The Representation of Domestic Violence in Media

Abstract

Studies on Domestic Violence have taken a large area of research. The issue has been discussed from different perspectives for the sake of examining such issue in media, particularly in the newspaper articles. The current study seeks to explore the way of representing man and woman as tow main participants of domestic violence and their actions in media as well as how they are represented in relation to such violence. A focus is placed on the representation of them, in two Algerian newspaper articles taken from El Chaab newspaper. So, this later is chosen as a corpus of this investigation, where the representation of two social actors is the focus of attention. This study has different objective. First, to discuss the role of media in representing and depicting domestic violence as an issue and how media relates to such issue. Second, it aims at exploring how media, particularly newspaper, describe man and woman as two different social actors and their actions. As far as the first aim of this study is concerned, two articles from El Chaab Newspaper are selected, examined, and analyzed based on Van leeuwen’s categories for the representation of social actors and their actions. Data have demonstrated that there are hidden ideologies behind this representation. Besides, data have confirmed that woman is always represented as a weak, passive, and dependent (victim) whereas man is always represented as a strong, active, and independent (perpetrator).