142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Geography of Sexual Violence News Coverage: A National & Regional Assessment of Where, and How, Violence Prevention is Covered in News Media

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Sunday, November 16, 2014

Pamela Mejia, MPH, MS , Research Team, Berkeley Media Studies Group, Berkeley, CA
Andrew Cheyne, CPhil , Research Team, Berkeley Media Studies Group, Berkeley, CA
Lori Dorfman, DrPH , Public Health Institute, Berkeley Media Studies Group, Berkeley, CA
Laura Nixon, MPH , Research Team, Berkeley Media Studies Group, Berkeley, CA
Karen Baker , National Sexual Violence Resource Center, Enola, PA
Understanding news coverage of sexual violence matters because the news informs public discussions and influences policymakers’ agendas. If prevention is not included in news coverage of sexual violence it will be harder for policymakers to see what we can do beyond intervention.

We use a nationally and regionally representative sample of traditional and new media from 2011 through 2013 to investigate news coverage of sexual violence including how often it appears in regional and national news, to what extent primary prevention is discussed, and how public policy debates are portrayed.

Our quantitative and qualitative analysis describes the frequency and framing of stories about rape, intimate partner violence, dating violence, commercial sex exploitation, child sexual abuse, and other forms of sexual violence. We compare regional news outlets and national media to understand variations between areas of the country and their news coverage of sexual violence. We investigate not only the key arguments made in this coverage, but who speaks – and who is silent – when sexual violence makes the news.

We offer recommendations for health practitioners, advocates, and journalists on how to improve news coverage of sexual violence to best inform the public and policymakers, and advance strategies to prevent sexual violence in the various places it occurs.

Learning Areas:

Advocacy for health and health education
Communication and informatics
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Define news framing and explain its importance to preventing sexual violence. Describe key regional variations in news coverage of sexual violence prevention. Discuss potential strategies for highlighting prevention in news coverage of sexual violence as part of overall work to enact primary prevention policies.

Keyword(s): Violence & Injury Prevention, Sexual Assault

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the lead Research Associate engaged in the research, analysis, and writing for this project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 2036.0: Poster Session: Violence Prevention