This study analyzes the correlates of attitude towards spousal violence using nationally
representative data from India’s National Family Health Survey of 2005-06. Amongst the
socio-economic correlates, the focus of the analysis is on exposure to mass media. The
results show that the association between attitude towards spousal violence and regular
exposure to mass media varies across different media forms. Regular exposure to
newspaper or magazines is associated with lower likelihood of women and men justifying
wife-beating. Regular exposure to radio has statistically weak association with the
attitude of women and men, and has mixed qualitative evidence for men. Regular
exposure to television, the most popular amongst the three forms of mass media, does not
have any significant association with women’s attitude, and has some undesirable results
for men. These findings indicate the desirability of enhancing access to print media,
which is a challenging objective due to the fact that substantive proportion of women and
men have no education. These results also highlight a need for comparative analysis of
the qualitative contents of different forms of mass media in India.