Literature Review on the Impact of Social Media in Reducing Domestic Violence Student’s Name: Professor: Course: Date: Introduction Domestic violence can be defined as the physical violence that occurs in an intimate relationship within domestic settings (Choudhry & Herring, 2017). It happens when one of the partners tends to dominate over the other via a series of controlling violence and behaviour. However, domestic violence is not limited to the physical form of violence because it can also take other forms such as spiritual, psychological, economic and sexual abuse. According to a recent study conducted by the Australian Bureau of statistics, one out of three women in Australia have had an experience of physical violence at one point in life, about one out of five women have had a sexual abuse experience and one out of five women have had violence experience with their previous or current partner. Such prevalence of domestic violence is quite high despite most Australians acknowledging that domestic violence is a crime. Domestic violence is has become one of the major social problems in Australia and the world at large leading to poor health, social and economic outcomes for witnesses and victims of such violence. Such form of violence has a significant impact in terms of cost to the nation both directly in indirectly. With the advancement of technology and the ever-increasing rate of use of social media, the government and other agencies can utilize web based platforms to campaign against domestic violence and even increase awareness of the public concerning this evil act. Social media tools have gained popularity among the current generation and establishing campaigns through such platforms to educate the population concerning the issue of domestic violence can reach more audience in Australia and the entire world at large (Subramani, Michalska, Wang, Du, Zhang, & Shakeel, 2019). By reaching more audience, it would mean that the population is more aware about the issue and also its side effects which can in turn help in reducing the cases of domestic violence. The literature review is aimed at addressing the research question “what kind of role does social media campaign play in reducing domestic violence in Australia?” by undertaking a critical analysis of campaigns targeting domestic violence perpetrators and utilization of social media as a behavioural change tool. Key Words and Databases: Social media campaigns, domestic violence, violence prevention, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Violence against women (VAW), google scholar, IEEE online library Domestic Violence Campaigns Review Targeting Perpetrators The circles of violence prevention have grown that should play a significant role in combatting domestic violence (Manikam, 2018). There are a number of reasons why it is important to consider men in order to bring to an end domestic violence especially against women such as men have knowledge concerning masculinity, mal.

1. Literature Review on the Impact of Social Media in Reducing
Domestic Violence
Student’s Name:
Professor:
Course:
Date:
Introduction
Domestic violence can be defined as the physical violence that
occurs in an intimate relationship within domestic settings
(Choudhry & Herring, 2017). It happens when one of the
partners tends to dominate over the other via a series of
controlling violence and behaviour. However, domestic violence
is not limited to the physical form of violence because it can
also take other forms such as spiritual, psychological, economic
and sexual abuse. According to a recent study conducted by the
Australian Bureau of statistics, one out of three women in
Australia have had an experience of physical violence at one
point in life, about one out of five women have had a sexual
abuse experience and one out of five women have had violence

2. experience with their previous or current partner. Such
prevalence of domestic violence is quite high despite most
Australians acknowledging that domestic violence is a crime.
Domestic violence is has become one of the major social
problems in Australia and the world at large leading to poor
health, social and economic outcomes for witnesses and victims
of such violence. Such form of violence has a significant impact
in terms of cost to the nation both directly in indirectly. With
the advancement of technology and the ever-increasing rate of
use of social media, the government and other agencies can
utilize web based platforms to campaign against domestic
violence and even increase awareness of the public concerning
this evil act. Social media tools have gained popularity among
the current generation and establishing campaigns through such
platforms to educate the population concerning the issue of
domestic violence can reach more audience in Australia and the
entire world at large (Subramani, Michalska, Wang, Du, Zhang,
& Shakeel, 2019). By reaching more audience, it would mean
that the population is more aware about the issue and also its
side effects which can in turn help in reducing the cases of
domestic violence. The literature review is aimed at addressing
the research question “what kind of role does social media
campaign play in reducing domestic violence in Australia?” by
undertaking a critical analysis of campaigns targeting domestic
violence perpetrators and utilization of social media as a
behavioural change tool.
Key Words and Databases: Social media campaigns, domestic
violence, violence prevention, Australian Bureau of Statistics,
Violence against women (VAW), google scholar, IEEE online
library
Domestic Violence Campaigns Review Targeting Perpetrators
The circles of violence prevention have grown that should play
a significant role in combatting domestic violence (Manikam,
2018). There are a number of reasons why it is important to
consider men in order to bring to an end domestic violence
especially against women such as men have knowledge

