Rearranging the News Agenda: State Action and News Media Reporting on Violence against Women in Brazil

In this article, I examine the factors that influence the amount and content of news media reporting on violence against women (VAW) in Brazil. VAW was not considered a relevant political problem until very recently when states began to respond to feminist demands by adopting policies to criminalize VAW and providing resources to survivors. I theorize that the process of improving state action on VAW increases news media attention to these stories. I also argue that heightened political attention to VAW increases news media discussion of policies and laws addressing VAW. Employing time series analysis and computer text analysis of an original dataset from Brazil (2004–2019), I find that strong legislation and congressional bill introduction exert significant positive effects on news media reporting of VAW.