Representation of femicide according to online newspapers in Bolivia

Abstract: This thesis is going to present how online newspapers addresses femicide in Bolivia. Femicide is an increasing problem in a global context but according to “Small Arms Survey Study”, Bolivia is within the 25 countries listed, where the problem is widespread and is affecting more and more women every year. The context in Bolivia is highlighted by a patriarchal culture and high alcohol consumption in general. Women are suffering different kinds of violence: physical, emotional, economical, discrimination and even femicide which means “murder of women due to the fact that they are women” In this sense the current government enacted the law number 348 protecting women from violence in Bolivia. Analyzing the representation of femicide is highly important in a society where the number of cases have increased and even more important in a society where media plays an important role, because mass media is the reference of reality, facts and ideas that are present, in this case, in a Bolivian context and the daily life of its inhabitants. The theoretical framework is almost entirely focused on representation that in words of Stuart Hall means: “Representation is the production of the meaning of the concepts in our minds through language” (1997:17). Representation of femicide which in a Bolivian context could be identified and understood by its inhabitants as a positive or negative phenomenon. This study is will be conducted through a content analysis of 370 online articles, which were found in the website archives of three mayor newspaper in Bolivia; with in a period from January 2012 to May 2016. In this sense, this study chooses articles which developed some background about the crime, not articles which talk about political reports, international reports, law, and police reports and so forth. These articles mostly show statistics or even worse; presents some femicide cases as “one more case” or “another woman is dead” as part of a common and daily thing, normalizing the violence against women in Bolivia. This thesis found the main results described in the content analysis but also described how the process of the data collection was conducted. In this sense, presented examples from different perspectives and analyzed them more carefully. Examples that show part of the reality of how mass media represents femicide in Bolivia and contributes to the normalization of violence against women. The present thesis described how online newspaper, represent femicide in Bolivia through the content analysis of 370 articles, published in three mayor newspapers, between 2012 to 2016.