Article: Coverage of domestic violence in the news leads to some observations

Published Thursday February 11th, 2010


The media has not traditionally been a good source of information on family violence.

Crimes were not covered, and victims were often blamed. This reflected societal attitudes to domestic violence and its treatment in the courts.

In a recent study, news articles on men who killed their wives and then commit suicide were examined. The general conclusion is that coverage has improved, but still tends to mystify the problem.

The study used articles from the Calgary Herald from 2008 using the term 'murder-suicide.' Alberta has the highest rate of spousal homicide-suicide in Canada. This was compared to a second period a decade earlier to see if coverage had changed.

Research on domestic homicide often points out how news articles are framed to blame the victim or excuse the offender.

Direct tactics involve using negative language to describe the victim, criticizing her actions such as her not reporting past incidences, or mentioning 'consorting' with other men as contributing to her murder.

Indirect tactics include using sympathetic language to describe the perpetrator, and emphasizing mental, physical, emotional and financial problems which might excuse his actions.

In 2008 there were two main cases covered extensively.

One described the perpetrator as a loving family man who doted on his wife and young daughters but heard voices in his head and believed he was possessed by the devil.

The second involved a woman who had restraining orders due to a troubled relationship. She had tried to break it off but the period after the woman leaves is usually the most dangerous.

She was said to be a caring, loving woman who never gave an indication of problems at home. However the man lost jobs, drank frequently, made threats and was physically violent.

Authorities said it was a domestic dispute that went terribly wrong.

In these stories the explanation is inexplicable: the man was loving and the couple seemed happy. Sometimes there were warning signs: the man had difficulties, or the couple had a history of conflict. And there was always an attempt to find an excuse: mental disorder, alcoholism or unemployment.

In both cases cognitive biases were used. Criticizing the victim, for example, by not calling the police is a 'just-world bias,' that good people do the right thing, and bad things happen to bad (incompetent) people.

On the other hand, to focus on the (now) obvious warning signs, is 'hindsight bias.' Both are ways of blaming in order to make ourselves feel safe.

The decade-old articles were short, either briefs or about 200 words. Police are the usual source, and the explanations include: domestic problems, depressed state, no concrete motive and nobody knows.

In comparison, the lack of coverage, the paucity of detail, the reliance on official sources and the absence of a context for explanation is striking. This was normal news coverage of domestic violence in the 1980s, a virtual silence compared to coverage 20 years later where there is an increased use of advocates as sources and a larger discussion of context.

The incidence of domestic violence has decreased over time in society, at the same time as newspaper articles about intimate partner violence have increased. The public is receiving more information about fewer cases, although there is still a tendency to mystify the nature of domestic violence.

In response, some researchers have worked to improve journalistic coverage. For example, the Rhode Island Coalition against Domestic Violence worked with reporters to develop a best practices handbook on news coverage of domestic violence murders.

In comparing print coverage of domestic violence murders before and after, they found an increased tendency to label the murder of intimates as domestic violence, and more use of advocates as sources.

As a result, murders which had previously been framed as unpredictable, private tragedies by police, were more likely to be framed as social problems which required public intervention.

This example of action research shows the importance of naming interpretations and the possibility of changing them.

Chris McCormick teaches criminology and media studies at St. Thomas University and his column appears every second Thursday.