Recent media representation of social work and domestic violence in Italian newspapers

The media plays a central role in shaping and reflecting public opinion, including the views of politicians and other key groups engaged in social policy on the diversity of unfolding social tensions and widening societal inequities, the transformation of social intimacies and collective relationships, social work decision making about welfare, and the implementation of such decisions. This paper is focuses on the media representation on Social Work and Domestic Violence in two important Italian newspapers covering the period from 2012 to 2013 which differ in values, reading population, style. Methodologically, categories for analysis of newspapers' items on domestic violence towards women and men are: section of the newspaper in which it appears, style of the newspaper article, type of violence, relationships background between victim and perpetrator, if were children involved, descriptions and opinions on the victim, description and opinions on the perpetrator, descriptions and opinions on social workers' performance, descriptions and opinions on other professions. In this way, a thematic analysis was applied to include the representation of the victims, parents, assumed perpetrators, police, social services, health services, voluntary sector organisations. Finally, comparison of the perspectives of the different newspapers, and of intersectional factors follows. Two questions will be raised: what are the lessons from the research's report vs. the media coverage? How can social workers and social work researchers work with the media?