ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 focuses on examining the ideological consequences of how men who provide primary care are constructed in the newsprint media. The ways that men construct ideas of what it actually means to be a father are largely based on what intelligible identities are made available to them through things like newsprint media. Newsprint media constitutes a crucial source of information on fatherhood - it is a site where regulatory notions of what is appropriate, expected, and normal with regard to fatherhood are offered in an easy-to-digest fashion. Despite news media claims to objectively report on world events, these accounts should, in actual fact, be understood as social constructions that draw upon existing norms and available discourses. This chapter will critically examine the various ways in which fathers are constructed and represented in the Australian, the United Kingdom, and the United States news media, and the implications of these representations. Our analysis suggests that accounts of father involvement are contradictory and dilemmatic. Although news accounts appear to promote the idea that fathers can be nurturing caregivers, the analysis demonstrates that it also reproduces restrictive hegemonic ideals that actually restrain the encouragement of fathers as caregivers. Overall, our analysis suggests that a more critical lens should be applied to claims of support for greater father involvement, as such support often involves contradictory elements that undermine this emerging ideal.
