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Empowering Men:
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Manufacturing Concern:
Chapter
Four: Specific Cases of Coverage
Jim Boyce |
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The last chapter revealed a difference in the amount and type of headline
coverage given to male and female victims of violence. This raises some obvious
questions which I address in this chapter by examining some specific aspects
of the headlines: chronological trends in headline coverage, front-page and
multi-page headlines, headlines from only those CNI
categories in the sample with gender-neutral titles, headlines from 1984 and
headlines from the CNI category Child Abuse.
Chronological Trends
I will begin by examining
chronological trends in coverage of male and female victims of violence. To
determine how and whether this coverage fluctuated, I tabulated the coverage
by year and season. The following chart contains the results:
Number and Percentage of Articles by Season and Year
|
1989 |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
Total |
Winter |
43 (3.5) |
35 (2.8) |
54 (4.3) |
113 (9.1) |
245 (19.7) |
Spring |
47 (3.8) |
55 (4.4) |
68 (5.5) |
89 (7.2) |
259 (20.9) |
Summer |
29 (2.3) |
41 (3.3) |
76 (6.1) |
76 (6.1) |
222 (17.9) |
Fall |
59 (4.8) |
128 (10.3) |
194 (15.6) |
135 (10.9) |
516 (41.5) |
| |
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| |
178 (14.3) |
259
(20.9) |
392 (31.6) |
413 (33.3) |
1242 (100.) |
These numbers indicate
a 120 per cent increase in coverage from 1989 to 1991, with the result being
that 65 per cent of the coverage appeared in 1991 and 1992. Each season
saw a two to three-fold increase in coverage during the four years.”
Winter, spring and summer were proportionally similar (although they varied
in particular years) while the fall contained nearly twice as many articles
as any other season and 41.5 per cent overall. This fall coverage was most
pronounced in 1990 and 1991 when it represented nearly half of the yearly
coverage compared to one-third in 1989 and 1992.34
Similar trends occur
among literal and contextual references to gender and violence. The results
are as follows:
Number of Articles by Season and Year
| |
1989 |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
Total |
| |
Women Men |
Women Men |
Women Men |
Women Men |
Women Men |
Winter |
18
00 |
16 00 |
12
00 |
39
00 |
85
00 |
Spring |
17
00 |
26
03 |
31
03 |
25
01 |
99
07 |
Summer |
07
00 |
13
00 |
31
00 |
33
00 |
84
00 |
Fall |
41
01 |
71
00 |
90 02 |
55
05 |
257
08 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
82 01 |
126
03 |
164
05 |
152
06 |
525
15 |
Conclusions about coverage
of male victims are difficult to make because of the small sample size. For
example, the 1992 increase in coverage can be attributed to one Canadian Press
article which appeared in five of the newspapers. Thus, one-third of coverage
of men, as noted above, is found on one day of our sample. In the case of
women, coverage doubled between 1989 and 1991 before tapering off. These increases
were 25 per cent smaller than those in overall coverage which slightly increased
in 1992. Coverage in the winter, spring and summer was near parity while that
in the fall was triple that of any other season. This concentration in the
fall is due to contextual references, where fall headlines account for 78
per cent of the total (104 of 133) compared to fall literal headlines which
follow general trends at 39 per cent (153 of 392).
Fall coverage comprised
at least half of yearly coverage in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and one-third in 1992,
and like overall coverage, it peaked as a percentage of yearly coverage in
1991 and 1992.
To test
for a link between fall coverage and coverage of the Montreal murders and
their anniversaries, I calculated the number of headlines published during
the two weeks following the murders on December 6, 1989, and the week before
and after their anniversaries in 1990, 1991 to 1992. 1 also calculated the
number of headlines which were gender-specific and the number associated with
the murders rather than to other issues related to violence. The following
results show the number of headlines in this period and, in the case of “Total
Headlines,” their percentage of yearly coverage:
| |
1989 |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
Total |
Total Headlines |
39/21.9 |
44/17.0 |
57/14.5 |
37/08.9 |
177/14.3 |
Gender-Specific Headlines |
31 |
36 |
36 |
19 |
122 |
Headlines on Montreal Murders |
29 |
27 |
25 |
17 |
98 |
These weeks represent
about four per cent of the sample but more than 14 per cent of the headlines.
