Watching VAW: a survey of the perceptions on violence against women depicted in Philippine television

Abstract

iolence against Women is a popular issue when people talk about the struggles of the women. The issue became more popular with the media portrayal of violence directed against the women, through the different kinds of media programs. This research answered how violence against women was depicted in the television programs today. The research also laid objectives helpful for the study, which included knowing how media frames violence against women, or how the issue of violence against women is packaged by the media to the audience being presented; examining what the framing done by media tells about the women of today, or what does this framing imply to the women; and gathering perceptions of people on how the media depicts violence against women. The study used interviewing and focused group discussion to obtain primary information; and along with the secondary data gathered, the data for this study was analyzed using Media Dependency Theory. The theory explained that people were dependent on media as a primary source of information while media depended on people for profit. MarxistFeminism and Ideological State Apparatus also explained why the media depicted violence against women as patriarchal and how the media produced conventional definitions by which the people were accustomed of. The research found that media depicted violence against women as a reflection of the reality, but lacked in showing the roots of such violence due to their value of their own profit.