MEDIA AND FEMICIDES; THE EXAMPLE OF LOCAL MEDIA IN ÇANAKKALE 2024

This study is a continuation of the work titled “Media and Femicide: The Case of Local Media in Çanakkale,” which examined the reflection of femicides that occurred in Çanakkale in 2022 in the local media. Based on the news analyzed in 2022, the “Zero Tolerance for Violence Against Women News Project” was developed. As part of the project, local media workers in Çanakkale were trained on “The Use and Practices of Visual Communication in Journalism, Representation of Women in Newspaper News and Ethical Elements, News Content on Violence Against Women in the Media, Gender Equality-Oriented News Discourses, and Ethical News Production Dynamics.” The aim was to analyze the improvement in the writing of news about violence against women by local media workers in Çanakkale as a result of these seven-month-long trainings. Therefore, this study analyzed how femicides that occurred in 2024, covering the post-training period of the project, were reported by Çanakkale local media workers and the changes observed in news discourses using content analysis. The analysis revealed that, unlike before, the news now disclosed the identity of the perpetrator while coding the identity of the victim. It was recorded that most of the news visuals were presented in a way that emphasized phrases like “Breaking News,” “Femicide Occurred” in large fonts, indicating an importance placed on ethical visual use. It was found that the news included an emphasis on gender equality and that awareness-raising footnotes were added at the end of the news texts. The project serves as a pilot study in local media and it is crucial to extend it nationally.