News of Battering

Abstract

This textual analysis ofthe newspaper coverage ofthe murder ? f a battered uwman by her husband shous how myths and stt'reot-ypes combine to blame the. uictimJor her own death. It also demonstrutes the interconnection qf gender, raccj, and class i n the representation of violence ugainst women.In 1974, Erin Pizzey published Scream Quietly or the 1Veighhor.s W i l l Hear, the first book about battered wives. Released in England, this pioneering effort helped ignite the battered women's movement 'on both sides of the Atlantic by increasing awareness o f the problem as well as efforts to establish shelters for battered women and their children.'Two decades later, an estimated 3 to 4 million American women are battered by their husbands and boyfriends each year (Stark et al., 1981). Some estimate that as many as 50% of all women will be hattered at some point in their lives (Mahoney, 1991, p. 3; Walker, 1979, p. ix). Among all female victims o f murders in 1989, the FBI (1990) reports, 28% were believed slain by husbands o r boyfriends (p. 12). However, getting o u t of an abusive relationship is often more dangerous than remaining inside one. Separated o r divorced women were 14 times more likely than married women t o report having heen a victim o f violence by a spouse or ex-spouse, accounting for 75% o f reported spousal violence (Harlow, 1991, p. 5).Given the epidemic proportions of the problem, onle may well ask how the news media have represented battering in the years since Pizzey named wife abuse as a serious social problem.' Unfortunately, the answer 1 Tcrtns such :is,fawzz(y uiolctzce a n d dotnc~stic z/iolerice ot)scure t h e relationship b e t w e e n g e n d e r and p o w e r by failing t o define t h e perpetrators a n d victims. Although Bograd (19x8) prefers ui+t ahzrse, this ignores violence in dating, which may h e as prevalent as in marriage (C;tte, Henton. Koval, Christopher, & Lloyd, 1982; Makepeace, 1981 ). I'harr (1991) suggests sexist / / i <~l~i c~~ twrause it indicates "that it has societal roots, and is n o t just any violence o r hatred that occurs" (p. 2 ) .Marian Meyers is a n assistant professor in t h e I k p a r t m c n t o f Communication a t Georgia State [Jniversity in At1ant;i. T h e a u t h o r wishes to thank Cassandra Atnesley a n d Mary Ellen Brown for helpful c o m m e n t s o n a n earlier draft o f this article, and Dick Bathrick a n d Gus Kaufman for their valual~le insights a b o u t news coverage o f Wanda Walters's murder.Copyright 0 1994 Jozrrriul c!/CiJrnmitnicMlion 4 4 ( 2 ) , Spring. 0021~9916/9/t/$i.O0 47

Domestic Violence in Men's and Women's Magazines: Women Are Guilty of Choosing the Wrong Men, Men Are Not Guilty of Hitting Women

“…Building on the extensive domestic violence research already conducted on newspapers and television (Benedict, 1992;Bullock, 2007;Consalvo, 1998;Cuklanz, 2000;Lamb, 1991;Meyers, 1994;Stabile, 2006;Stanko, 1985), I turn to extending the more limited research of domestic violence in popular magazines (Berns, 2001;Caringella-MacDonald, 1998). Popular magazines are a site of target audiences often segmented by gender, class, and race.…”

“…(Martin, 1976, p. xiv) The legal and social practice of blaming the victim for rape (and, by extension, for the domestic violence visited upon her) reveals the workings of patriarchy, argues Cuklanz: ''the idea of an individual being responsible for or causing someone else's violent attack on her=him is incomprehensible in any context other than traditional patriarchal conceptions of rape'' (Cuklanz, 2000, p. 10). Analysis of mainstream newspaper articles finds that domestic violence victims are blamed for their own deaths (Consalvo, 1998;Meyers, 1994). Magazine and newspaper rhetoric often obscures the batterer's responsibility and settles blame and cause upon the battered victim (Lamb, 1991).…”

Missing and Murdered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse

“…A "hierarchy of crime" operates within most newsrooms with respect to news norms and practices surrounding violence (Meyers, 1994;. Homicide tops this hierarchy; a story is more newsworthy if the crimes are committed by one person (Marsh, 1991;Mott, 1999;Pritchard & Hughes, 1997).…”

“…Nevertheless, cases involving violence against women, such as incidents of domestic violence, tend to receive a one-dimensional kind of coverage (Carter, 1998;Meyers, 1994;Wykes, 1998). The coverage, when it does exist, tends to focus on the male perpetrators as aberrant examples of masculinity, offering a psychological and individualized portrayal of their crimes (see also Jiwani, 2006).…”

SlutWalk, Feminism, and News

“…Crucially, it also utilizes a content and critical discourse analysis of mainstream news from eight nations which have organised SlutWalks (Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, UK, & USA). I specifically focused on mainstream news media because of its crucial role in maintaining and (re)producing hegemonic ideologies (Dow 1996;Meyers 2006). In total, I collected over 284 news articles.…”