Legitimization of Gender-Based Violence Through Media

Violence is a problematic phenomenon that has a global impact on both individuals and societies. From the reporting aspect of the news to the composition of television programs, violence has taken over the media. Considering the forms of violence in both social media and mainstream media, the use of language is observed to resemble a favor to the ones who commit these acts of violence, not the ones who are subject to it. Accessibility of the events occurring at any given moment within or outside of the border of individuals and the changing realities is a necessity. All these changes in our daily lives cause paradigm shifts, change the way we live, act, or understand for better or for worse as we are exposed. Media and the news, the prominent mediums of this exposure to life, manifest our current way of thinking and also play a significant role in creating the mindset that is determined to have been socially down the line. In this study, femicide cases that have drawn attention, under the spotlight of mainstream media and social media journalism from 2009 to 2020, providing a platform for individuals to report real-life events amateurly, and adopted the use of language by mainstream media and social media journalists, will be analyzed using content analysis method. Moreover, changes in the use of language adopted by mainstream media and the effects of these uses in the scope of the way we live, act, or understand will be argued.