(incorporating the International Ex-Fetus Association)
Manufacturing Concern:
Chapter Two: Methodology
and Definitions
Jim Boyce
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| Contents Page | Summary Article |
The_Canadian Newspaper Index (CNI) indexes many types of articles including news (local, provincial, national and international), features, sports, travel and business, and editorials, regular columns, letters and arts reviews. They are indexed under subject categories which include groups (The National Action Committee on the Status of Women), individuals (Marc Lepine), social issues (Violence), government departments (Statistics Canada) and geographic areas (Canada). CNI lists the headlines of articles in these categories but the articles themselves are chosen based on the “significant reference value” of their content (CNI 1992:iv). Features, summary articles, and articles on trends and social issues are given preference to day-to-day coverage or articles on individual cases: “Individual assault cases on a regular basis are ignored. For example stories on battered women will be picked up if the problem exists at a demographic level: if it reflects the socio-economic climate of the country, the world.... All surveys, statistics are picked up” (Atwal 1993a).
We have
already seen that headlines tend to reflect article content and that
journalism texts, newspaper style manuals and journalists at
the newspapers indexed by CNI cite such accuracy as a key goal of the
headline writer. A more pressing issue is the extent to which the articles
found in CNI accurately reflect the coverage of violence in the seven
newspapers being indexed. Proving this goes beyond the scope of this
Thesis but a number of factors suggest the headlines being examined
are significant. The CNI selection criteria
favour articles dealing with summaries of
events and issues or with trends, those articles most likely to be linked
to general attitudes and perceptions. There were three editors during
the four years being examined, reducing the influence of any one person’s
biases on the selection policies of CNI.23
Even if leeway is given for some selection inaccuracies,
this thesis examines more than a thousand headlines that were read by
millions of readers and this, in and of itself, is significant. Finally,
these headlines not only influenced those who originally read them but
those who are using or will use CNI for research purposes. This potential
is great given CNI’s vast clientele:
“Our major market consists of public and academic libraries. Our
primary users are students, academics, professionals and the general
public” (Atwal 1993a).
Creating the
Sample of Headlines
The headlines examined in this study were gathered
from subject categories in CNI which refer to violent trends, violence
as a general societal issue or violence as a gender-specific issue.
They were chosen after a survey of CNI categories dealing with women,
men, crime, violence and the media. Categories referring to individual
crimes, such as Murder, Rape and Sexual Offenses, or Seniors
-- Abuse, were omitted unless they referred to gender, such as Battered
Women. In the case of gender-specific categories like Battered Women,
I looked for a similar category referring to the opposite gender, like
Battered Men. Six categories were chosen: Battered Women, Crime and
Criminals -- Statistics, Family Violence, Victims of Crime, Violence,
and Violence Against Women (the last was established
in 1990). I wrote to Nina Atwal, CNI’s
last editor, and asked whether she thought my choices were appropriate.
She suggested several which might be added but said that only one, Crime
and Criminals -- Media Coverage, was as important as those already selected
(Atwal 1 993b). I added this as a final category.
There were 1363 headlines in these seven categories:
| Category |
1989 |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
Total |
| Battered Women |
64 |
56 |
50 |
38 |
208 |
| Crime and Criminals - Media Coverage |
03 |
10 |
03 |
03 |
19 |
| Crime and Criminals - Statistics |
15 |
36 |
37 |
111 |
199 |
| Family Violence |
21 |
50 |
99 |
67 |
237 |
| Victims of Violence |
40 |
15 |
27 |
22 |
104 |
| Violence |
44 |
16 |
25 |
30 |
115 |
| Violence Against Women |
* |
94 |
188 |
199 |
481 |
| |
187 |
277 |
429 |
470 |
1363 |
I entered the information
that CNI provided on each headline into a computer database. This included
publication date, page number, the newspaper where it was published,
the type of article headlined (news article, editorial, etc.), the way
CNI categorized the article, the title (and any additional bracketed
information CNI provided on the title) and whether a photograph and/or
graphic accompanied the article. I began by entering headlines from
1989 and proceeded, alphabetically, through the categories for each
year. Abbreviations were used to simplify the entry of the information.