Headlines are two-and-one-half times more prevalent than average fall coverage
and five times higher than the average coverage of any other season. Percentage-wise,
coverage declined during the four years, particularly from 1991 to 1992.
Sixty
per cent of these headlines (122) are gender-specific, nearly double the average,
and most of these are contextual (84) and linked to the Montreal murders (98).
The highest percentage of headlines emphasizing the Montreal murders occurs
during 1989 and 1990. Other issues related to violence begin competing with
this coverage in the last two years although references to the Montreal murders
still represent half of the headlines in 1992.
These
chronological observations necessitate a few words of caution. We are relying
on the selection policies and practices of CNI. If articles are selected by
CNI based on “significance,” it is possible that those concerning
the anniversaries of the Montreal murders, or other events, are considered
less significant in some years than others, particularly in later years when
the total amount of coverage is higher. In addition, it is beyond the scope
of this thesis to determine the degree to which CNI’s
selection represents overall coverage of violence and gender or whether this
degree fluctuates between years. Finally, changes in the number of connotative
headlines in any given year, as well as gender-specific events I have not
considered to be contextual, may have an effect. Even if there were moderate
distortions in the selection of headlines, however, it seems safe to conclude
that coverage of gender and violence increased between 1989 and 1992, that
there is significantly more coverage in the fall than in other seasons and
that this fall coverage was particularly high in 1990 and 1991 and in the
weeks surrounding the Montreal murders and their anniversaries.
Front-Page and Multi-Page Headlines
Another question that
might be asked is whether the trends we have found characterize headlines
appearing on front pages, the most visible part of the newspaper. Since many
of these front-page articles continue on other pages of the newspaper, studying
them allows us a chance to examine whether the headlines accompanying these
continued portions are consistent with our findings.
One hundred and seventy-five headlines from the sample
appear the front pages, including 21 in 1989, 47 in 1990, a peak of 70 in
1991 and 37 in 1992. They fall into the following groups (of these, one literal
headline from 1990 and 1991 emphasizes men as victims):
| |
1989 |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
Total |
1. Literal |
07 |
18 |
22 |
09 |
56 |
2. Contextual |
04 |
08 |
09 |
04 |
25 |
3. Connotative |
05 |
10 |
18 |
13 |
46 |
4. Neutral |
00 |
07 |
13 |
08 |
28 |
5. Other |
05 |
04 |
08 |
03 |
20 |
| |
|
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|
|
|
| |
21 |
47 |
70 |
37 |
175 |
Forty-six per cent (81
of 175) of front-page headlines directly refer to the gender of victims, women
being emphasized forty times (79 to two) more frequently than men. These findings
are similar to those of the overall sample. The peak years for gender-specific
headlines as a percentage of yearly coverage and in absolute numbers were
1990 (47 or 56 per cent) and 1991 (70 or 47 per cent).
One hundred
and twenty nine of these headlines continue onto other pages. To determine
if the secondary headlines of these articles, where they exist, contain additional
information on the gender of victims, I examined every fourth one. In each
case, I considered whether the secondary headlines emphasized women, men or
neither. In those cases where new information was presented, whether a minor
variation on the original headlines or a new point, I considered whether it
would have changed how I originally grouped the headline. After this analysis,
I concluded there were no headlines which I originally had considered a direct
reference that I would have changed. There were three cases where I would
have redesignated a non-direct reference as a direct
one (these all concerned women as victims). Secondary headlines, then, do
not appear to lessen the focus on gender or on women.
