Abstract: The media have been both praised for their recent efforts to draw the public’s attention to domestic violence and criticised for their methods of doing it. Although researchers have previously investigated the media coverage of domestic violence, few have focused on how the issue is portrayed in Australia, and even fewer studies have examined how the online news report on the problem. With an ever-increasing amount of content being pro-duced online, researchers have called for an in-depth investigation into how sensitive is-sues, such as domestic violence, are presented on the platform. Further, the speed, com-mentary feature and user-generated content distribution of online news complicate the ethical production of content about domestic violence. This study aims to address this gap by investigating how the Australian online news cover domestic violence. It is one of the first researches to exclusively focus on the online production of domestic violence stories and to address how the features characteristic to online news complicate constructive re-porting of the problem. Moreover, it is one of the first studies in its research field to examine the rationale and decisions that have led the media to report on domestic violence in one way, and not the other. The long-term study examined the content of 2,324 domes-tic violence articles published online between 2014 and 2016 by the ABC News, The Sydney Morning Herald and news.com.au. Content analysis was used to assess how the volume of domestic violence reporting changed across years and the messages in the online articles about the issue. The quantitative research method enabled examination of the Australian online news coverage of domestic violence homicides, victims of the abuse and emergence of constructive messages about the problem. Through interviews with 12 editors and reporters, who all had experience in covering domestic violence for the online platform, the research revealed the decisions behind the coverage. The study found that the Australian online news coverage was predominantly murder-oriented. Concerningly, murder stories were most inclined to imply that victim had done something to aggravate the abuser or that perpetrator’s violence was somehow justifiable. Disturbingly, the re-search also found that despite the Australian reporters’ and editors’ efforts to convey con-structive coverage, much of the domestic violence media coverage lacks social context that could help the public understand and address the problem. The research not only highlighted the issues surrounding the online news coverage of domestic violence but suggested remedies for an improved coverage through eight specific guidelines.