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Functional truth or sexist distortion?

Assessing a feminist critique of intimate violence reporting

Stanford University, jmcmanus{at}stanford.edu

Lori Dorfman

Berkeley Media Studies Group, dorfman{at}bmsg.org

Journalism assumes reporters are able to pursue ‘functional truth’ - an account of issues and events reliably describing social reality. But researchers have often found systematic bias. In reporting about cross-gender violence, critical feminist scholars contend that news media devalue violence against women and often blame the victim while mitigating or blurring the perpetrator’s responsibility. The present study is the first in the USA to test this critique as it applies to reporting the vast social pathology of intimate-partner violence. Consistent with the critique, intimate violence was covered much less often and with less depth than other violence of similar gravity. In contrast, however, the newspapers studied very rarely blamed female battering victims or mitigated suspect blame.

Key Words: blaming the victim • domestic violence • feminist theory • framing • functional truth • intimate-partner violence • journalism • news coverage • objectivity • violence against women

Journalism, Vol. 6, No. 1, 43-65 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1464884905048952


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