När mord blir emblematiska. Våld mot kvinnor i turkisk och svensk media

Abstract

This article analyses how the murder of women, femicide, is framed and understood in today’s media landscape in Turkey. In focus stands the interaction between three actors on the media arena: feminists, the media and politicians, and the process through which these actors shape stories about gendered violence. During the last few years, Turkey has witnessed a growing media visibility of gendered violence, mainly reflected in news reporting and discussions about murders of women. A feminist understanding of violence in which individual cases are linked rather than isolated was partly picked up by the media, and some cases became emblematic: generalised as a concern for other cases and important for how violence against women was framed. Through these cases not only women’s groups but also the media itself raised demands for state responsibility and state intervention in the struggle to end violence against women. The state saw the urge to respond and show engagement. The overall aim of the article is to explore whether media stories about murders of women that have reached an emblematic status in a given context close down or open up for public discussion. The article intends to give a deepened theoretical understanding of emblematic cases by asking whether they open up for stories in which new patterns and linkages are given space, or if they close down an issue and promote only one type of narrative in the public discussion about violence. For this purpose, the article also turns to the Swedish arena and the public discussions about honour related violence.