Media Representations of Friends and Family Members of Victims of Intimate Partner Femicide


Ciara Boyd, University of Guelph

Between 2018 and 2022, at least 850 women and girls were killed in Canada, primarily by men. The news media are a primary source of public information about femicide, making their role significant in determining how femicide is perceived and understood in society. Research has explored friends and family members of femicide victims as news sources, but not what they say or how they may impact media coverage of intimate partner femicide. Focusing on a two-year time period that allows for a comparison of news coverage before and after COVID-19, this paper analyzes Canadian news coverage from 2019 and 2021 using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Analyzing these two years of coverage (approximately 2,415 articles), this paper explores what is being said by both official and personal sources to gain a better understanding of how intimate femicides are being represented and by whom in the media. Working within a feminist theoretical framework, this paper provides a first look at how intimate partner femicides are represented in Canadian news media by friends and family members of victims. Beginning with a scoping review of sources used more broadly in media coverage of intimate partner femicide, this paper presents an overview of what is currently known about various sources used by the media. Following this, the paper draws from framing theory to qualitatively analyze coverage from three select intimate partner femicide cases and identify key themes of friends and family media representations. By analyzing media representations of friends and family members, this paper explores the potential benefits of relying on those more closely connected to the femicide victim as a source of information. For example, relying on friends and family members as news sources may initiate discussion on the broader impacts of intimate partner femicide, such as the effect on children left behind and/or elderly parents left without care. Moreover, exploring media representation of friends and family members may also provide insight into what factors might influence public perception of certain sources as official versus non-official (i.e., personal) sources.

Non-presenting author: Jordan Fairbairn, King's University College at Western University

This paper will be presented at the following session: