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

Current theories of global cultural diffusion outline abstract mechanisms through which cultural scripts spread across the world. To reveal how scripts reach individuals, it is necessary to 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. However, entertainment media companies 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, while 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 when a survey respondent is personally interviewed is associated with a 3.2 (women) or 2.1 (men) percentage point increase in their probability of 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.