Child welfare and media: Teaching students to be advocates

The public image of social workers in the news media is not always positive, but the portrayal of child welfare workers can be especially negative. This article discusses media and child welfare relations and offers several ways to engage students in critical thought and skill development to improve the image of child welfare workers and to educate the public about the complexity of child welfare issues. Schools of social work do a good job teaching students about establishing relationships and educating the people with whom we work and provide services: It is time to teach students to use those skills with the media and the public.