The following is a typical entry (the fields CAT2 and NOTE were reserved
for my categorizations and comments):
DATE:
91/02/27 PAGE:
A2 NEWS:
GM [Globe and Mail] TYPE:
News [News Articles CAT1:
CC[Crime and Criminals – Statistics] CAT2: TITLE: Murder
rate in Canada down in 1990 as 637 killed NOTE: Removing these reduced the sample to 1242 headlines.
Grouping the
Headlines I began by examining the scope, focus and accuracy
of headlines dealing with gender and violence by determining how many
emphasize violence against women and how many emphasize violence against
men. Headlines were separated
into five groups. The first
two contain headlines with a direct link to gender and violence.
The last three contain those headlines with less direct links
or no apparent links.26
Group 1: Literal
references to gender and violence Group 2: Contextual
references to gender and violence Group 3: Connotative
references Group 4: Neutral
references to violence Group 5: Other
references
I will now explore the scope of these categories, providing
a summary and some examples of the headlines found in each.
Group One Summary:
Literal references to
gender and violence are divided by two types depending on their directness.
The first type fulfills three criteria.
They contain key words that are clearly or frequently associated
with violence, like “crime”, “murder”, “violence”,
and “abuse”. They
contain key words indicating the gender of the victims, like “women”,
“males”, “husband”, and “moms”.
Finally, these key words refer to gender and violence within
the context of the headline.
The second type contains two kinds of headlines.
First, there are those which fulfill the key-word criteria of
the first type but refer less directly to violence and gender when taken
as a whole. These tend to
contain words like “abuse” and are more easily associated
with issues other than violence (e.g. drug abuse).
Second, there are headlines which have key words associated with
violence-related issues, like battered women’s shelters and the
fear of violence. These
words include “victims”, “shelters”, “fear”,
and “protection”. They
also have gender-related key words and refer to gender and violence
in the context of the headline.
Literal references contain key words associated with
violence. These words describe
specific types of violence (murder), actions (beating) and trends (crime).
Headlines found in the first group of literal references contain
one or more of the following words:
violence, crime, abuse; murder, homicide, kill, slay; shoot,
stab, beat, batter, bash, hit, slap, wack
(sic); maim, torture; rape, assault, attack, slaughter, massacre; rob,
riot, war, rage, lethal and deadly.
They also contain derivatives of these words.
For instance, in addition to “murder” they contain
references to murderers, murdered, murder rate, and so on.
The most direct references to violence contain words
specifying acts like “murder” and “assault”, actions
such as “stabbing” and “maiming”, and the word “violence”
itself. Examples are “Alarm
over workplace murders: 42% of women killed on the job site are murdered”
(90.12.05 CH.D8), “Blind justice:
women beaten, maimed, tortured in bedrooms of nation” (91.06.15
CH.D6) and “Steelworkers take stand on violence against women”
(92.05.29 TS.A17). Less
direct are references to “crime”, which does not necessarily
denote physical violence, and “abuse”, which could refer to
the abuse of children, drugs, alcohol, power, or “the system”.
I have assumed that crime headlines refer to violence since this
is a common perception and no headlines in our sample indicate that
crime refers exclusively to non-violent acts.
Examples are “Young males likeliest crime victims, study
finds” (89.10.13 MG.A3) and “Living in fear: Canadian women
cope with night crime” (91.10.23 VS.A6).
In the case of “abuse”, gender-related key
words establish links to violence.
“Abuse” can refer to a variety of issues but “wife
abuse” has a clear meaning.
Examples of these types of headlines are “Catholic bishops
take hard line of (sic) wife abuse: it’s a sin, crime and serious,
they say” (91.06.26 MG.B1) and “Canada proposed as international
refuge for abused women” (92.11.30 GM.A6).
The significance of gender-related words can also be seen in
headlines such as “$5.4m allocated to help battered women”
(89.05.03 GM.A14) and “Jokes about wife-beating abound in jock
talk of coaches, players, fans” (91.03.08 MG.C9).
