'The Shadow Pandemic'. An Analysis of Femicide in British News Coverage

This study investigates how femicide is represented in the UK’s Daily Mail throughout 2021. Despite ongoing institutional and governmental efforts to combat this gender-based crime, media coverage often perpetuates narratives that obscure the complex socio-cultural factors involved, presenting femicide as a series of isolated events driven by individual motives. With the United Nations highlighting the alarming rise in femicides as a “Shadow Pandemic”, it is crucial to examine how these incidents are framed and challenge misleading narratives. Drawing on a corpus from the UK’s Daily Mail, this study applies Bacchi’s (2009) “What is the Problem Represented to Be” framework alongside Critical Discourse Analysis and Thematic Analysis to explore the portrayal of femicide in this outlet and assess the broader implications of such framing. Through this analysis, the study contributes to challenging dominant media representations and advocate for more responsible and sensitive reporting practices.