{"id":68479,"date":"2024-10-31T11:40:17","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T18:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=68479"},"modified":"2024-10-31T11:40:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T18:40:17","slug":"domestic-violence-journalists-seek-new-ways-to-end-the-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=68479","title":{"rendered":"Domestic Violence Journalists Seek New Ways to End the Cycle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Journalists nationwide are fighting domestic violence by focusing on solutions for survivors before the cycle turns deadly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Journalists nationwide are fighting domestic violence by focusing on solutions for survivors before the cycle turns deadly.<\/p>\n

Every year,\u00a0over 10 million<\/a>\u00a0people in the U.S. experience domestic violence, amounting to nearly 20 people physically abused by a partner every minute.<\/p>\n

Over a third of U.S. women (35.6%) and over a quarter of men (28.5%) will experience rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cDomestic violence is everywhere, but it\u2019s not inevitable, and how you tell survivors\u2019 stories makes the difference between sensationalism and genuine understanding\u201d \u2014 for instance, of the role of financial abuse and homelessness, said Debbie I. Chang, President and CEO of Blue Shield of California Foundation, at a Friday, October 25 panel at San Francisco\u2019s Commonwealth Club, hosted by Blue Shield, about journalists expanding domestic violence narratives.<\/p>\n

Financial abuse is involved in\u00a099%<\/a>\u00a0of domestic violence cases.<\/p>\n

Domestic abuse is the immediate cause of homelessness for\u00a057%<\/a>\u00a0of unhoused U.S. women, and a major cause for 80% of those with a child in their care.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen we use language that minimizes domestic violence, we minimize the issue,\u201d said journalist and domestic violence activist Rachel Snyder. \u201cFor instance, using the term \u2018domestic dispute,\u2019 writing off children as unharmed or interviewing a neighbor who says \u2018But he seemed so nice,\u2019 instead of a family member or friend of the victim who can say \u2018She was scared.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNorms are shaped by media. Of course, we want to recognize the victims who have been murdered due to violence. When I was 16, when my abuser would lay his hands on me that I thought I was going to die,\u201d said domestic violence writer and survivor Angela Kim.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my perception of domestic violence was really shaped by all these headlines of victims being murdered, and I just grew more and more terrified to leave every day,\u201d she continued. \u201cJournalists need to shed light on more covert domestic violence by showing how it thrives in ambiguity.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that journalism can often make matters worse by presenting domestic violence stories as isolated incidents, rather than being contextualized around social issues and power dynamics, especially those impacting youth.<\/p>\n

For example, although\u00a057%<\/a>\u00a0of U.S. college students who report experiencing dating violence and abuse said it occurred during college, 57% of college students overall say it\u2019s difficult to identify dating abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that young people go through that makes it hard to learn healthy behaviors,\u201d said Kim. \u201cWhile I was witnessing relationship abuse, I was also witnessing domestic violence in the home, as a child with a learning disability living with an immigrant family below the federal poverty line, which did not speak English well, and which was also Catholic, and so couldn\u2019t divorce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, journalists can walk away from all that and go home to their families, but the interviewee is often left with more nightmares. This is why it\u2019s so important to be mindful of the power dynamics with the survivors you interview, or else you may end up replicating those cycles of violence,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

Awareness of these journalistic power dynamics are especially key to survivors\u2019 healing given that many who experience domestic violence never find justice through traditional routes, like the court system.<\/p>\n

Federal data indicates that\u00a0only half<\/a>\u00a0of domestic violence incidents are reported at all, while the vast majority, while nationally representative data indicates that\u00a0less than 2%<\/a>\u00a0of domestic violence offenders receive any jail time.<\/p>\n

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Michelle Levander, left, and Sammy Caiola, right, listen to Otis R. Taylor, Jr. discuss domestic violence coverage at KQED in San Francisco.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI had taken pictures, and my own case still never got a court date. How could that vindicate me?\u201d said domestic violence writer and survivor Yenni Rivera. \u201cI couldn\u2019t think about my own healing without also thinking of my child\u2019s, and making sure he didn\u2019t fall into patterns of becoming or accepting an aggressor \u2026 especially when he and his father did connect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research suggests<\/a>\u00a0that one of the strongest predictors of committing domestic violence is having witnessed it in childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Spanish, there is a saying that means: \u2018From love to hate, it\u2019s just one step,\u2019\u201d Rivera explained. \u201cIf you show the abuser that created a crime, also show what caused that \u2014 who they and their parents are, what community they were raised in, whether their friends or colleagues were blind to it \u2026 We should be able to see it, because the only way to break the cycle is to understand where it begins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJournalists sometimes report things black-and-white, with a clear cast of characters \u2014 the victim, the abuser, the cops and judges,\u201d said Michelle Levander, editor and founding director of the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut many communities may mistrust the legal system,\u201d she continued. \u201cTo bring change from lawmakers, we have to approach domestic violence not as a one-day crime story but a public health epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Domestic violence survivors are\u00a0three times more likely<\/a>\u00a0to meet PTSD criteria, develop a major depressive disorder, engage in self-harming behaviors, be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and have suicidal thoughts than the general population.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are spending so much money and time on policing and mental health services after the fact, when we can do so much more on the front end,\u201d said Otis R. Taylor, Jr., managing editor of news and enterprise for KQED in San Francisco. \u201cI think this requires a raising of expectations for stories\u2019 depth, and making space for reporters to meet them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2025, KQED will be reporting on domestic violence regularly, but we won\u2019t just focus on someone being sentenced for killing their partner. What\u2019s often missing in those stories are real people on the street \u2014 neighbors, friends, coworkers who have experienced that violence,\u201d he continued. \u201cA lot of this hurdle involves journalists not having the space to tell stories outside their comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a reporter, I\u2019ve so often had to fight for that space, because centering humans in a trauma-informed way takes so much time and care,\u201d said Sammy Caiola, special projects reporter for Kensington Voice in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

After training in traditional newsrooms, Caiola has been breaking old-school journalistic models of one-sided information-gathering by collaborating with her sources on building their stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurvivors often feel they\u2019ve lost control, and journalists who work with them have a role in helping them regain some of it through a journalistic process that that empowers rather than extracts,\u201d she said, adding that she does this by reading quotes back to sources, asking them what they need to feel safe during the interview and asking them what questions they\u2019d want answered for her own upcoming interviews like law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also ask people at the start of an interview: \u2018Why are you doing this? What do you want to get out of it ?\u201d Caiola continued. \u201cOnce, they said \u2018I just want the next person who goes through this to understand the system better than I did, because I just didn\u2019t know what to do,\u2019 so and we produced a\u00a0digital guide<\/a>\u00a0to reporting sexual assault in Sacramento County.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve talked to survivors who said \u2018If we\u2019re going to do this, please don\u2019t change the day on me, because I\u2019m going to make a therapy appointment,\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m not going to work,\u2019\u201d she added. \u201cThat helped me realize: This is not just a conversation for you. This is your health.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySelen Ozturk Oct 30, 2024 Journalists...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68480,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68479\/revisions\/68480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}