Story Care for Centering Black Women Victims and Survivors

April 27, 2026 — Tia Oso

Trigger Warning: This blog contains mentions of domestic violence, femicide, misogynoir, physical violence and other traumatic experiences. Media 2070 acknowledges that this content may be difficult and encourage you to care for your well-being. 

Our hearts are hurting.

Dr. Cerina Wanzer. Pastor Tammy McCollum. Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer. Ashly Robinson. Qualeisha Barnes. Davonta Curtis. Barbara Deer. And so many more whose names we don’t know, may they rest in peace. 

In just the month of April, more than a dozen Black women and children have been killed by a spouse, partner or relative. These tragedies are not isolated incidents, but amount to a public health crisis facing Black women, known as femicide. As the social media discourse began to trend, a woeful pattern emerged. Referring to the victims merely as the “wife of” the person who took their life, listing the accolades and accomplishments of the violent perpetrator. Worse yet, news media headlines began to do the same, shaping the narratives that made these women a mere footnote in the story. 

We must demand better.

Media 2070 is committed to shaping media practices from harm and extraction to cultures of care. Practicing cultures of care within the newsroom as well as in storytelling with Black communities. The following guidelines are adapted from the Media 2070 Pledge to Care for Black Communities, The Philadelphia Safer Journalism Project Code of Ethics and Color of Change’s Style Guide on Protecting Black Survivors. 

Ways newsrooms can begin to honor Black women victims and survivors of domestic violence and practice a culture of care in reporting:

Say Her Name: Practice using victims names when known in reporting and storytelling to center their humanity. Especially in soundbites, headlines and social media posts, which drive narratives. 

Contextualize the Systems: Considering people within the context of systems and histories of harm, power and oppression. Naming the conditions of femicide, misogynoir and gun violence that are complicit in these tragic occurrences helps to better inform audience’s understanding. Situate the story within the broader context of the gender-based violence epidemic using statistical data and the disproportionate impact on Black women specifically.

Avoiding Adultification: A bias that frequently surfaces in coverage of Black girls. For example, Ma’Khia Bryant was 15 years old. Avoid referring to her and other Black girls as women or making them out to be older than they are.

Verify Police Narratives: Being skeptical of police and police narratives in the pursuit of verifying information. Too often reports rely on a reprint of police reports and police press statements as a shortcut for reporting. Verify with multiple sources to ensure accuracy. 

Character Counts: Don’t promote, highlight, or name accomplishments of the perpetrator(s) when covering the incident(s) of violence, abuse, or harassment. This includes mentioning, highlighting, or introducing any facts or anecdotes that might frame the perpetrator as an “unlikely” abuser or the the victim/survivor as “gullible,” “unsuspecting,” or “deserving” of abuse. Reporting on things like the mental health and criminal record of the victim/ survivor should also be done with extreme caution and discernment.

Care for Audiences: The relationship to news consumers should be a caring one, like mutual aid, that meets people’s information needs and includes resources to improve their lives and their reading/listening/viewing/felt experiences. For example, providing the number to a domestic violence or survivor resource hotline and using trigger warnings for content shows care for your audience. 

Care for Black Journalists: Trusting Black journalists, both when they move up and offer to tell nuanced stories about Black people and Black communities and when they need to grieve and move back.

• Proactively sharing resources and creating space, paid time off and other institutional policies for Black staff to take care of themselves.
• Make space for active listening. Active listening is necessary — it produces results that make it compelling and valuable for all parties in a conversation, including storytellers and sources. Listening to sources and communities deeply and with care should be the first step to your work.
• Auditing and assessing whether our newsroom’s stories, structure, leadership and demographics demonstrate care for Black communities and reflect the community, region or country you are part of. 

Exemplary Reporting: Geneva S. Thomas’ article Call It What It Is: Black Femicide is an excellent example of using these and other story care practices in reporting about the rise of this crisis. You can read her article at www.Ebony.com.