U.S. Tabloid Magazine Coverage of a Celebrity Dating Abuse Incident: Rihanna and Chris Brown

Abstract

Dating abuse is a prevalent adolescent health problem with substantial public health consequences. As many as 1 in 10 high school students in the United States reports being “hit, slapped, or physically hurt on purpose” by his or her boyfriend or girlfriend in the past year. The authors used the Rihanna–Chris Brown dating abuse incident of 2009 as a case study to conduct what is, to our knowledge, the first assessment of media framing of dating abuse. The authors reviewed the 20 leading U.S. single-copy sales magazines published from February to April 2009 and identified 48 relevant articles, which were all printed in 7 tabloid magazines. The authors conducted a content analysis of the media frames of the articles using 5 frame categories: (a) abuse is objectionable, (b) victim-blaming, (c) abuse is sexualized/romanticized, (d) myths about abuse perpetration, and (e) abuse is normalized. Abuse is objectionable was the dominant frame of 40% of articles, victim-blaming in 36%. Although the majority of articles reviewed (83%) made at least passing reference to the idea that abuse is wrong, a minority (40%) used a dominant frame that condemned abuse. Instead, the majority of articles communicated mixed messages about dating abuse, and many minimized the seriousness of partner abuse perpetration. Advocacy is needed to improve future tabloid media framing of dating abuse incidents.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Drs. Michael Siegel and William DeJong for their assistance with manuscript preparation.

Notes

Note. Top single-copy sales magazines identified by the Audit Bureau of Circulation magazines and available from the Magazine Publishers of America; proportion of audience female as reported by magazine media kits; proportion of audience 12–20 years old from the 2010 Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth report; “—” indicates data not available. Top single-copy sales magazines reviewed but with no articles about the incident included All You, Cosmopolitan, Family Circle, Figure, First for Women, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, In Style, Men's Health, O, The Oprah Magazine, People Stylewatch, Woman's Day, and Woman's World..

^*A dominant frame could not be determined for seven articles; therefore, this column does not sum to 100%.