Authors:

Jordan Faulk

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Not specified

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About Paper:

This study examines how gender-based violence (GBV), specifically violence against women (VAW) and domestic violence (DV), is framed in Turkish print newspapers during the year before and after Turkey's withdrawal from international anti-gender violence accord, the Istanbul Convention. Anchored in literature on media framing in authoritarian regimes, the analysis considers how the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) has reshaped the media landscape and public cultural scripts through economic coercion, legal intimidation, and direct censorship—mechanisms which forcibly narrow discursive norms. Through an in-depth content analysis of select articles in one prominent, legacy Turkish newspaper—the Daily Sabah—this study investigates how narratives of gender-based violence are constructed, which actors are foregrounded or omitted, and what rhetorical strategies are deployed to frame gender-based violence. Findings suggest that political alignment or proximity and state pressure play a notable role in shaping how gender-based violence is articulated in the news. Turkey's exit from the Istanbul Convention, marking a rupture in its previous legal commitments to gender equality, provides a revealing backdrop for such trends in media discourse. By situating media framing of GBV within Turkey's broader political and legal transformations, this study contributes to the sociological understanding of how gendered violence is discursively negotiated in illiberal media environments.

Source:

Columbia / Philosophy / 2026

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Co-authors:

Jordan Faulk