Abstract
Many scholars have conducted research on intimate partner violence (IPV), aworldwide public health issue that takes various forms. However, in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, IPV was exacerbated and IPV service providers had to respond to an unknown situation. News media were essential in disclosing information to the public regarding COVID-19 updates. Therefore, this study used inductive qualitative content analysis to examine newspaper articles about COVID-19 and its impact on IPV. Specifically, 62 news articles from 8 different newspaper sources published during the first year of the pandemic were analyzed. Five primary themes emerged during the analysis—COVID regulations/conditions affecting victims, essential IPV services, coercive control, survivor quotes, and advocate quotes. Through the media, it was clear the pandemic and stay-at-home orders put victims at increased risk. Further, survivor and advocate quotes allowed consumers to see the stark reality of the issue. While the media overall did a decent job describing the realities of the pandemic on IPV victims, there was still room for improvement, as some of the most vulnerable victims of IPV were not centered by the media. The vulnerable populations that lacked representation in the news article sample consisted of women of color and LGBTQ+ relationships. The researcher explains future directions in an attempt to help further tackle the research limitations that are present in this study.