Representation of feminism in the lithuanian media: discourse analysis of news portals “delfi”, “15min.lt”, and “lrytas.lt”

Bachelor thesis “Representation of Feminism in the Lithuanian Media: Discourse Analysis of News Portals “Delfi”, “15min.lt”, and “lrytas.lt” seeked to examine the dominating feminism representations in Lithuanian media. The aim of the thesis was to find out how the political movement of feminism is represented in the Lithuanian media. Research problem: In post-communist countries feminism faces specific difficulties. For this reason it can be assumed that the representation of feminism is different in this region and its media. The relevance and innovativeness of this bachelor thesis is confirmed by the lack of research on feminism representations in Lithuanian media. Tasks. In order to achieve the aim of this bachelor thesis, four tasks were determined: 1) To conduct an analysis of academic literature on feminism representations in Lithuania and abroad, to identify different concepts of feminism and to explain why it is important to analyze the dominant feminism representations in Lithuanian media. 2) Based on the literature review, find out how the meaning of feminism is constructed by the media representatives and feminists. 3) To form a methodological tool suitable for Lithuanian case analysis. 4) To analyze how the concept of feminism is constructed in Lithuanian media while applying critical discourse analysis. Methodology. Critical discourse analysis – analysis of discourse representations, which affect the perception of certain meanings. The research was conducted while analyzing three most popular Lithuanian news portals (“Delfi”, “15min.lt”, “lrytas.lt”) articles from a specific period of time (from 2017-10-01 until 2018-12-31). The main findings of the thesis are: 1. The linguistic tools used by the media representatives prevailed in the analyzed discourse. Such linguistic tools as epithets, means of artistic expression, rhetorical questions, choice of a certain title, usually gives negative connotation to feminism - except for the irony which was often used in the texts of both media representatives and feminists. 2. Feminism representations in the discourse of news portals are often constructed through links with certain personalities, who are not directly related to politics. In this way, feminism is presented not as a political movement, but as a certain celebrity identity. 3. The prevailing linguistic choice of the feminine form in terms of supporters of feminism has shown that feminism representations are mostly associated with women. Such tendency constructs the opinion that feminism political movement and ideology are important for women and not relevant to men. 4. In some articles feminism is presented in a very stereotypical way - the goal of gender equality is described as a competition between genders, or even as the aim to eliminate men while becoming the dominant gender. This opinion is one of the dominating feminism representations in the analyzed discourse and is the most common in citizen articles published by news portals. 5. In part of the articles, feminism is associated with the role of "victim". Although this position is often critically evaluated and not very common in the general discourse, according to the experts, such a link is the only way for feminism supporters to attract attention to feminism as a political movement and to enter political discourse. 6. Positive representation of feminism prevails in the context of art and history. Art was the most frequent topic in which feminism is presented as an inspiration for artists or the main idea behind their creations. In the context of history, supporters of feminism rely on historical facts to justify the importance of feminism these days. Feminism representations in Lithuanian media do not emphasize the political importance of feminism. In the general context of the analyzed discourse, the Swedish case was divergent - the Swedish feminist government and its policy, which Lithuania could follow, was often highlighted