3. concerning masculinity, male motivators are viewed as opinion
leaders to their peers by showing respect for women, men are
viewed as credible sources of domestic violence and the
attitudes of men are usually influenced by their fellow men
counterparts (Westmarland, 2017). There has been an ever-
growing effort to involve men as well as boys in several
capacities that are related to Violence against women
prevention through participation in educational programs, social
media campaigns, use of activists, gatekeeping and advocates.
The rising cases of domestic violence has drawn attention from
both Australian non-governmental and governmental
organizations in an attempt to address the issue of domestic
violence.
According to Manikam (2018), different approaches are
being used to as interventions for domestic violence such as
health models, social marketing campaigns, and advertising.
However, it is visible that the domestic violence intervention’s
effectiveness is sparsely evaluated. Also, the assessment done
on to evaluate those interventions tend to focus more on
attitudes and not behaviour and usually do not address the
impact of intervention on victimization or perpetration.
Furthermore, the evaluations do not address the change
mediators in behaviours, and attitudes among other factors
which include the fundamental processes involved by the
program towards achieving the change. In addition to that, there
are less audience that is reached by such forms of interventions
which tends to limit the effectiveness of the intervention. The
case is so because, there are few people or a significant number
of the targeted audience may miss the advert or be less
concerned with the intervention methodology. However, among
the identified interventions, social marketing campaigns has
emerged as the most effective when compared to other forms of
interventions because of their ability to account for evidence in
terms of effectiveness. Campaigns behind voluntary behaviour
and attitude change related to perpetration of men in violence
tend to be more effective. Social marketing campaigns include

4. the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube,
and twitter among other elements that tend to gain the interest
of the users concerning the issue.
Review on Whether Social Media Can Help Combat VAW and
Girls
According to Oxfam international (2017), there are several steps
the can be taken in order to address utilize social media as a
tool for combatting domestic violence and especially VAW and
girls. The website addresses a brutal murder case of a woman
and states the steps and actions that were taken with the aid of
social media. Several actions were taken including exposing the
violence, fighting for justice on social media, challenging the
norms, use of social media influence, social media’s ability to
offer beyond-border solidarity and joining the online fight such
forms of violence.
Exposing Domestic Violence on social Media
The first step includes exposing the violence on social
media. In this step, the use hashtags and other social media
mechanisms for informing the public such as the use of
YouTube ads and Facebook pages to expose such actions can
play a significant role in creating awareness concerning the
subject (Buoncompagni, 2018). Putting together the issue under
one thread overwhelmingly clears that VAW and girl should not
be subjected to isolation in the society. The second step
concerns fighting for justice on social media using strategically
designed tags show their discontentment of the issue. Such tags
can be helpful in informing the public because everyone can be
able to express their own opinion and for the uninformed
population can read through the comments and learn the current
trends concerning the subject (Oxfam International Blogs,
2017).
Challenging Discriminative Social Norms on Social Media
Challenging the societal norms that tend to lean towards
promoting domestic violence against women is another social
media action identified by the Oxfam international group. In
order to challenge discriminative societal norms, the recent

5. evidence reveals that communicative campaigns by themselves
are usually not efficient and effective but their effectiveness
can be significantly boosted by adopting a combination with
other modes of interventions. The limitations of the study
conducted by Oxfam international is that it focuses more on
violence against girls and women yet the whole domestic
violence (DV) problem concerns both genders and also it does
not provide the evidence on how and whether adopting a
combination of communication campaigns and the social media
campaign would work. As a result, in addressing the DV issue
using a combination of both social media and communication
campaigns need to be tracked in order to understand how the
combination impacts the society through tracking changes over
a longer period of time.
Use of Social Media to Influence
Social media is one key forum that can be combined with other
communication campaigns to provide deliberations and debate
at scale. Another step is the use of social media influence using
key influencers such as politicians, sports-people, and
celebrities among others to challenge against the violence.
Tagging such people can have a significant influence on the
perception of the people who commit such forms of violence
and even those who may be intending to commit domestic
violence. According to a research conducted in Lebanon, results
showed that using narrative exemplars and celebrity
spokesperson in anti-domestic violence online campaigns can
have a significant impact in creating awareness and such
interventions can be more beneficial to the less informed people
in the society (El-Khoury & Shafer 2016). The celebrity
presence tends to elicit more positive behaviour and attitude
compared to when a non-celebrity is used in the campaign
against domestic violence.
Promoting Cross-Border Solidarity
The use of social media can be of significant benefit in
promoting cross-border solidarity. The case is so because, it
allows for participants from different areas around the world to

