Framing domestic violence fatalities: coverage by Utah newspapers.(Essay)

This study explores the framing of one year's worth of domestic violence fatality coverage by newspapers in Utah, which are embedded within a strong patriarchal culture. Deductive and inductive framing analyses were used to identify the primary content-related frames and determine whether coverage included views that challenged patriarchy. Most coverage portrayed domestic violence fatalities in ways that supported patriarchal institutions. However, a small group of articles acknowledged domestic violence's roots in patriarchy and men's subordination of women, confirming that mainstream newspapers can and sometimes do publish views that challenge the dominant ones. This coverage may help point to ways to reframe coverage of domestic violence fatalities. Keywords: domestic violence, violence against women, Utah newspapers.

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Every year, hundreds of American women are killed by their current or former romantic partner (Fox & Zawitz, 2004; Rennison, 2001, 2003), and some of their stories are brought to the public by the mass media. Research has suggested that media coverage of domestic violence often portrays a distorted picture (Berns, 1999; Bullock & Cubert, 2002; Consalvo, 1998a) that may support men's subordination of women (Kelly, 1988; Meyers, 1997). This is sobering given the many agenda-setting and framing effects studies that highlight media's power to help shape individual and public views of which issues are important and influence what policy makers and others think about those issues (for example, see Brewer & McCombs, 1996; Terkildsen & Schnell, 1997; Valkenburg, Semetko, & de Vreese, 1999; Walsh-Childers, 1994). However, even within patriarchal systems, competing views exist (Consalvo, 1998b; Gitlin, 1980; Hall, 1977). This raises questions about how mainstream media embedded within cultures heavily influenced by patriarchal institutions will portray gender- and power-based issues such as domestic violence, defined here as a man's psychological and/or physical abuse of his current or former female romantic partner. Do such media incorporate views that challenge men's subordination of women within or, perhaps more likely, outside their primary frames of domestic violence?

The current study carves out one piece of that question for examination, focusing on a culture where church influence is strong. Using framing analysis, I examined one year's worth of coverage of domestic violence fatalities in Utah newspapers to identify the primary content-related frames and determine whether the coverage included views that challenged patriarchy. The goal was to deepen understanding of the power of media framing to construct issues such as domestic violence in ways that may obscure--or highlight--their roots in gender-based power imbalances.

The study is built on three important assumptions. First, I begin with the idea that domestic violence is a newsworthy social problem and that newsworthiness matters because it encourages coverage, which can then improve awareness and potentially shape public opinion and policy. More than 1,200 women--approximately one-third of all women murdered in the United States--die at the hands of their current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend each year (Fox & Zawitz, 2004; Rennison, 2003). These deaths leave holes in families, communities, and work places. Domestic violence-related deaths are high in news values such as conflict and human interest, while the broader social problem of domestic violence has the potential for strong relevance to and impact on society (for criteria for judging newsworthiness, see Itule & Anderson, 1994; Mencher, 1993; The Missouri Group, 2005).

Second, I start from the standpoint that news is socially constructed and, as noted by Molotch and Lester (1974), that this construction does not revolve around a news item's inherent significance but around the needs and activities of news promoters, assemblers, and consumers. This starting point emphasizes the importance of considering social and cultural factors that may shape news as well as which individuals, groups, and institutions hold power in society.

Third, I work from the feminist perspective that the power structure--in particular the law-and-order system, which handles domestic violence fatality cases and to which the media turn for information--largely serves the needs of patriarchy, defined as "the systemic institutionalization of women's inequality within social, political, economic, and cultural structures" (Meyers, 1997, p. 3). This study is grounded in the idea that news will generally be socially constructed in ways that help maintain patriarchal power structures and their inherent marginalization of women. (1) Scholars have pointed out that male-dominated language and meanings, the workings of the law enforcement and legal systems, and work routines within news organizations all contribute to the hegemonic ideology of men's subordination of women (Jones, 1994; Kelly, 1988; Meyers, 1997; Ptacek, 1988; Stanko, 1988; Websdale, 1999). However, as Consalvo (1998b) noted, "there will always be competing views that challenge the dominant views, and hegemony does allow for some competing views to be heard" (p. 207; see also Gitlin, 1980; Hall, 1977).