Media Coverage of Intimate Partner Violence Incidents in Russia during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Considering serious consequences of intimate partner violence, researchers have investigated its various aspects, including its roots and nature, main causes, the role gender stereotypes play, the ways that police responds to such incidents, etc. A large body of literature has been dedicated to the role of media in the perpetuation of the stereotypes surrounding intimate partner violence. Previous research conducted in Russia has examined media narratives about the state faced both the pandemic and a rise in intimate partner violence cases during the coronavirus lockdown. However, less attention has been paid to the ways media reported on intimate partner violence incidents during the COVID-19 lockdown. This paper examines whether and how news reporting on intimate partner violence incidents in Russia has changed during the COVID-19 lockdown in comparison with the previous year. In order to understand if certain changes have occurred, we used data from 124 articles published by the newspapers and news agencies to compare media coverage of intimate partner violence incidents during March-May 2019 and March-May 2020. The study shows that during the COVID-19 lockdown the victim blaming attitudes and failure to distinguish intimate partner violence as a special type of the rights violation still persist in the media coverage of intimate partner violence incidents. Thus, the media by employing specific frames to cover intimate partner violence cases tend to decelerate the social change process and obstruct the formation of new social policies.