6. engage in such deliberations and debate (Oxfam international,
2017). Through exposure of domestic violence on social media
together, the participants from all round the globe can agree
together and say the ‘enough is enough’ and in doing so, the
public is aware of what the current world is fighting against. As
a result, the public is informed concerning the issue and can
implement actions that are designed to reduce the occurrence of
domestic violence which has emerged as a global problem. For
instance, they can take responsibility of reporting or educating
anyone they find committing domestic violence and informing
them on the impact of such actions.
The Oxfam international concluded that there is need to follow
the identified steps in response to domestic violence as well as
violence against women on social media campaigns.
Furthermore, it asserts that the people can join social media
campaigns against domestic violence to demonstrate their
frustrations about the subject and also awaken the responsible
bodies to act in response to domestic violence. Joining the
social media fight against such deeds can help in creating more
awareness concerning the subject as well as inform the less
informed people on the side effects of their actions. However,
the research is limited to only the online actions that people can
take in reducing the cases of domestic violence. In addition to
that, the research does not put into consideration evaluation
measures that should be put in place to monitor the validity and
effectiveness of the social media campaigns. In order to
implement an effective approach towards reducing and
preventing the spread of domestic violence, it is important to
put in to considerations different stakeholders that will be
involved in the process and enhance collaboration between
parties as it will improve the outcome (Papadakaki, Musteata,
Vasilaki & Chliaoutakis, 2016). Furthermore, monitoring is key
to ensure evaluate the effectiveness of social media campaigns.
Review on the Use of Social Media Campaigns Aim at
Promoting Bystander’s Intention to Intervene in Domestic
Violence Situations.

7. Most domestic violence cases occur in the presence of a
bystander. However, a significant number of bystanders do not
intervene in such cases with a belief that they should not be
concerned with other people’s family issues. As a result,
domestic violence victims suffer a big blow such as health
complications while bystanders watch them without offering
any help. Therefore, there is need to educate the public
concerning such cases just in case they come across domestic
violence, they can intervene which will in turn reduce the side
effects of the violence and even reduce such cases because some
of them can be prevented through this approach.
In an article titled ‘#WhyITold: A Pilot Test of Twitter
Messages Aimed at Promoting Bystander Intervention against
Domestic Violence,’ a case study was conducted to examine the
efficiency and effectiveness of twitter messaging in persuading
and informing the bystanders concerning the importance of
intervening on behalf of the victims of domestic violence. The
study adopted the Fishbein’s integrative model (2000) of
predicting behaviour as a framework for guiding the
experiment. The outcome of the study revealed injunctive norms
as the best approach to predict the intention of the participant to
intervene in case of a domestic violence situation (Wong &
Bostwick, 2017). Furthermore, the research revealed that
educating and highlighting the warning signs of domestic
violence produces the strongest impact on the intention of the
participant to intervene in case of a domestic violence situation
primarily through injunctive norms perception. Another finding
from the research was that, social media campaigns can work
effectively through distribution of campaign messages that are
aimed at triggering the bystanders to intervene in case of a
domestic violence situation.
Based on the findings of the above research, there is need to
promote awareness of bystanders on the importance of
intervening in case of a domestic violence cases. The social
media can emphasize on such campaigns by structuring the
message leaning on the moral obligation of the bystanders

8. against Domestic Violence situations which is not only illegal
but also unethical. Expressing intervention on domestic
violence as a moral obligation of the bystander will in turn
build the courage and the will of the bystander to intervene in
case he or she encounters a domestic violence scenario. In
doing so, the general public will be aware of their obligation in
case they come across domestic violence.
However, the above research was limited because the
participants’ exposure to the tweets was not based on their day
to day social media interactions. As a result, there is need to
adopt longitudinal designs in order to track any changes in
intervention behaviour of people during domestic violence cases
over a longer period of time may be weeks or months in order to
determine the real impact of social media campaigns designed
to promote bystanders’ intervention. In doing so, the actual
impact can be tracked and if they are found valid or having a
significant impact, then more awareness campaigns can be done
on social media in order to enhance implementation of more
preventive measures against domestic violence.
Using social media campaigns and narratives can have a
significant impact on the attitude of an individual towards the
campaign which can be highly attributed to the empathetic
feeling (Muralidharan & Kim, 2019). The feeling is brought
about by how the message in the campaign is conveyed and how
well it is expressed to bring out the appeal about the side effects
of domestic violence. In order to capture the feelings of the
viewers, it is important to present the entire social media
campaign in a clear and emotional way to reveal the reality of
surrounding the issue. In doing so, the bystanders will have the
empathetic feeling when they encounter the scenario and can
easily intervene and help the parties engaging in the violence to
pursue better ways of solving their differences. This will in turn
reduce the number of cases of domestic violence as described by
Muralidharan and Kim.
Review on Social Media Campaign Principles to Enhance
Domestic Violence Prevention and Reduction

