The social construction of intimate-partner femicide in the Cypriot news media: a critical gender-frame analysis

Lambe, Andrea (2023) The social construction of intimate-partner femicide in the Cypriot news media: a critical gender-frame analysis. MSc(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Intimate-partner violence as a form of domestic and gender-based violence constitutes a global social phenomenon that contradicts women's rights, with femicides being its culmination. In this framework, the case of Cyprus is a prominent example for the study of femicide, as femicide killings have been rampant throughout the decades, which can be explained when considering the country’s history of gender nationalism and religion. However, there have been some steps towards social change, with landmark the establishment of the criminalisation of femicide in 2022.

In this path, the media play a crucial role socially constructing the phenomenon in the context of recent politicisation of violence against women, thus media framing of femicide functions as an important and interesting unit of analysis. Therefore, this study’s research question is how the Cypriot news media socially construct intimate-partner femicide through the use of frames of gender; in order to answer this, an extensive data sample that consists of articles of all the Cypriot digital newspapers that refer to femicide incidents that occurred during the decade of 2012-2023 or to the phenomenon of femicide in general were collected. The study’s objective is to identify and analyse the social collective gender representations that emerge from the news framing of femicide, more specifically analysing the language, phrasing and tone used and the addition or absence of femicide incidents in their agenda, based on a feminist and social constructivist theoretical background, using as methodology a critical gender-frame analysis.

The results showcase many similarities but also some differences with previous research on media-framing of femicide; these include recurring patterns of gender-framing of the victim, the perpetrator, and violence against women, or femicide as a social problem. These gender frames consequently construct on the one hand, a sexist representation and on the other hand, femicide is constructed as a public social problem through links with violence against women and social structures.

• Item Type: Thesis (MSc(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Supervisor's Name: Scrinzi, Dr. Francesca
• Date of Award: 2023
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2023-83987
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 15 Dec 2023 14:08
• Last Modified: 15 Dec 2023 14:14
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.83987
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/83987