Headlines From CNI Categories
With Gender-Neutral Titles
The headlines in my
sample which most clearly emphasize gender are those from the CNI categories
Battered Women and Violence Against Women, categories
whose titles explicitly identify the gender of victims. I have examined the
remaining categories --Crime and Criminals: Statistics (CC), Crime and Criminals
-- Media Coverage (MC), Family Violence (FV), Victims of Crime (VC) and Violence
(VI) -- to determine the degree to which they emphasize the gender of victims
(the number of headlines emphasizing male victims is listed in brackets):
| |
1989 |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
Total |
1. Literal |
11.5(1) |
20.0(1) |
21.5(3) |
18.0(6) |
71.0(11) |
2. Contextual |
25.0 |
0.0 |
1.0(1) |
0.0 |
26.0(01) |
3. Connotative |
11.0 |
21.5 |
50.0 |
31.5 |
114.0 |
4. Neutral |
44.0 |
59.0 |
73.5 |
121.5 |
298.0 |
5. Other |
20.0 |
14.5 |
21.0 |
20.5 |
76.0 |
| |
|
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| |
111.5(1) |
115.0(1) |
167.0(3) |
191.5(6) |
585.0(12) |
The number of headlines
in these categories increased 41 per cent in these four years compared to
141 per cent overall. Twelve per cent of these headlines are literal references
to gender compared to 34 per cent overall
while contextual references
account for five per cent compared to 14 per cent overall. These contextual
headlines are virtually non-existent when we consider that 25 of the 26 were
published in 1989 and 23 of these concerned the Montreal murders. Like later
articles related to the murders, these would likely have been found in the
category Violence Against Women had it existed in
1989. The percentage of headlines emphasizing male victims is, at 12 per cent,
eight times higher than average and the ratio of headlines emphasizing women
to those emphasizing men is eight to one (the lowest to which this ratio drops
is three to one in 1992, although five of the six headlines emphasizing men
in this period appeared on one day).
I have broken down the data to see whether these trends
are found in a particular CNI category:
| |
CC |
MC |
FV |
VC |
VI |
Total |
Literal |
10.0(1) |
0.0 |
47.5(9) |
4.5(1) |
9.0 |
71.0(11) |
Contextual |
0.0 |
1.0(1) |
0.0 |
1.0 |
24.0 |
26.0(01) |
Connotative |
0.0 |
0.0 |
107.0 |
7.0 |
0.0 |
114.0 |
Neutral |
145.0 |
6.5 |
33.0 |
60.0 |
53.5 |
298.0 |
Other |
8.0 |
7.0 |
29.5 |
22.0 |
9.5 |
76.0 |
| |
|
|
|
|
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|
| |
163.0(1) |
14.5(1) |
2 17.0(9) |
94.5(1) |
96.0 |
585.0(12) |
The greatest
number and proportion of headlines emphasizing the gender of victims are found
in the groups Family Violence and Violence. If we consider that 23 of the
Violence headlines appeared in 1989 and concerned the Montreal murders, then
the only group where more than 10 per cent of the headlines emphasize the
gender of victims is Family Violence (22 per cent). Family Violence also contains
the majority (9 of 12) of headlines emphasizing male victims. In short, the
number of articles is smaller, the focus on gender
weaker and the proportion of headlines emphasizing male victims is higher
than in overall coverage. Among these five categories, Family Violence contains
the greatest number and proportion of gender-specific headlines although they
are represented at rates lower than average.
The relative
sparsity of headlines emphasizing the gender of
victims, particularly women, makes sense since these headlines are likely
to be placed by CNI in gender-specific categories. This was seen in the case
of the Montreal murders, where contextual references similar to those that
were found in gender-neutral categories in 1989 were in later years found
in Violence Against Women. The same is true of headlines
about other gender-related issues, such as those concerning the National Panel
on Violence Against Women. Even with this exodus,
however, 17 per cent or, when we exclude headlines about the Montreal murders,
12 per cent of the headlines indicate the gender of victims and female victims
are still emphasized eight times as often as men.
Headlines From Previous Years
This thesis has examined
portrayals of gender and violence for the years 1989 and 1992 but one might
wonder how the findings compare to headlines from other years. To get an idea
of this, I examined CNI headlines from 1984. Caution must be taken with the
findings since only three of the CNI categories used in this thesis existed
in 1984: Family Violence, Victims of Crimes and Battered Women (the last being
established that year). I separated these headlines into the groups used earlier
in this thesis, applying the same guidelines, although I omitted the contextual
group since I did not identify any national events connected to violence and
gender (eight headlines were deleted from the sample using the guidelines
from chapter two). There were 235 headlines and they break down as follows:
| |
BW |
FV |
VC |
Total |
%
Total |
Literal |
64 |
04 |
00 |
68 |
28.9 |
Connotative |
07 |
14 |
11 |
32 |
13.6 |
(Sexual) |
(00) |
(00) |
(11) |
(11) |
43.8 |
(Family) |
(07) |
(14) |
(00) |
(21) |
13.6 |
Neutral |
13 |
13 |
77 |
103 |
298.0 |
Other |
19 |
01 |
12 |
32 |
76.0 |
| |
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|
|
|
| |
103
|
32 |
100 |
235 |
100.0 |
Gender-specific
literal references are as prevalent in these headlines as between 1989 and
1992 although the lack of contextual references results in gender-specific
headlines representing a smaller proportion of the 1984 coverage. Connotational
and other headlines are also found at 1989 to 1992 rates while Neutral headlines
are 50 per cent higher. In terms of individual CNI categories, we find gender-specific
headlines almost exclusively in Battered Women. There are fewer found in Family
Violence (13 per cent) than in 1989 to 1992 (21 per cent) and none are found
in Victims of Crime (compared to five per cent). No headlines emphasize men
as victims of violence.
