Pathways of Global Cultural Diffusion: Mass Media and People’s Moral Declarations about Men’s Violence against Women

Abstract

Current theories of global cultural diffusion outline abstract mechanisms through which cultural scripts spread across the world. To reveal how scripts reach individuals, one must identify the specific pathways of diffusion. I examine the case of how scripts about gender relations and violence are diffused through mass media to people in Malawi. Using a mixed-methods approach, I find that international development organizations work with Malawian journalists to produce an array of content denouncing the practice of men abusing women. Entertainment media companies, however, disseminate content portraying patriarchal gender stereotypes. I show that mass media content critical of men’s violence of women is positively associated with people’s stated rejection of this practice, whereas individuals’ exposure to content mixed with patriarchal scripts is not. Notably, a one-standard-deviation increase in the number of newspaper articles critically covering men’s abuse toward women in the 30 days leading up to a person’s unique survey interview date is associated with a 3.2 (women) or 2.1 (men) percentage-point increase in the probability of respondents stating that they condemn such violence. Broadly, the results outline a multifaceted portrait of global cultural diffusion, with liberal and patriarchal scripts simultaneously reaching individual people.

The effects of liberal and illiberal world society on women's legislative representation, 1970–2018

“…How world society generates change is quite complex (see Hironaka 2014, p. 7), but such studies could help provide insight into how “top‐down,” global‐level processes work on the ground. Indeed, recent work by Swindle (2023) provides such insight in the context of violence against women. Similar types of studies would also benefit the cross‐national literature on women's legislative representation.…”

“…Third is that, in world society, international organizations and nation‐states are primarily assigned responsibility for addressing this issue. These world cultural scripts of women's equality and women's legislative representation diffuse to nation‐states, societies, and individuals through international non‐governmental organizations (INGOs; Boli and Thomas 1997; see Hironaka 2014, p. 7; Swindle 2023).…”

Associations Between Internet and Traditional Media Usage and Users’ Attitudes Toward Wife-Beating in Nigeria

“…Although the study hypothesized that frequent television usage would be negatively associated with wife-beating justification, given the recent activities of Spotlight Initiative sponsoring anti-IPVAW content on televisions (Hypothesis 3), this study's result regarding the lack of significance of television usage on wife-beating attitudes suggests that the effects of the sponsored anti-IPVAW contents on television are not yet national and significantly evidenced. Supporting this result are studies that content-analyzed television messages and suggest that without sponsorships, television content may not broadcast anti-IPVAW content (Orji & Emeana, 2021;Swindle, 2023). On the contrary, television content such as entertainment movies, comedy skits, and others may contain messages that only reflect patriarchal gender norms that undervalue women (Orji & Emeana, 2021).…”

“…In Nigeria, although previous studies have scarcely examined the effects of Internet exposure and users' attitudes towards violence against women (or wife-beating) except for a few (see Alabi & Ramsden, 2021, 2023, recent studies show that the proportion of Nigerian Internet users is increasing (Kemp, 2018;Silver & Johnson, 2018). International reports show an increasing number of Nigerian netizens who take to the Internet to proscribe all forms of violence against women and girls (Spotlight Initiative, 2021a).…”

“…In Nigeria, where the current study is located, few previous studies examined the relationships between Internet and traditional media usage and users' attitudes toward wifebeating (except for the investigation by Alabi & Ramsden, 2021, 2023. To provide empirical information needed to supplement ongoing efforts seeking to end all forms of violence against women in Nigeria, this study asks the following questions: are frequent users of different types of media more likely to reject the norms of wife-beating?…”