An article on how to report on femicides in a more respectful and honorable way towards the victims
By Lisa-Sophie Staß
TW: Death, Violence
,,The Partygirl and the love triangle ‘‘that’s how the Austrian newspaper,, DerStandart’’ titled an article about a femicide that happened in Austria in 2020. Even though the newspaper changed the title of this article after there was a huge backlash about it, the problem remains the same. Not only is this title a way of victim blaming the women that has been killed (which already is common accusation with which a lot of victims of sexual harassment, abuse and femicide are confronted) but also does it downplay what really happened here and even justifying it: A man murdered his girlfriend because she was a woman. Because he has the power to do so. Because of the social structures which degrade women and because home is one of the most dangerous places for women. With a report like this is not only the murder that happened here made in some way invisible, but also the victim. Making women invisible is a huge problem and I belief, that the media plays a huge role within this problem. But I also think that the media has a huge potential in changing that and with that also change the way in which society sees and values women.
Since this sadly is not the only article that reported about a femicide this way, I came up with the idea for my project:
I want to find those articles, show, what they did wrong there and why it is not right to report the way they did.
I also want to show a more respectful way to report. A way that displays the women who got killed.