Abstract
Femicides are topics frequently covered by the media, and journalists use different frames when reporting on such lethal acts of violence against women. This chapter addresses the media coverage and framing in German online press articles of two femicides with victims of Romanian ethnicity. The research presented used as methodology thematic content analysis, along with media framing analysis. In the chapter, the results of this study are discussed, that is, the characteristics of media coverage and content related to the killings of the two Romanian women in the German press are analysed, the main frames used by the media in their reporting on the femicides are pointed out, and the extent to which journalists use in their narratives techniques of blaming the victims is examined. Moreover, the chapter investigates whether the media report the crimes against women as singular facts or address them in the broader context of social problems, and contribute, in this way, to the increase of public awareness and social responsibility towards them.
TopConceptual Framework
Femicide or feminicide is an extreme form of violence against women, and can be defined as “the misogynistic killing of women by men” (Radford, 1992, p. 3) or as “the killing of women by men because they are women” (Russell, 2002, p. 3). This concept has proven to be essential for the efforts of feminist movement representatives in various parts of the world to combat the killing of women as the ultimate expression of gender inequality (Fregoso & Bejarano, 2010; García-Del Moral, 2016).
Through the almost exclusive power they have in deciding what issues are worthy of being made public, mass media play a significant role in contemporary society (Chermak, 1995). The media have the ability to shape public perception and thereby influence public policy, strengthen social control, and initiate necessary changes (Berns, 2004; Bullock, 2007; Meyers, 1997). When it comes to crime, especially domestic violence, this influence of the media is very important (Taylor, 2009).
Recent studies that analysed the way in which around sixteen countries covered violence against women between 2000 and 2015 showed the fact that media “misrepresented the realities of women’s experience of violence perpetrated against them” (Sutherland et al., 2016, p. 6). Those misrepresentations were often related to the way in which journalists reported about “social context, sensationalism, misrepresentations and «rape myths», blame and responsibility, and voices of authority and opinion” (ibid.). The situation seems to be similar in the case of femicide.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Media Framing: The process by which the media places the events and topics they report in a certain perspective or in certain ‘frames’. Through this process events are given a field of meaning within which they can be better understood.
Intimate Partner Violence: Violence committed by one of the people in an intimate relationship, that is, marriage, cohabitation, or intimate relationship, against the other person. It includes any behaviour by an intimate partner or ex-partner that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm, including physical assault and aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviours.
Domestic Violence: Violence in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation. A more detailed definition includes in domestic violence any use or threat of use of physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, social, or economic abuse by a family member against another member of the same family, with the intention of inducing fear, intimidation, and control of behaviour. It is also named family violence and/or domestic abuse.
Media Techniques of Victim Blaming: Patterns of media reporting that at least partially suggest that the victim is responsible for what happened to her. The media techniques of blaming the victim can be direct, such as describing the victim in negative terms, mentioning harmful aspects about her prior behaviour, fidelity, love life, occupation, or indicating that she did not complain to the police in order to report acts of violence prior to the murder, etc., but also indirect, such as describing the perpetrator in positive terms, or excusing his violent behaviour and acts through mentioning his mental and emotional problems, economic crisis and financial difficulties, jealousy, alcohol consumption, etc.
Femicide: Generally, murder of women because they are women. The definition involves, depending on the authors, different nuances, such as: a) emphasizing the fact that perpetrators are men: the killing of females by males because they are female; b) underlining the hatred against women: the misogynistic killing of women by men or c) highlighting the intention or purpose of the act: the intentional murder of women or girls because they are female.
Victim Blaming: The attitude according to which the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is entirely or partially responsible for the actions of the offender, i.e., for the harm that befell them. The victims of domestic violence and sex crimes, particularly rapes and sexual assaults, are more often blamed as compared to victims of other crimes, especially if victims and perpetrators knew each other prior to the commission of the crime.
Violence Against Women: Violence committed primarily or exclusively against women or girls, often as a form of hate crime, perpetrated against women or girls specifically because they are female. Such violence may arise from a sense of entitlement, superiority, misogyny, or similar attitudes in the perpetrator, and is often seen as a mechanism for the subjugation of women, whether in society in general or in an interpersonal relationship. It is often used with the same meaning as gender-based violence, although the latter may have a broader sense.
Gender-based Violence: Any acts and threats of violence, coercion, and manipulation, inflicted in private or in public, that sexually, physically, mentally or economically harm the victim, which primarily are female. It can take many forms such as intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation and so-called ‘honour crimes’.
Intimate Femicide or Intimate Partner Femicide: Murder of a woman by her intimate partner, current or former, that is, husband/ex-husband, common law spouse/ex-spouse, life partner/ex-partner, boyfriend/ex-boyfriend.