The media often sensationalises domestic violence against women and disproportionately covers female perpetrators of violence, a study into international reporting of violence against women has found.

“Media reporting of the most salacious aspects of violence against women provides the public with a perspective that is provocative but not representative,” said the report, Media Representations of Violence Against Women and Their Children.

“A number of studies found that female perpetrators of violence, including sexual and physical forms of violence, as well as female-perpetrated homicide of a male partner, accounted for a high proportion of the total volume of media reports on violence, despite the rarity of these events.”

The report, published by Our Watch and Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (Anrows), found there were widely established patterns of reporting in Australia and internationally that were overly simplistic, distorted and inadequate and increased the public’s confusion.

Our Watch, chaired by the former senator Natasha Stott Despoja, is a federally funded national body established to address preventing violence against women and their children by motivating community action.

It also found newspapers focused on the method of the murder rather than the history of violence as if it was “more important for readers to know how but not why men kill their partners”.

Many reports also shifted blame from the male perpetrators to their female victims and often relied on police comments for context.

Many reports also shifted blame from the male perpetrators to their female victims Study on media reports on domestic violence

The Australian authors used largely peer-reviewed scientific papers to examine the way newspapers and television reports portrayed violence against women.

“Unfortunately, reporting on violence against women that challenges rather than reinforces cultural and social norms about gender is still the minority,” they found.

“While the over-representation in the news of female perpetrators of violence may reflect the news value of ‘novelty’, [one study] argued that violence by women is considered ‘more deviant, more anxiety-provoking, more transgressive than men’s violence’ and therefore more in need of explanation.”

Stories about women being attacked by strangers were also over-represented. This cultivated fear in the community and confusion about who was really at risk.

One common theme across much of the media reporting in Australia and the US was that the social context in which male-perpetrated violence against women occurred was often excluded.

However, if the media reports included statistics on the extent of the problem or expert analysis about the social phenomena of gendered violence they would be more balanced.

The report said the media “frequently mirrors society’s confusion and ambivalence about violence against women” and that they could play a role in dispelling myths and reinforcing information about the true nature and extent of the problem.

Reporting on violence against women that challenged rather than reinforced cultural and social norms about gender was still the minority, the report said.

But there was some good news. Although 40% of the newspaper articles were sensational, the rate was dropping in the Australian media.

Australian and international media guidelines for reporting violence say:

Report the social context in which male perpetrated violence against women occurs;



Use correct language and terminology;

Avoid blaming the victim;

Avoid offering excuses for men’s violence;

Consider how source selection shapes the story;

Provide women with information on where to seek help.

More information on accurate ways to report violence against women can be found here. If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au