Report: The News About Domestic Violence: Findings from an Analysis of California News, 2023-2025

In February 2026, PHI’s Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) released a report in partnership with the Blue Shield of California Foundation detailing an analysis of news coverage focused on domestic violence (DV) published in California outlets between May 2023 and May 2025. In total, a representative 20% sample of 895 articles from English-language California news sources were examined, coded, and evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

BMSG’s evaluation of the articles used the Journalist Playbook and focused on their coverage of solutions, sensitivity, diversity, and expertise. The Journalist Playbook is a toolkit developed by journalists and survivors of DV, and produced by the Blue Shield of California Foundation to offer practical guidance to report on DV with accuracy, empathy, and impact.

Key findings:

• News articles made up 76% of relevant coverage in the sample and these stories were most often in the news because of a milestone in the criminal justice or policy process.
• Features or long-form stories made up 17% of the sample coverage, suggesting an opportunity to increase in-depth reporting on the issue.
• Only one-fifth of stories (21%) quoted domestic violence survivors. By comparison, one third of articles (33%) quoted government officials; however, the analysis found that 26% of the government officials had jobs that do not directly relate to domestic violence or victim services.
• Over half (55%) of all articles named solutions, but solutions appeared far more often in opinion pieces with 44% of news articles including solutions compared to 76% of opinion articles including solutions.

The report also includes practical, evidence-based recommendations for telling a more complete story, including:

• Using data to report on disparities in systems such as the child welfare system, the criminal legal system, and the housing system.
• Connecting with local domestic violence organizations that have relationships with survivors (and other stakeholders with important perspectives on domestic violence) as these organizations often can support survivors in telling their stories in interviews.
• Using landscape or thematic framing in news reporting to provide a broader context, including the systems involved and the surrounding environment.
• Continuing to illustrate the impact of federal policy changes at the local level.
• Looking beyond the criminal legal system for solutions that may instead focus on prevention.
• Using content warnings to alert audiences that stories may be disturbing; more than half of California adults (63%) have a personal connection to domestic violence and, therefore, many readers will too.

Originally published by Berkeley Media Studies Group