.
And the book, published by Palgrave, has won praise from one on the leading thinkers in the field, James Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English at the University of Southern California.
Professor Kincaid, who has gained an international reputation for a series of challenging and controversial works on the subject, said Professor Lee's book was an example of 'brilliant, open, wonderful scholarship - what we should all aim for'.
He said: "In this large (and vexed) field, Lee's analysis is the most canny and, certainly, the least narrow. He is fully aware of the demands of moral and humanitarian concerns, but he never lets any of these take the reins.
"The result is what seems to me the most comprehensive and valuable book yet on the subject."
Professor Lee - who is the author/editor of over 15 books, with work translated into 16 languages - will give a talk on the subject and about his new book, in room 3.02 in the Hugh Aston Building, at 1pm on May 10.
He said the book, as an academic work drawing on investigative journalism, would be studied as part of DMU's new MA in Investigative Journalism, endorsed by and run with experts from Channel 4.
He said: "This is the first book exploring child sexual abuse within global religious and media organisations. On the one hand there is the view that everyone is a potential paedophile, and on the other there is the notion there is a witch-hunt falsely accusing people.
"In the book I wanted to re-examine historic claims of satanic ritual abuse and look at how global celebrity culture, religious context and the use of technology influence how we understand child exploitation."
Posted on Monday 9 May 2016