Related Papers
Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South
Reporting on Violence Against Women in the Global SouthThe Judge and the Influencer: Race, Gender, and Class in Brazilian News Coverage of Violence Against Women
2023 •
heloiza G herscovitz
Observatorio (OBS*)
Femicides in native digital news outlets: greater and better coverage? A study of violence against women in the Spanish media
Belén Zurbano Berenguer
This paper presents the main findings of a qualitative study of news on femicides appearing in leading native digital news outlets in Spain. The study focused on 267 news items published in five digital news outlets between 1 January and 31 December 2017. The selection of the news outlets was based on their readership numbers and whether or not their editorial lines adopted a gender or feminist perspective. In order to assess ethical quality, the tool designed by Zurbano-Berenguer and García-Gordillo (2017) was used. Based on this tool, the results indicate the following: (1) news about femicides is of medium quality; (2) native digital news outlets with a gender perspective offer better and higher quality coverage; and (3) the extent to which ethical recommendations are followed is still very patchy, thus calling for more in-depth multi-methodological analyses. These findings allow us to conclude that there is a need to conduct further qualitative research involving media professio...
Feminist Media Studies
"The victim lived an intense life": media (mis)representations of femicide crimes in the Republic of Cyprus
2024 •
Andrea Lambe
International media research has recently emphasized the coverage of "partner homicides" in news media outlets with specific focus on the traits/characteristics and the forms of femicides. This led us to consider the ways in which news media outlets construct, portray, affect audiences and certain groups of individuals through the representations of such crimes. Through thematic content analysis of crime news, the purpose of this study is to determine how femicide victims are portrayed by major news media outlets in the Republic of Cyprus. The research consisted of an analysis of 366 femicide-related articles referring to 37 femicides that took place from 2006 to 2020. The data were analyzed to determine effects on newsworthiness, public perception, and patterns of victim blaming. The phenomenon of victim blaming emerged from the analysis as a recurring frame, both in a direct and indirect manner. Such blaming strategies include the usage of language with negative connotations in descriptions of the victim, such as highlighting their "promiscuous" pasts, and the attribution of "male honor"-related motives to the perpetrators, using sympathetic language to describe the perpetrator, highlighting the victim's mental or physical problems, and so forth.
Laws
A Body Speaks: State, Media, and Public Responses to Femicide in Guatemala
Erin Beck
In 2008, Guatemala passed the Law against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence against Women, establishing the gender-based killing of women (femicide) as a unique crime. Since then, over 9000 Guatemalan women and girls have died violent deaths. How do Guatemalan institutions and publics react to these women’s murders, and what do these reactions reveal about the impacts of legislative reform for individual victims, Guatemalan society, and criminal justice institutions? To answer these questions, we analyze state, media, and public reactions to three high-profile femicides that took place after the 2008 VAW Law. We trace the criminal justice response and legal developments following each femicide, and couple this with an analysis of newspaper coverage and social media commentary about the case. We find that despite the passage of new legislation and the creation of new institutions, various weaknesses in the Guatemalan criminal justice system undermine the impacts of reforms. These ...
“The victim lived an intense life”: media (mis)representations of femicide crimes in the Republic of Cyprus
Feminist Media Studies
2024 •
Venetia Papa
International media research has recently emphasized the coverage of "partner homicides" in news media outlets with specific focus on the traits/characteristics and the forms of femicides. This led us to consider the ways in which news media outlets construct, portray, affect audiences and certain groups of individuals through the representations of such crimes. Through thematic content analysis of crime news, the purpose of this study is to determine how femicide victims are portrayed by major news media outlets in the Republic of Cyprus. The research consisted of an analysis of 366 femicide-related articles referring to 37 femicides that took place from 2006 to 2020. The data were analyzed to determine effects on newsworthiness, public perception, and patterns of victim blaming. The phenomenon of victim blaming emerged from the analysis as a recurring frame, both in a direct and indirect manner. Such blaming strategies include the usage of language with negative connotations in descriptions of the victim, such as highlighting their "promiscuous" pasts, and the attribution of "male honor"-related motives to the perpetrators, using sympathetic language to describe the perpetrator, highlighting the victim's mental or physical problems, and so forth.
