Representing domestic violence in Chinese news articles: A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis

LI, SIJIA and Baker, Paul (2026) Representing domestic violence in Chinese news articles: A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

According to WHO (2021), one out of every three women in the globe has been a victim of domestic abuse. Despite the severity of the problem, few studies have examined media representations of domestic violence in China, which play an important role in shaping how the public perceives and addresses this issue. To fill this gap, this thesis applies corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis to investigate media representations of domestic violence in an 11-million-word corpus collected from ten newspapers and four websites between 2010 and 2019. The research aims to investigate how important gendered and institutional social actors are represented, contrast how newspapers and websites cover domestic violence, and look at diachronic changes after the introduction of the 2015 Anti-Domestic Violence Law (ADVL). The study finds a gendered imbalance in media discourse. Discussions of domestic violence tend to place disproportionate attention on how women should protect themselves, while men’s roles and obligations are less emphasized and often downplayed. Media coverage tends to sensationalize female-perpetrated homicides, trivialize women’s non-lethal violence, mock male victims, and show greater tolerance toward male misconduct. Institutional social actors are frequently framed in ways that obscure systemic responsibility, using language that promotes harmony and avoids criticism. Since the 2015 Law, media coverage in China has shifted from viewing domestic violence as a private issue to recognizing it as a broader social and legal problem, with increased attention on government actions and policies. However, the focus on positive developments, the lack of follow-up reporting, and the decline in personal stories may affect sustained public engagement. The study also reveals that newspapers favour institutional and policy-focused reports written in formal and promotional language, while website reports feature individual stories, often with victim blaming, sensationalism and patriarchal views. By identifying these patterns, this thesis contributes to understanding how domestic violence is represented in news reports, complementing broader social and policy research.