Deleting the words “women” and “wife” from
these examples reduces their link to violence.
The first could be interpreted as concerning aid to victims of
a natural disaster and the second to an emphasis in sports on losing
and winning. Headlines in the first
group of the first category also have at least one of the following
key words: female, male, woman, man, madman, mom, mother, wife, hubby,
husband, ex-husband, daughter, girl, boy, boyfriend, her, his, she and
he. Derivatives of these words are also considered. For instance, in
addition to references to “wife” there are references to “wives.”
The gender of victims can be identified directly or indirectly in terms
of the gender of the victimizers. The latter is found frequently in
the case of domestic violence. Examples are “Violent husband clinics
starved” (89.12.01 CH.B1) and “$200 price tag for abuse: husbands
get off too lightly: police” (90.10.04 MG:A1,2).
In such cases, it is assumed that the victims are wives and, therefore,
women (one might argue the victims could be children but in such a case
the victimizers would likely be identified as “fathers” rather
than “husbands”).
There
are also headlines where violence against men or women is secondary
or where both are identified as victims. In the former, we can still
determine if the gender of the adult victims is emphasized. The following
headline, for example, is considered to emphasize women as victims:
“Children are the hidden victims when husbands batter wives: few
resources available to help traumatized kids” (90.10.06 MG.A8).
In cases where both women and men are cited as victims we must determine
which victims receive the greater emphasis. If we assume, in “Speech
on abuse by females draws ire: violence against women is the norm, clinic
employee tells workshop” (91.10.31 GM.A6), that the “abuse
by females” is against males, what appears newsworthy is the clinic
employee’s statement that violence against women is greater. Similarly,
“Hubby bashing found equal to wife abuse” (91 .06.19 WFP.A27)
deals with violence against both genders but appears newsworthy because
it suggests that violence against husbands is widespread enough to rival
that against wives.
One case
requires special consideration: headlines dealing with battered spouses
who murder their partners. Examples are: “Top court upholds acquittal:
‘battered wife syndrome’ defence
in man’s slaying” (90.05.03 VS.A1) and “Battered wife
gets no jail in slaying” (90.05.10 TS.A1,24).
As in the previous cases, the emphasis of the headline is key.
If the first headline had read, “Top court upholds acquittal on
murder charge,” the emphasis would have been on the murder victim.
By introducing a second victim, the murder has become significant in
relation to the issue of domestic violence, even though the murder may
be considered the greater crime by most people. This would be obvious
if the second headline had read “Battered husband gets no jail
in slaying. The key
words discussed to this point must refer to violence and gender in the
context of the entire headline. The headline “Workplace proves
deadly for women, conference told” (91.11.10 WFP.A5) fulfills the
keyword criteria but is excluded since it could reasonably refer
to accidents rather than purposeful violence. Headlines that are included
vary in the degree to which they refer to violence and gender. Those
used as examples to this point are direct but others are less so. An
example is “Crime and women: biggest danger is at home” (92.11.28
VS.A 12). While women are not literally specified as potential victims
-- one could interpret the headline as stating that violent women are
most likely to attack people in their homes -- it would seem a reasonable
interpretation. In “Topless rally bares male violence fears: city
women’s leaders split on feminist crusade” (92.07.16 CH.C7),
it is unlikely that the rally concerns topless men, particularly as
part of a “feminist crusade” where concern is being raised
by women’s leaders towards the potential of male violence. Although
these types of headlines are less direct than most in this group I contend
that readers would associate them with violence and gender.
The second type of literal references in the first group
contains two kinds of headlines. The first kind fulfills the key-word
criteria of the first type but constitutes less direct references to
violence and gender overall. Examples are: “Showing women how to
slam back at attackers” (90.11.09 VS.D9), which could refer to
verbal attacks, and “Desperate abuse victim seeks justice: why
has the legal system failed, woman asks” (91.11.04 WFP.B 12), where
the victim and woman may not be the same person. I contend that these
headlines would be linked to violence and gender by most readers but
the possibility of them being interpreted otherwise is more likely than
those in the first group.
