News media reports do much more than relate events and occurrences: The inclusion or omission of information can also have an impact on the public's exposure to and understanding of such events. So it is with the reporting of intimate partner violence. Media has the power to ignore or include contextual factors, to report incidents as individual or broader events, to include nonfatal as well as fatal incidents, and to include or exclude details and relationship explanations, which all contribute to public understanding. Too often, we report IPV as an isolated incident, and we do not relate it to any trends or commonalities with other violence. We seek quotes from experts who may or may not understand IPV, we get quotes about perpetrator characteristics from friends, coworkers and family members who had no knowledge of or understanding of IPV, and we report reactively rather than proactively.
#jaws16violence
