The representation of violence against women in nigerian and Turkish press

Violence against women, be it physical, psychological or verbal, has now become a global problem. Looking at the factors that cause the spread of violence, the sexist discourse caltivated within the patriarchal domination is discovered to be the main reason. While men are holding the most influencial position in political, economic and social stractures, women found themselves subordinated and exposed to masculine violence. On the other hand both press and visual media tend to tablodize the issue which as a result diminishes its importantance while making it more ordinary. Thus, analyzing the issue within the framework of discourse analysis is important. Using van Dijk's Critical discourse, this research aim to discover how violence against women is reported in the press by doing a thorough comparison of the Turkish and the Nigerian press. In this context, 4 newspapers with different views in the Turkish press: Sözcü, Sabah, Hürriyet and Bianet were analysed. Likewise 4 other newspapers with different views from the Nigerian press: Vanguard, This Day, Premium Times and the Punch were analysed. Thus, 5 news articles from each of the mentioned newspapers between 2016 and 2020, a total of 40 news were analyzed. As a result, it was discovered that both the Turkish and Nigerian press has made the issue of violence against women a business. While Turkish press focuses on tabloid narrative, Nigerian press focus more on literary elequence to entertain certain group of people. Among the 8 newspapers analyzed from both sides, it was determined that only 3 newspapers took positive steps on the issue: Sözcü, Bianet and Premium Times. While these 3 papers followed an"opposite ideology" they produced within their own structure, the others were walking on a line containing footprint of the dominant structure. Keywords: Voilence against women, discourse analysis, van Dijk, patriarchy, domination, representation