'Til Death Do Us Part : representations of men in the Italian mainstream press coverage of femicide

Femicide is the ultimate expression of violence against women. It is the ultimate act of male dominance over a woman. Despite the criminal justice systems and governments have acknowledged femicide as a crime, there is little public awareness about the patriarchal roots that diffuse and maintain men´s power. Even though the causes of femicide cannot be separated from the causes of patriarchy, femicide continues to be seen only as a crime. Little action or reflection has been deployed to critically look at the perpetrators of femicide. This thesis embarks from the standpoint that the representations in the news media play a significant role in affecting the extent to which the perpetrators of femicide are regarded as justifiable for their crime. With the aim of enhancing our understanding of femicide and the mediation of men and masculinities, the present thesis investigates how a selection of perpetrators of femicide was discursively represented in Italy´s three mainstream newspapers during 2018. By using tools from critical discourse analysis and qualitative coding, this thesis shows how news media to a great extent do not problematize the homicidal actions of the man within the context of a persisting patriarchal system. The perpetrators of femicide are represented in continuous negotiations of their profile: mad men/lucid men, violent men/caring fathers/lovers. The thesis links these representations to ongoing trends where patriarchal and hegemonic masculinity discourses – centered on the male breadwinner figure and the dehumanization and decontextualization of the killer – have affected the news reporting. The mediatization of masculinity within a femicide context has remained an under-researched topic within the field. The conclusions of this study – that the news media are more interested in gazing at the lurid details of the men’s killing dynamics than critically examining them – suggest that more critical reflection on the crime news as a playground for morality is to prevail