Representation of Women in Crime News in Turkish Media

It is common in the Turkish media to have interesting headlines that are creative and
descriptive to make the news more appealing to people, especially in crime news. But
generally, in the headlines of these news, as well as in their content, a discriminating
language is used in direct proportion to the social values of the society. This discriminating
language manifests itself in the form of representation system, legal system, family norm,
identifications based on race, religion, sect, age, physical differences, relations of production
and class distinctions. These forms of discrimination intersect with each other in various
ways within the subject of gender, reinforce each other and give sexism different forms of
expression and usage.
The point to be considered while examining these news is to focus on the unexpected,
striking and remarkable while reporting the gendered meanings and uses of bodies. In other
words, gender, which is invisible in the normative field and accepted as given, turns into a
remarkable encounter in the news. In other words, as women realize their accepted
femininity and men realize their accepted masculinity, they are often not in the news.
Whenever the 'limit is crossed' then the situation is newsworthy. Thus, the boundaries of the
acceptable are drawn over the striking. (Akınerdem, 2016) The positive and negative
emotions promoted about the situation highlighted in the news set the boundaries of the
'normal'. This media exposure of women creates surprising, punishable, ridiculous, or
flattering positions when they transgress the boundaries of gendered dichotomies.
If we look at the case of the representation of women in the media around the world, in
1963, journalist Betty Friedan, one of the pioneers of the second wave feminist movement,
mentioned the representation of women in the American media in her book titled “ The
Feminine Mystique’’ Friedan dealt with women in three dimensions in her book: First, the
content about women in women's magazines and newspapers in America; the second is the
women's policy of the newspapers, based on what the editors bring to the fore in their news
about women. Thirdly, women in the country are stuck in the roles of "mother" and "wife"
imposed on them in the patriarchal culture and as a result of this, they are unhappy.
After her observations on this subject, Friedan makes three basic determinations about
the representation of women in the media. First, few women journalists occupy influential
positions in media organizations. Second, media contents destroy the status of women in
social life; It does not include women in role models. Last, women do not appear in the
media with their achievements; represented by traditional roles such as sex object or good
mother, devoted wife. (Friedan, 1963)
If we look at these determinations on the basis of Turkey, in terms of employment, middle-
level management in the media The women who could not reach the top level generally
took part in the publication departments, worked in the magazine page and editorial fields.
In addition, with this glass ceiling syndrome, bad working conditions, social discrimination,
mobbing, job insecurity, and payment inequality are among the problems of women working
in the media. (SARIŞIN, 2020)
 Therefore, since most of the people who decide what is expressed in the media are men,
we can say that men also undertake the representation of women in the Turkish media. And
this phenomenon explains the origin of the mother and wife role that clings to women.
The gender of the perpetrator often adds a special and unusual meaning to the news.
These stories can be criminal acts, success stories or accident news. If we look at the
examples of discriminatory news language in crime news in Turkey the news tries to attract
attention with the headlines "female suicide bomber" (Figure 1), "female thief" (Figure 2),
"female driver" (Figure 3). The gender of the perpetrator is underlined and highlighted using
large fonts. Depending on the nature of the action, the effect of the emphasis on femininity
varies: it evokes feelings of anger, pity, disgust or contempt.

Figure 1: Ankara Anadolu, 11.05.2016 Figure 2: Büyük Kayseri, 11.08.2015

Figure 3: Adana Kent, 23.06.2015

Not only is the information in the content incomplete and manipulative, and it is made open
to various connotations, but also by making it contradictory with social norms and increasing
its sensational effect. Of course, the aim here is not to give incomplete information to the
reader. In fact, the primary purpose of the news is not to inform the reader. The news is
mostly produced according to the possibility of attraction caused by the confusion created
by the contradiction. For example, In the news of the Akşam newspaper (Figure 4) the fact
that the woman is a bus driver is almost irrelevant; it is not true that the person who was
stabbed was the woman's lover, it is understood that he was her ex-boyfriend when the
news was announced; It's not just a case of stabbing, it's also a case of violence against a
woman. While the man who attacked the bus driven by the woman is not mentioned in the
headline and the man is in the secondary position in the photographs used, the woman
stands out as the main perpetrator.

Figure 4: Akşam, 2019

To conclude, news like these are the ones you can think of recently without the need for
special research. Sexism in the reporting of crimes in which women are victims or
perpetrators is also a different result of the same social context in the society in which the
news is presented. So, after researching in this context, I would like to ask a disscusion
question: Can this rhetoric in crime news style change and how?

Bibliography
Akınerdem, F. (2016). TÜRKİYE MEDYASINDA KADINLARIN TEMSİLİ: GAZETE VE İNTERNET
HABERCİLİĞİ RAPORU. İstanbul: Hrant Dink Vakfı .

Friedan, B. (1963). 2. B. Friedan içinde, The Feminine Mystique.

SARIŞIN, M. (2020). MEDYA SEKTÖRÜNDE ÇALIŞAN KADINLARIN KONUMU. Marmara Üniversitesi

Kadın ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Araştırmaları Dergisi, 16- 29.