Ni Una Más, Ni Una Menos: Analysing Media Framing of Femicide in Pandemic-Era Spain

Abstract

In the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, there were 161 femicides recorded in Spain. While women were locked inside their houses to keep themselves safe from one pandemic, they were in danger of being killed by another, a silent pandemic: femicide. This research focuses on the framing of femicides by Spanish media in terms of the victims, perpetrators, crimes and mention of the COVID-19 pandemic to see if such cases are framed as isolated events or part of a larger societal problem in Spain. This aim is undertaken through content analysis of 121 articles covering a total of 19 cases from March to May 2020 and the same timeframe in 2021. The articles come from seven leading online Spanish-language Spanish newspapers: ABC, El Diario, El Español, El Mundo, El País, OKDiario and La Vanguardia. The findings indicate that Spanish media does not play into negative stereotypes of victims, full blame is placed on the shoulders of perpetrators, the pandemic was not mentioned to the extent expected and such crimes are portrayed as part of a larger societal problem in Spain: gender-based violence and femicide.