Agenda-setting and the New York Times Coverage of domestic violence: A content analysis of domestic violence reported by the New York Times before, during, and after the O. J. Simpson Trial
Date
2010
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the leading cause of female homicides and injury-related deaths during pregnancy, with women five to eight times more likely than men to experience violence committed by an intimate. This study examines how the press reports the battering committed against women by their heterosexual intimates and suggests that the newsworthiness of this violence is not dependent upon the prevalence or the danger of such violence. What is considered newsworthy by the press is affected by the press’s current agenda and routine news practices.
This study’s premise is that prior to the O. J. Simpson murder investigation and trial, the battering of women by their intimate partners was reported less often by the New York Times, and, when it was reported, was covered in an incomplete or misleading way. The New York Times plays a dominant role in establishing the saliency of issues on the U.S. media agenda and the O. J. Simpson murder trial (6/12/94), which was covered intensively by the media, was described as the Trial of the Century. After such extensive coverage, did the Times change the way its’ routine news coverage framed the violence against women?
An agenda-setting perspective was used to analyze the framing techniques of individual stories. After applying the study’s criteria for selecting stories to the total census of stories about battering that were not O. J. Simpson related there were 227 (7.4%) stories to be analyzed.
A content analysis was done on the non-O.J. Simpson New York Times’ routine news coverage of battering articles published between June 12, 1994 and May 19, 1998. The Simpson case lasted from June 12, 1994, which was the date of the crime, to the trial’s verdict which was delivered on October 3, 1995; a total of 480 days. Four consecutive 16 month time frames were developed.
There was strong support for several, but not all, hypotheses; this study substantiated most of the prior research studies. There was much more coverage after the trial, with a significant increase in the number of articles during the period immediately after the trial.