Introduction

Media representations are key texts where knowledge and understandings of sex work and sex workers are produced and reproduced for the general public. Existing literature has identified that media coverage of sex work often acts as a proxy for ‘lived interaction with the sex industry’, (Hallgrimsdottir et al, 2006) and that media produced by sex workers for clients, such as advertising copy or social media postings, is sometimes misunderstood as an authentic representation of their jobs (Grant, 2014). Prior research into media coverage of the sex industry in New Zealand following the passing of the Prostitution Reform Act (PRA) found that sex workers often felt that the media sensationalised or misrepresented the industry, or that media coverage perpetuated stereotypes about sex workers (Fitzgerald and Abel, 2010, p 204). Research internationally has identified narratives within media accounts which position sex work as a social problem in need of a solution (Van Brunschot et al, 2000; Hallgrimsdottir et al, 2006). In the case of coverage immediately following the passing of the PRA in New Zealand, reporting focused on politicians’ voices, rather than those of experts with specific knowledge of the industry, and also utilised moral frameworks to underpin discourses about sex work (Fitzgerald and Abel, 2010). In-house/indoor sex workers are more likely to be allowed to speak about their lives than street-based sex workers, and media representations of indoor sex work sometimes frame it as offering financial advantages and as the ‘lesser of two evils’ within the industry (Farvid and Glass, 2014, pp 57– 8). This chapter expands on existing research into media coverage of the sex industry by investigating discourses of indoor sex work, based on the examination of different types of media coverage (‘texts’) aired or published between 2010 and 2016, that is 7– 13 years after decriminalisation.

Van Brunschot et al (2000) argue that the ways that sex work is produced in the media reflects prevailing social attitudes, as well as serving a claims-making role in producing activities which may be understood as social problems. Media portrayals serve a particular role in persuading an audience towards particular understandings of activities, like sex work, which may be understood as social problems, as they are one of the trusted sources on this issue.