Dr. Anju Gupta's document discusses how media perpetuates violence against women in several ways. Media serves as a vehicle for misogynistic threats and harassment online, with almost three quarters of women experiencing some form of cyber violence. News coverage of violence against women is often sensationalized and exploitative, retraumatizing victims. Media also politicizes and sensationalizes issues of violence against women. Some media presentations can constitute acts of violence by defaming or publishing obscene materials about women. Media further desensitizes society to domestic violence by normalizing it in comedy, language, and advertisements. It assigns indirect female aggression as a vehicle of power by disguising it as female empowerment.

1. “Media as an agency of perpetuating violence
against women”
By:
Dr. Anju Gupta
1

2. Online and social media as a powerful vehicles for
misogynistic threats and harassment
With the development of ICT, cyber-violence against women is emerging
as a global problem. Almost three quarters of women have been
exposed to some form of violence online. Types of cyber-violence
include:
1.Hacking
2. Surveillance
3. Harassment
4. Death threat, recruitment and malicious distribution
5. cyber-violence against women
6. Pornography
7. Sex trafficking of women and girls
2

3. News coverage of violence against women has
often been sensational and exploitative.
News coverage of violence against women has
often been sensational, exploitative, and lacking
in serious analysis of the prevalence. Many
women have said that the media coverage (of
rape or other violence) was like a second assault
all over again, because of their insensitivity in
using pictures, publishing names, and other
violations of privacy.
3

4. Media is very much politicized
Media picks up women issues according to the
political interest of patron political parties.
Some of the women issues like trafficking,
prostitution and rape come in the media just
to create sensation. The media seems to be
less concerned about women's issues and
rights.
4

5. Media itself becomes a cause to
provoke violence against women
Some times materials presented by media can
be called as an act of violence against women.
For example, defaming a false remark about
some woman in the media may cause her to
suffer. Publication of obscene materials is an
act of violence against women for it demean
women's dignity.
5

6. Presentation of women as sexual objects
The exploitation of women in mass media is the
use or portrayal of women in mass media to
increase the appeal of media or a product to the
detriment of women’s dignity without regard to
the interests of the women portrayed, or women
in general. This process includes the presentation
of women as sexual objects and the setting of
standards of beauty that women are expected to
reflect.
6

7. Media has desensitized and normalized
domestic violence in society
• Media reports on domestic violence have
desensitized the public perception of violence via
repeated exposure of domestic violence.
• Domestic violence is normalized and the public is
desensitized to it by way of comedic portrayal in
the news, social media, and sexiest language.
Television’s commercial advertisements and
television shows facilitate the acceptance of
domestic violence in mainstream society.
7

8. Media is assigning indirect aggression as a
vehicle of power.
Media, specifically televised and print media,
is disguising indirect female-female aggression
behind the facade of female empowerment, a
new template of appropriate girl and women
behaviour is being inherited by newer
generations. The media often portrays indirect
violent behaviour as exciting, dramatic, sexy,
and especially as a marker of status and power
8

9. Violence in the Media influences violence in
real life violence
Another mechanism by which violence in the media
influences violence in real life violence is through the
social learning theory. The social learning theory as a
process in which people learn new behaviours by
observing the behaviours of others, and assessing the
benefits of exhibiting that behaviour to determine
whether the behaviour will be sustained over time.
That is, if the behaviour in question results in positive
outcomes, then the observer is more likely to display
this behaviour.
9

10. THANKS
10