The second, more common, kind of headline contains new key
words. Unlike the key words of the first type of headline, which tend
to describe violent acts and actions such as “murder” and
“beating,” these refer to violence-related issues such as
battered women’s shelters and the fear of violence. These words
include: safety, protection, danger, fear, threats, guard, stalked and
escape; judge, court, legal system, restraining order, sentence, ruling,
“get off,” jail, prison, convicts and parole; victims, cycle
[of abuse], refuge and “war on women.” Typical examples are
“Shelters refuse half the women needing aid” (89.11.15
MG.A 1), “Never at night: fear stalks Canadian women on the
streets of the nation” (91.10.23 HCH.D1 2) and “Truce more
elusive than ever in war against women” (91.12.05 HCH.A1,2).
This second type of headline also contains gender-related
key words. Many help establish a link to violence. For example, “shelters”
could refer to the homeless, animals or bombs, but “women’s
shelters” has a much clearer meaning. The gender of victims may
be identified directly or indirectly. The previous three examples are
direct. An indirect example is “Jailing of victim criticized: wouldn’t
testify against husband” (91.03.29 GM.A6), which suggests a link
to violence by the use of victim,’’ and to gender with an
implied victimizer (husband) and, in turn, an implied victim (wife).
As with the first type, headlines vary in how directly they
refer to violence and gender. Those provided to this point are direct.
Some examples of less direct headlines are “Women as victims too
often get the blame, seminar told” (91.10.09 VS.A9), which could
refer to women as victims in terms other than violence, and “Wary
women tell how they protect themselves” (91.10.09 VS.A9), which
could refer to job safety or birth control, among other things. Even
so, the use of some of these key words in previous headlines suggests
they are associated with violence and I would contend that most readers
would make the link. Group Two Summary: Contextual references refer
to events associated with gender and violence at a national level: The
Montreal murders and their anniversaries, the White Ribbon Campaign,
and the National Panel on Violence Against Women.
Headlines are separated into
two types depending on how directly they refer to these events. The first
type contains key words commonly associated with these events, such as
“Lepine,” “Massacre,” “White
Ribbon” and “National Panel,” which are typically published
on key dates. Key words and dates refer to these events in the context
of the headline.
There are
two kinds of headlines in the second type. First, those which fulfill
the criteria of the first type but, as a whole, refer less directly to
these events. These headlines tend to contain less specific key words,
like “panel” rather than “National Panel.” The second
kind of headline contains no key words but is included because the headlines
were published within a few weeks or days of key events and can reasonably
be seen to refer to them. Group two,
or contextual, headlines refer to events between 1989 and 1992 which are
associated, at a national level, with violence and gender. The events
considered here are the Montreal murders and their three anniversaries,
the creation and hearings of the National Panel on Violence Against
Women and The White Ribbon Campaign organized by Canadian men.27
Headlines have been separated into two types depending on how directly
they refer to these events. The first type contains the following key
words: The
Montreal Murders and Their Anniversaries: murders,
killings, slayings, shootings, deaths, massacre; fourteen, Polytechnique,
Marc Lepine, campus; anniversary, services,
vigil, memorial; and references to Montreal, such as “Montreal tragedy”
and “Montreal women”;
The
White Ribbon Campaign: white
ribbon, ribbon;
The
National Panel on Violence Against Women: panel,
panelist; national, anti-violence, violence and Examples
of headlines which contain these words and typify references in this first
group are: “Speaking about the unspeakable: the massacre in Montreal”
(89.12.08 GM.A7), “Males show support with white ribbon” (91.11.28
CH.A12) and “Tolerance of violence must end: time had come for direct
action, panelists declare” (92.02.16 CH.A14). Other headlines are
less direct. “Bill would datemark massacre”
(91.10.24 VS.A3) may not be published in December or literally identify
the Montreal massacre, but it is difficult to see what other massacre
would merit being remembered in a Bill in 1991. “Horrifying stories
of torture, abuse leave panel’s co-chair
cringing” (92.03.23 VS.A3) could refer to a panel other than the
National Panel on Violence Against Women but the link seems reasonable
given the widespread media attention it received.
