Unpacking the pornographic paradox: a multimodal critical discourse analysis on the anti/pro porn binary in Flemish news media

The increasing prevalence of pornographic imagery in Western popular cultures has sparked public debates, with mostly moral panic as a result. Dominant discourses on pornography are mainly concerned with porn’s negative effects on white, male, and heterosexual consumers, whilst often sensationalizing its alleged outcomes. Rooted in the media effects paradigm and drawing from a dominant anglophone anti/pro porn rhetoric, these debates contribute to a transnational understanding of porn as an inherently negative or positive media text. By exclusively focusing on causal–effect relationships, this dominant discourse leaves little room for porn consumers’ unique intersecting identities, experiences, and contexts. The current article maps to what extent local discourses on pornography reflect this binary perspective, by performing a multimodal critical discourse analysis of four Flemish newspapers. By doing so, the article contributes to a move towards more critical perspectives in discourses on pornography.