Visibility of Intimate Partner Violence in Tanzania’s Print Media: A Case of HabariLeo and Mwananchi Newspapers

The purpose of the study was to examine the visibility of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the newspapers. The study adopted the agenda-setting theory. Study Design: The study used a longitudinal comparative research design using quantitative content analysis. The research was conducted between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2023 using HabariLeo and Mwananchi newspapers. Methodology: The study used a quantitative approach. The study population comprised all 3,652 editions published by the two newspapers over a five-year period, from 2019 to 2023, with each newspaper contributing 1,826 editions. Results: The findings show that most news stories occupied a quarter page or less, none appeared on the front page, and Mwananchi reported IPV 3.4 times as often per edition as the HabariLeo newspaper. Conclusion: Making IPV visible is not simply a matter of printing more stories. It depends on how those stories are gathered, sized, placed, and followed. Until Tanzanian newspapers change those practices, IPV will continue to appear in newspaper pages as private misfortune rather than as the public problem.