9. It is important to consider several principles that would be
followed in the development and implementation of social
media campaigns against domestic violence to enhance their
success (Liou, 2013). Some of those principles include putting
the support and safety of the domestic violence victims first.
Before efforts are made towards preventing domestic violence,
it is important to develop a deep understanding concerning the
functional and existing systems that are available in Australia
and how the social media campaigns can work in coordination
and collaboration with the existing system towards combating
the pandemic.
Commitment to Human Rights, Gender Justice and Freedom
from Violence for All
Liou identified gender justice commitment, freedom and
human rights against violence for all as another principle to
consider when developing social media campaigns against
domestic violence. When using social media campaigns, it is
important to reveal to the target audience that the campaign is
designed and is intended to operate as per the requirement of
the country’s law. In doing so, the audience will be informed
that freedom from domestic violence is a right for everyone and
it is within the law. Furthermore, showing commitment on the
issue including legal concerns can have a significant impact
how the public perceives the campaigns and will likely to take
the issue seriously.
Innovation and Evidence
Another principle is innovation and evidence. Despite
domestic violence prevention being at its nascent stages, there
exist a well-established evidence concerning what actually
works in stopping the domestic violence before it commences.
Such evidence can be of significant help in designing social
media campaigns so as to scale up and drive more effective
policies, research methodologies, communication strategies, and
programmes designed to improve the current domestic violence
situation. With such evidence also, the party involved in
conducting the social media campaigns can design a more

10. innovative social media campaigns that are likely to be more
effective in changing the current DV situation.
Safety and Ethic in Social Media Campaigns
Another principle identified by Liou is concerned with
safety and ethics in social media campaigns. When addressing
the issue of domestic violence in social media campaigns,
communications, research and programming should be done in
consideration of highest degree of safety and ethical standards.
Such standards provide a clear articulation to the team of actors
involved and play an integral role in the achievement of the
overall goals of prevention against domestic violence. Adopting
such a principle will aid in achieving the goals of the
preventing the occurrence of domestic violence because those
standards depict the intensity of the subject and how which the
public should take it.
Long-term Vision
Long-term mission and vision is another principle
identified by Liou that social media campaigns should take into
consideration for them to succeed in reducing and preventing
domestic violence. With the ever increasing rate of domestic
violence, it is important to adopt interventions with long-term
vision concerning the subject. The case is so because prevention
against domestic violence and building a society that is peaceful
and just is a long-term project. Therefore, it is important to
establish social media campaigns with long-term vision and not
only a short tem period. The case is so because, achievement of
a sustainable impact is not able to be accounted for in just a
single project cycle or a single research finding. Instead, there
is need to deepen the capacity by doing rigorous work in
domestic violence prevention, coordinating and collaborating
across diverse stakeholders and sectors and enforcing long-term
commitment of actors to help in the establishment of a
sustainable foundation that will drive efforts of domestic
violence prevention forward (Harris, Polans, Mazeika &
Sherman, 2016). Therefore, for social media campaigns to
succeed in eliminating or preventing the issue of domestic

11. violence, there exist a need to enforce long-term vision and
establish strategies that will be adopted towards achieving its
goals.
Adopting the above stated principles can aid in improving
the outcome of social media campaigns against domestic
violence. However, the principles are only limited to the
presentation of the social media campaign and do not address
the need for involvement of multiple sectors in the fight against
domestic violence. Furthermore, the study does not address the
aspect of enforcing those principles in campaigns against
domestic violence. Any principles need to be enforced in order
to be applied better. Being a sensitive subject, domestic
violence needs to be addressed with caution and all the
campaigns against it, should be significantly enforced in order
to achieve better positive outcomes. Therefore, in designing the
social media campaigns, there is need to address the need for
enforcement because the people may end up ignoring such
campaigns thus rendering the entire campaign ineffective.
Enforcing the principles is highly likely to change the way
people perceives the campaigns and may start taking them with
more weight. In doing so, it will influence their behaviour
towards domestic violence because of the emphasis given to the
subject on the social media campaign.
Theoretical Frameworks Used to Design an Interactive Domestic
Violence Prevention Tool.
There are many models and theories for social media
marketing but with few formal agreements on which models are
for what problems in the society and in what situations is most
appropriate to apply a particular model (Manikam, 2018).
However, additional research show that most mitigation and
prevention programs are likely to achieve better and stronger
results if the content of the framework is theory-based
(Manikam & Russell-Bennett, 2016). There are several theories
that are mostly used in campaigns concerning behaviour change
such as social learning theories, stages of change model,
bystander intervention, reasoned action theory, social norms

