Violence against women in newspaper reports:A study on reports of violence agains women in posta and takvim newspapers

On the basis of this study it is examined that how Turkish Press is handled the phenomenon of violence against women, which is one of the important problem of democratic societies. In addition, coverage and scope of the phenomenon related reports of the selected newspapers were also examined. Within this context violence, violence against women and violence issues are discussed both in Tukish media and press. Gradual improvement and expansion in communication system causes viewers to expose more violence scenes and news. For this reason, it is essential to determine the content of violence in the press. Content of violence against women holds an important part in the press. In this study the news concerning violence against women has been studied in Posta and Takvim newspapers between the years 1995 and 2006. In the study aiming to find out what type of violent events, women are exposed and how it is covered in the press. It is also pointed out the analysis of qualitative features of the news published in Posta and Takvim. Beside this the format of visual elements, content and qualitative features, the type of violent event covered, the reason of violence against women, the violence instruments used in which places and at what times violent act are committed, the demographic features of women exposed to violence and violence doers. The accumulated data indicates that the content of violence against women is sensational, individual, physical, and sexual. Generally, the newspapers in Turkey take more interest with physical and sexual violence news and they take up more space in the papers.