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The Pandemic of Being a Woman: A Qualitative Analysis of the South African Media on GBV at the Time of COVID-19

A decolonial feminist discourse analysis of the media's reporting on Gender Based Violence (GBV) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted. One hundred and fifty articles were collected from the Sabinet database. From this eight discourses were identified: GBV as a pandemic; GBV a...

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Main Author: Carr, Kajal
Other Authors: Boonzaier, Floretta
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Psychology 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Carr, Kajal
author2 Boonzaier, Floretta
author_browse Boonzaier, Floretta
Carr, Kajal
author_facet Boonzaier, Floretta
Carr, Kajal
author_sort Carr, Kajal
collection Thesis
description A decolonial feminist discourse analysis of the media's reporting on Gender Based Violence (GBV) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted. One hundred and fifty articles were collected from the Sabinet database. From this eight discourses were identified: GBV as a pandemic; GBV as genderless; women as vulnerable; the marginalization of victims; coddling men; redistributing fear; the co-option of GBV; and GBV as a systemic issue of power. It is argued that the media maintained the relevance and newsworthiness of GBV throughout the COVID 19 pandemic by borrowing legitimacy from COVID 19 in various ways. While this, along with the presence of more contextualized understandings of GBV, is a success, this paper argues that there is still work to be done on the way GBV is reported in the media. The data set demonstrated reductionist, uncontextualized and highly gendered representations of GBV that uphold colonial ideals of masculinity and femininity, while doing little to resist those power dynamics that uphold GBV. Recommendations for the media's reporting on GBV are made.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:27.383Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
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publisherStr Department of Psychology
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37081 The Pandemic of Being a Woman: A Qualitative Analysis of the South African Media on GBV at the Time of COVID-19 Carr, Kajal Boonzaier, Floretta GBV Gender-based Violence COVID 19 Media A decolonial feminist discourse analysis of the media's reporting on Gender Based Violence (GBV) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted. One hundred and fifty articles were collected from the Sabinet database. From this eight discourses were identified: GBV as a pandemic; GBV as genderless; women as vulnerable; the marginalization of victims; coddling men; redistributing fear; the co-option of GBV; and GBV as a systemic issue of power. It is argued that the media maintained the relevance and newsworthiness of GBV throughout the COVID 19 pandemic by borrowing legitimacy from COVID 19 in various ways. While this, along with the presence of more contextualized understandings of GBV, is a success, this paper argues that there is still work to be done on the way GBV is reported in the media. The data set demonstrated reductionist, uncontextualized and highly gendered representations of GBV that uphold colonial ideals of masculinity and femininity, while doing little to resist those power dynamics that uphold GBV. Recommendations for the media's reporting on GBV are made. 2023-03-01T11:57:28Z 2023-03-01T11:57:28Z 2022 2023-02-20T12:22:20Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37081 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle GBV
Gender-based Violence
COVID 19
Media
Carr, Kajal
The Pandemic of Being a Woman: A Qualitative Analysis of the South African Media on GBV at the Time of COVID-19
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The Pandemic of Being a Woman: A Qualitative Analysis of the South African Media on GBV at the Time of COVID-19
title_full The Pandemic of Being a Woman: A Qualitative Analysis of the South African Media on GBV at the Time of COVID-19
title_fullStr The Pandemic of Being a Woman: A Qualitative Analysis of the South African Media on GBV at the Time of COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed The Pandemic of Being a Woman: A Qualitative Analysis of the South African Media on GBV at the Time of COVID-19
title_short The Pandemic of Being a Woman: A Qualitative Analysis of the South African Media on GBV at the Time of COVID-19
title_sort pandemic of being a woman a qualitative analysis of the south african media on gbv at the time of covid 19
topic GBV
Gender-based Violence
COVID 19
Media
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37081
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