12. theory, and reinforcement theory among others. Therefore, it is
important to understand which theory works best in reducing
and preventing domestic violence in the society.
Understanding the main reasons behind the occurrence of
domestic violence is key because such knowledge will guide
towards selecting the appropriate framework that will be
adopted in the social media campaigns against domestic
violence. Domestic violence is perpetuated by norms or
attitudes such as traditions that advocate for masculinity, the
belief that men are the key wage earners while women are
‘house wife,’ and other non-traditional issues such as drug
abuse among others. The peer pressure on men to conform to
such masculinity notions can lead to domestic violence against
women which can be motivated by different factors such as
intimidation, aggression, physical violence, and verbal abuse
with the intention of gaining control and dominance over the
other partner. Another motivation for men to commit domestic
violence can be committing impulsive actions as a way of
responding to anger and frustration emotions but without an
actual expectation of attaining a particular objective. In this
case, research has found out that applying the stage of change
theory tends to achieve more positive outcomes in compared to
when other models are adopted (Manikam, 2018). Therefore, it
is important to critically analyse the theoretical models and
understand the situation in order to incorporate the best model
when conducting social media campaigns against domestic
violence.
The social learning theory, reasoned action theory, planned
behaviour theory and health belief theory have emerged as some
of the commonly used social media campaigns’ theoretical
frameworks. Such models are applied in reduction and
prevention of domestic violence based on the expected outcome.
Since this literature is focused on reducing domestic violence in
Australia, it is also a preventive measure against potential
perpetrators of domestic violence. The Commitment, Belonging
and appeal framework is one of the effective frameworks that

13. can be adopted in reducing the Domestic Violence cases. The
case is so because, the framework was designed to foster online
health behaviour modification (Manikam & Russell-Bennett,
2016). The above stated theoretical framework is a combines
both stages of change and health belief models where social
identity, social connection, self-efficacy as well as health
behaviour changes supersede. Those determinants do match with
the goal of the social media campaigns which is educating the
public concerning the components of building a respectful
relationship which include being considerate of others, trust and
communication.
Summary and Conclusion
The domestic violence pervasiveness continues to escalate
despite nations implementing various mitigation and prevention
measures. Due to the bold nature of the subject, it cannot be
addressed successfully by engaging one party but instead, it can
be addressed better if a combination of sectors is collaborating
in combatting the social problem. Social media campaign is one
approach being used to educate and inform the public against
domestic violence as a preventive measure towards the
increasing trend in the cases of domestic violence. Studies show
that men are the major perpetrators of domestic violence in the
society and in order reduce domestic violence, the social media
campaigns and other forms of campaigns should focus more on
men. There are several ways that can be used in reducing
domestic violence such as social media campaigns, advertising
and health models.
There are several ways in which social media campaigns
can be used in reducing the cases of domestic violence
including, exposing the violence, fighting for justice on social
media, challenging the discriminative social norms, using the
social media to influence others to change their discriminative
attitudes among others. Furthermore, social media campaigns
can be used as a tool for creating the awareness of the
bystanders to intervene in case of occurrence of a domestic
violence. This will aid in reducing the occurrence of avoidable

14. domestic violence because they can be contained during the
nascent stages or even before the lead to serious implications.
Social media campaigns towards reducing domestic violence can
be more successful if several principles are taken into
consideration including innovation and evidence, commitment
to human rights, gender justice and freedom from violence,
safety and ethics and setting up long term goals and vision
because of the nature of the long-term nature of problem. When
designing a social media campaign or any other interactive tool
for that matter that is aimed at reducing or preventing the
number of domestic violence cases, it is important to put into
consideration the appropriate theoretical model that would
result to better positive outcomes on the subject. The case is so
because there, exist different theories such as social learning,
stages of change, and health belief model among others. In
order to choose the best framework, it is important to
understand the causes of domestic violence.
References
Choudhry, S., & Herring, J. (2017). Righting domestic violence.
In Marital Rights (pp. 71-96). Routledge.
El-Khoury, J. R., & Shafer, A. (2016). Narrative exemplars and
the celebrity spokesperson in Lebanese anti-domestic violence
public service announcements. Journal of health
communication, 21(8), 935-943.
Harris, H. M., Polans, D. S., Mazeika, D., & Sherman, L. W.
(2016). Retrieving administrative data to assess long-term
outcomes: a case study of the 23-year follow-up of the
Milwaukee domestic violence experiment. Journal of
experimental criminology, 12(4), 599-608.
Liou, C. (2013). Using Social Media for the Prevention of
Violence Against Women: Lessons Learned from Social Media
Communication Campaigns to Prevent Violence Against Women
in India, China, and Viet Nam. Partners for Prevention.