Popular media: discourses about Intimate Femicide in Portugal

• In Event: Race, Gender and Visual Representations of Crime and Violence

Abstract

Media and feminist research about media coverage of domestic violence and intimate femicide have been focusing their analyses on the portrayal of victims and perpetrators and the type of frames used to report intimate femicide. Summing up some results, it is possible to evidence: the use of victim blame discourses; the failing to place the responsibility of the crime in the perpetrator or making excuses for the abuser; public sources (i.e., law enforcement) as the most commonly cited sources of information in news coverage of femicide compared to private sources (i.e., friends and family); the examination of the frame in which the media reports on femicide are reported as crucial for the understanding of the cultural considerations beneath media discourses on femicide.
Taking this into consideration, we aim to present some results on a study about media representations of intimate femicide in Portugal, particularly the ones based on a popular newspaper. From the content analysis of the published news in this newspaper between 2011 and 2014, we discuss the implications these narratives have for the construction of the criminal reality; and, discussing ideologies, structures of power and social effects, we aim to show how discourses might influence gendered practices.

Authors

• Sofia Neves, ISMAI, CIEG (ISCSP-UL)

• Sílvia Gomes, CICS.NOVA - UM, ISMAI - Portugal