Content and Framing of Male- and Female-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence in Print News

Abstract

This article investigates the content and framing of newspaper articles reporting male-and female-perpetrated intimate partner violence (IPV). There were 173 newspaper articles coded for IPV severity, typology, and framing. Print news coverage of female-perpetrated IPV was limited; however, when reported, cases of female-perpetrated IPV were more severe, more likely to be described as perpetrated in self-defense, and less likely to be framed in terms of individual factors. For both male and female perpetrators, incidents of IPV were overwhelmingly framed as a private matter, whereas larger societal and cultural factors were rarely discussed. We discuss implications and make recommendations for broadening print media coverage of IPV to include the broader institutional, societal, and cultural causes of IPV rather than focusing primarily on individual factors.

News Stories of Intimate Partner Violence: An Experimental Examination of Participant Sex, Perpetrator Sex, and Violence Severity on Seriousness, Sympathy, and Punishment Preferences

“…Even in the weak violence condition, participants still rated IPV as serious. Content analyses of news stories have shown that IPV with low levels of violence is not frequently depicted in new stories (e.g., Carlyle, Scarduzio, et al, 2014;Sellers et al, 2014). However, the current study finds that presentations of low-severity violence may still impact the individuals reading news stories.…”

“…Importantly, research determined that journalists present the same acts of violence differently for male and female perpetrators. For example, in a recent content analysis of IPV news stories, Sellers et al (2014) found that when the same type of IPV occurred (i.e., homicide) female perpetrators were more often portrayed as acting in self-defense than male perpetrators. Perceptions of IPV also differ when male and female perpetrators use severe violence.…”

“…Further, male perpetrators who use severe violence are depicted more frequently in news stories because they are more likely to use severe violence than female perpetrators, and thus their behavior is normalized (see Carlyle et al, 2008). However, a recent content analysis determined that even though male perpetrators are portrayed more frequently, female-perpetrated IPV in news stories was overall more severe when compared to maleperpetrated IPV, and more than half of the total news stories reported severe violence (Sellers et al, 2014). Collectively, these findings suggest that when a male perpetrator and a female perpetrator commit the same act, news stories may present male-perpetrated and female-perpetrated IPV situations differently.…”

“…Studies of how entertainment media impact aggression and violence are common (e.g., Anderson et al, 2010;Wright, Tokunaga, & Kraus, 2016), whereas studies of how news stories impact perceptions of IPV are less frequent despite the fact that news portrayals of IPV tend to cast individuals as responsible. In fact, content analyses of IPV news stories consistently reveal that incidents are often separated from any consideration of social or cultural contexts (Carll, 2003;Carlyle, Scarduzio, & Slater, 2014;Carlyle, Slater, & Chakroff, 2008;Sellers, Desmarais, & Tirotti, 2014). Other research has established that news stories reduce the public's feelings of responsibility about IPV (Carlyle, Orr, Savage, & Babin, 2014).…”

ESPN’s Coverage of Intimate Partner Violence in the National Football League

“…Media coverage of IPV has significantly influenced public perception of the issue (Carlyle, Orr, Savage, & Babin, 2014). Some media coverage of IPV has perpetuated public perceptions that IPV is an individual issue (Savage et al, 2016; Sellers, Desmarais, & Tirotti, 2014). Some researchers explain that the impact of media coverage of IPV reduces individuals’ perceived responsibility on this pervasive issue (Carll, 2003; Carlyle et al, 2014).…”