Smoke and Mirrors: U.K. Newspaper Representations of Intimate Partner Domestic Violence

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced pdf of an article accepted for publication in Violence Against Women following peer review. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Violence Against Women, Vol 23 (1): 114-139, first published April 2016 by SAGE Publishing, and is available on line at doi: 10.1177/1077801216634468. All rights reserved.News media are in a position to project certain perspectives on domestic violence while marginalizing others, which has implications for public understanding and policy development. This study applies discourse analysis to articles on domestic violence in two U.K. national daily newspapers published in 2001-2002 and 2011-2012 to evaluate evidence of change over a 10-year time span. The research examines how discourses of domestic violence are constructed through newspaper representations of victims, predominantly women, and perpetrators, predominantly men. Although one of the newspapers adopts a respectful position toward women, the textual and visual techniques adopted by the other reveal a tendency for blaming the victim and sexualizing violence related to perceptions of “deserving” or “undeserving” women victims.Peer reviewe

Recovery

We introduce the new meaning of recovery and reflect on its potential to develop current thinking and practice in mental health with adults, and look at its implications for service providers and service users. We analyse the relevance of this concept to the context of the UK government’s policy to move disabled people, including mental health service users, from ‘welfare to work’. The social and economic climate that drives this policy agenda and the implications for society of the focus on employment are outlined, as we reflect on the role of work in supporting or hindering the recovery process and identity re-formation, in part through the experience of the first author. We conclude by suggesting how practice can enable a process of returning to ordinary living, including employment, that supports recovery through a process of shared responsibilities

Values and Methodologies for Social Research in Mental Health

This publication written for SCIE aims to draw together information about social research methods in mental health and make this information accessible to practitioerns and managers in mental health service