Key dates
are essential in many of these headlines. The word “ribbon,”
for example, could refer to the red ribbon campaign in support of AIDS
research. However, the headline “MPs with ribbons didn’t laugh”
(VS.A 15 91.12.07) can safely be linked to the White Ribbon campaign because
it was published the day following the anniversary of the Montreal murders.
It should be noted that key dates are important primarily in the case
of the Montreal murders, their anniversaries and the White Ribbon Campaign.
In all three cases these dates are the days and weeks surrounding December
sixth of each year.
Unless
they specify men as victims, contextual references of the first type are
considered to emphasize the violent victimization of women. All of these
events refer to a violent act against women, like the Montreal murders,
or arose in response to such an act, like the White Ribbon Campaign. The
focus is explicit in the title National Panel on Violence Against
Women. There were no high-profile national events portrayed as symbolizing
violence against men in this period. This focus is seen in headlines associated
with these events which do indicate gender: all but one (which is counted
as emphasizing men) emphasize women as victims.
Finally, after selecting the headlines to be included in this first group
I observed that CNI had categorized every one of them as Violence Against
Women.
There are
two kinds of headlines in the second type of contextual reference. One
kind fulfills the criteria of the first type but, when considered in the
context of the headline, refers less directly to these events. These headlines
tend to have words such as “ribbon” rather than “white
ribbon,” or “panel” rather than “violence panel”
or “National Panel.” An example is “Women urge panel to
seek changes to the legal system” (92.03.24 GM.A4). This headline
is included because of the link between ‘‘panel,’’
‘‘women’’ and ‘‘legal system.’’
The second
kind is determined by the date of publication. It would be hard to associate
the following with the Montreal murders if they had been published a month
earlier or later: “Anti-woman and anti-feminist sentiments are all
around us” (89.12.09 MG.B1,4), “We
mourn.., all our daughters” (89.12.10 MG.A 1), “A year after
the trauma, the answers and insights still go begging” (90.12.04
GM.C1) and “Silence honors the dead” (90.12.07 CH.A3). I contend
that most readers will link the headlines in this second group to gender
and violence although they are more open to interpretation than those
in the previous group.
Like the
first type, the second is considered to emphasize violence against women.
When I examined how CNI had categorized the headlines, all but three were
found in Violence Against Women. Group
Three Summary: Connotational references are
literally neutral in identifying the gender of victims but there are
strong clues suggesting such a link. Two types are examined here: sexual
violence and family violence. Headlines dealing with sexual violence contain
key words like “rape” and “sexual assault” while those
dealing with family violence contain words like “spousal abuse,”
“conjugal violence” and “battering.”
These key words refer to sexual or family violence within the context
of the headline. In the
first two groups, the link between violence and gender was explicit, whether
in literal terms or the context of specific events. Connotational
headlines, however. provide implicit links. They
are literally gender-neutral in their references to violence but may imply
a gender-specific focus. Two types are examined here: sexual violence
and family violence. References in previous groups which dealt with these
types of violence emphasized women in every case (sexual violence) or
the vast majority cases (family violence). Given this, the question arises
whether headlines such as “Rape victim faces stiffer sentence than
attacker” (9 1.12.07 HCH.A3), “Social churchgoers among most
likely to abuse spouses: study” (92.05.25 MG.A9) and “City’s
program protects domestic-abuse cases” (92.10.23 GM.A21) imply a
gender-neutral or gender-specific focus.
We can begin to answer this by examining how CNI categorized
these headlines. In the case of sexual violence, connotative references
contain the following key words: rape, sexual assault, sexual violence,
sex crimes and sexual harassment. Within the context of the headlines,
they refer to violence. Of the 20 headlines meeting these criteria, nine
were categorized by CNI as Violence Against Women.
Of the remainder, seven are found in Victims of Crime, including three
before the category Violence Against Women appeared, five in Crime and
Criminals -- Statistics, and one each in Battered Women and Crime and
Criminals -- Media Coverage.