Headlines
from 1984 focus on wife abuse, reporting on it in terms of legal cases (“Judges
fail to send wife abusers for counselling, study
finds” 84.06.30 WFP.3), as a societal issue (“Group teaches wife-beaters
to change ideas about women” 84.12.08 TS.A8) and battered women’s
shelters (“Battered wives to get temporary shelter” 84.08.31 TS.H6).
As in headlines from 1989 to 1992, 1984 headlines only see violence in terms
of inter-gender cases, with husbands portrayed as victimizers and wives as
victims. Unlike later headlines, however, the scope of violence against women
appears to be largely limited to wife abuse and, to a lesser degree, sexual
violence. The term “violence against women” is not found in these
headlines. Consequently, women’s victimization is discussed in terms
of specific cases rather than being embedded in all aspects of society as
it is characterized in later headlines, particularly those headlines surrounding
the Montreal murders and their anniversaries.
Headlines From the CNI Category “Child Abuse”
The findings of this thesis
concern the portrayal of adult victims but one might wonder how headlines
portray child victims. To do so, I examined headlines from the CNI category
Child Abuse for the years 1989 to 1992.
Headlines containing words such as beating, strapping,
assault, abuse, torture and death, and which clearly referred to violence
in the context of the headline, were considered to refer to abuse, as were
headlines describing acts like “Mother kept daughter, 4 chained and naked
in dark (90.11.23 TS.A 1). These headlines were sorted according to whether
they referred to male or female victims:
|
1989 |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
Total |
Total Articles |
70 |
86 |
82 |
70 |
308 |
Boy Victims |
06 |
07 |
02 |
01 |
16 |
Girl Victims |
06 |
07 |
05 |
03 |
21 |
Twelve per cent of the headlines emphasize gender --
about a third of the proportion found in our sample on adult victims -- and
the gap between headlines emphasizing boy and girl victims is relatively small.
All but one of the headlines concerned an individual case of abuse and this
headline emphasized ethnicity as well as gender: “8 in 10 native girls
sexually abused, study finds” (89.01.28 TS.A4). Children were overwhelmingly
identified in terms of their age, being described as infants, tots, babies,
children, and also as orphans, pupils and students. “Boy” and “girl”
tend to be used as synonyms for “child.” Thus, it appears that we
are to react to the age rather than the gender of victims in headlines such
as “Mother pleads guilty to scalding daughter: three-year-old burned
repeatedly” (92.04.01 GM.A6). A lack of concern with gender is exemplified
in the following headline which describes a victim in three gender-neutral
terms: “Parents sentenced to 2 years for allowing baby to starve to death:
Toronto couple put tot on spartan herbal diet in
hopes of raising ‘superchild”’ (90.07.25
MG.A1,2). Moreover, whereas many of the headlines
concerning adults were about groups or individuals asking the government to
address violence against women, we find the following gender-neutral approach
to violence against children: “Children’s minister proposed: bureau
suggested to combat abuse” (90.06.16 GM.A7).
Even in
cases which could be considered contextual such as the abuse at St. Joseph’s
Training School For Boys --“Beatings, sexual
abuse alleged at Catholic-run reform school in Ontario” 90.04.08 MG.A7)
-- it is not clear that the status of the victims is tied to their gender
rather than age. In other words, nowhere do we see a reference to “violence
against boys” rather than child abuse. In fact, it is the gender of the
perpetrators which is more often indicated, whether it be a mother, father,
dad, mom, priest or nun. The key relationship in headlines about child abuse
is adult and child whereas in the case of violence against adults it is women
and men.
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