Global Health Action
‘My story is like a magic wand’: a qualitative study of personal storytelling and activism to stop violence against women in Turkey
2021 •
Sharli Paphitis
Social Movement Studies
Activism and affective labor for digital direct action: the Mexican #MeToo campaign
2021 •
Guiomar ROVIRA SANCHO
Since it first originated in the United States, #MeToo has spread around the world, giving rise to the most powerful and widespread global campaign against sexual violence in history. In March 2019, Mexican women created Twitter accounts and hashtags to share their experiences of sexual assault at workplaces and schools, in a country where nearly eleven women are murdered every day. The #MeToo campaign was intense and brief. It was trending at the end of March 2019, but by mid-April interest in it had plummeted. This article examines how the hashtag depended on activists’ efforts in order to build an affective community for disclosure of sexual harassment. Based on the voices of participants, this study argues that although activists were able to handle affective labor to solve collectively urgent problems arising within the campaign, they failed to withstand the backlash which followed the suicide of Armando Verga Gil, a famous rock musician, after being accused of sexual abuse online. From the perspective of social movements theory, #MeToo is characterized as digital direct action forming part of the repertoire of contention of feminist crowds. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14742837.2021.2010530
World Politics
Expressive Power of Anti-Violence Legislation
2022 •
Francesca R Jensenius
We know more about why laws on violence against women (vaw) were adopted than about how much and in what ways these laws affect society. The authors argue that even weakly enforced laws can contribute to positive social change. They theorize the expressive power of vaw legislation, and present evidence for a cautiously optimistic assessment of current trends on violence against women and the ways that vaw laws affect social norms. Focusing on a time of major legal change related to vaw in Mexico, this article explores trends in behavior and attitudes related to violence by analyzing four waves of the National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relations (endireh), which include detailed interviews with thousands of Mexican women. The authors find that over this period, the share of women experiencing intimate-partner abuse declined, attitudes condoning violence shifted, reporting rates rose, and most women learned about legislation to protect their rights. These changes are consist...
World Politics
EXPRESSIVE POWER OF ANTI-VIOLENCE LEGISLATION Changes in Social Norms on Violence Against Women in Mexico
2022 •
Mala Htun, Francesca Jensenius
We know more about why laws on violence against women (VAW) were adopted than about how much and in what ways these laws affect society. The authors argue that even weakly enforced laws can contribute to positive social change. They theorize the expressive power of VAW legislation, and present evidence for a cautiously optimistic assessment of current trends on violence against women and the ways that VAW laws affect social norms. Focusing on a time of major legal change related to VAW in Mexico, this article explores trends in behavior and attitudes related to violence by analyzing four waves of the National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relations (ENDIREH), which include detailed interviews with thousands of Mexican women. The authors find that over this period, the share of women experiencing intimate-partner abuse declined, attitudes condoning violence shifted, reporting rates rose, and most women learned about legislation to protect their rights. These changes are consistent with the authors' expectations about the expressive power of anti-violence legislation.
Media, Culture & Society
Situating #MeToo: a comparative analysis of the movement in Catalonia and Portugal
2023 •
Marta Roqueta-Fernàndez, Sofia P. Caldeira
This article aims to contextualize and situate #MeToo, providing a critical review of the movement in two local contexts – Catalonia (Spain) and Portugal. The analysis is grounded on empirical observations on social media, drawing as well on previous scholarship on the topic produced both internationally and in the contexts of study, and on the engagement with relevant national media sources. By focusing on national expressions of #MeToo in Portugal and Catalonia, this article explores how #MeToo took shape in (and was shaped by) the local contexts and existing feminist practices.