All nine literal references to sexual violence emphasize
women as victims and were also distributed across several CNI categories.
Four were categorized as Violence Against Women,
two each as Victims of Crime and Crime and Criminals -- Statistics, and
one as Battered Women. Given that literal headlines focus exclusively
on female victims and that they and connotative headlines are categorized
similarly by CNI, we have some evidence that literally gender-neutral
headlines imply women as victims.
References to family violence are more complex because
some literal headlines identify males as victims. Connotational
references contain the following key words: home, conjugal, family and
domestic violence; spouse, family, domestic and parent abuse; domestic
and family murder; domestic killings, crime and assault; battering and
abuse. They also contain references to violence and the home, family,
marriage, relationships and partners. If we examine the previous category
of literal references, we find these same key words linked to gender-specific
violence. Examples are “The deadly toll of family violence: 37 women
and children murdered in Quebec this year” (90.12.29 MG.B5), “Family
violence affects men too: researcher says women often initiate ugly cycle”
(91.05.04 CH.B2) and “Domestic violence sweeps Montreal: four
women killed in last three weeks (92.08.07 WFP.B26). These headlines are
infrequent, however, likely due to the space they require and their repetitiveness.
The vast majority of other references to violence concern the victimization
of women, a focus suggested by the second-last headline which implies
that husband abuse is rarely recognized as an issue.
When we examine how literal headlines are categorized
in CNI, we find some emphasizing women in the category Family Violence
rather than Battered Women. This is most typical in cases where men are
identified as perpetrators (“Violent husband clinics starved”
89.12.01 CH.B 1) or where policies or actions regarding wife abuse are
addressed (“Campaign against wife assault to be permanent, Ontario
says” 90.11.02 GM.A4). There are also headlines which are found in
both categories, such as “Chances of charges increase for Ontario
men who beat wives” (89.08.30 GM.A14). Others, which would seem to
fit in either category are found in Violence
Against Women. These include “Two women killed weekly in Canada by
male partners, says Statscan” (90.10.13
HCH.A1) and “Abusive husbands get help” (90.10.16 CH.B1). In
the case of family violence, it appears that terms for wife abuse, family
violence and violence against women are, to some degree, used interchangeably. A similar
trend occurs in connotative headlines. While the majority are categorized
by CNI as Family Violence, nearly one-quarter are found in Battered Women
and Violence Against Women. Respective examples
are “Health woes linked to domestic violence: those who are battered
more likely to have mental problems, Quebec research finds” (9 1.02.14
GM.A6) and “Ottawa bares plan to combat home violence” (91.11.08
VS.A4). Given the blurring between wife abuse, family violence and violence
against women, what is the reader to think of gender-neutral headlines
that refer to “battering”? It would appear we are to envision
women as victims since there are no references to “battered men”
and we find such gender-neutral headlines in the category Battered Women
(“Battered rarely seek treatment, papers say” 90.05.14 GM.A1
1, and “Doctors want all batterers charged” 91.10.13 CH.A1). Group Four Summary:
Neutral references fulfill two criteria. They contain key words related
to violence which, when read in the context of the headline, refer to
violence. Unlike literal references in the first category, these are not
considered to refer directly to the gender of victims. Neutral headlines contain
the same kinds of violence-related key words as those in category one
but do not directly emphasize the gender of victims. Many appear not to
have even the slightest literal, contextual or connotative link to gender
(this should not be surprising since it would be unusual to find such
a link in every headline). This is most obvious in headlines with quantitative
information, such as statistics from studies, surveys or reports. Examples
are “24% of Canadians were victims of crime” (89.04.26 GM.A
13), “Murder rate in Canada down in 1990 as 637 killed” (91.02.27
TS.A2) and “Violent crime on the increase” (91.08.24 GM.A4).
There are 113 such headlines. The intuition that they are gender-neutral
is supported when we examine how CNI categorized them: 101.5 are found
in Crime and Criminals -- Statistics, four each in Victims of Crime and
Violence, 1.5 in Family Violence and one in Crime and Criminals
-- Media Coverage. Only one is found in the gender-specific category of
Battered Wives.
Some of
the remaining qualitative headlines in this group also appear to have
no link, however indirect, with gender. Examples are “Workers find
help coping with stress after job violence” (89.02.19 TS.E24) and
“Justice called blind to victims of crime” (91.01.03 GM.A9).
Others, however, do hint at the gender of victims. Some are literal, such
as “Women make passionate plea for Ottawa action: government ‘major
obstacle’ in fighting violence” (90.12.12 CH.A8) and “Women’s
groups want inquiry into killings” (91.02.21 TS.F6). Others are contextual,
being published near key dates, including “It’s natural to have
that feeling of shame: Ottawa shooting spree survivor urges students to
vent their guilt” (89.12.10 MG.A5) and “‘Some
things have to change and violence is one”’ (89.12.14 CH.E1).
Finally, there are headlines identifying groups or people who are linked
to gender-related issues. These include feminists (“Feminists get
death threats” 91.12.06 MG.A8), women’s groups and men’s
groups (“Men take to streets protesting violence” 90.10.21 WFP.A1,4).
Turning to CNI, we find these headlines distributed across all seven categories.
The largest is Violence Against Women with 51
headlines, followed by Crime and Criminals -- Statistics, Victims of Crime,
and Violence with approximately 40 each. In total, more than a quarter
of the headlines (59 of 209) were in Battered Women or Violence
Against Women, with the emphasis appearing to
be on women in most cases. There is some reason, then, given CNI’s
categorizations and the hints at gender, that if these headlines tend
to emphasize the victimization of one gender, it is women. Group Five Summary:
Other references comprise the remaining headlines. Some may hint at
or have weak connections to violence but are not considered direct enough
to be included in a previous category. Others have no apparent link. The fifth group of headlines
contains the remainder of the sample. There are two kinds. The first contains
literal hints to violence but the references are too easily associated
with other issues to be included in our previous categories. For example,
“Mother hopes to form group for victims” (89.02.27 HCH.A 18)
could easily refer to victims of a disease, “Media blitz against
abuse is real McCoy” (91.01.20 CH.E3) to alcohol and drug abuse,
and “Judges need more training NWT women maintain” (90.07.19
MG.B7) to matters ranging from general attitudes towards women in the
legal system to child support payments. In the context in which they were
published, readers may have easily linked these headlines to violence
and gender. Readers might have known, based on previous news articles
and other types of media, that the “blitz” was against wife
abuse and the “NWT women” were reacting to a judge who gave
a husband a reduced sentence for wife abuse because she had been wearing
a “provocative” t-shirt. A focus on women is suggested by CNI’s
categorizations: one-third of these headlines (15 of 44) are found
in Battered Women or Violence Against Women. The second
type of headline has no literal link to gender. Examples include “University
newspaper apologizes for cartoon” (89.12.15 CH.A15) and “Overcoming
roadblocks to a strategy for sweeping social change” (92.01.25
VS.B8). These types of headlines are common atop opinion columns and
editorials, such as “By the numbers” (92.10.24 VS.B1 1), “Nothing
funny in comic’s humor” (9 1.08.20 GM.A6)
and “Four sensible cornerstones” (92.04.10 HCH.C1). Again, the
link to violence and gender may have easily been made by readers in many
cases, given the context in which a headline was published. This is particularly
true of headlines which contain names of people. For example, in the case
of the headline “Pat Marshall: she maps out landscape of patriarchy”
(92.09.27 TS.B5), the association with violence and gender would
be natural for readers who knew that Marshall was co-chair of The National
Panel on Violence Against Women. When considering CNI’s
categorizations, we find strong hints of a focus on women as more than
sixty per cent (79 of 128) are from the categories Violence Against
Women or Battered Women.
Separating
the headlines from our sample into five groups -- direct, contextual,
connotational, neutral and other -- gives us
an idea of the various degrees to which they refer to gender and violence.
These groups form the basis for further examining how headlines portray
male and female victims of violence.
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