Analysis of news on violence against women in the context of Van Dijk's critical discourse analysis: The example of Hürriyet and Sözcü newspapers

The media is a powerful tool that shapes social perceptions and ways of thinking. Considering the power of the media in shaping social perception, how sensitive issues such as violence against women are presented is of great importance. This study examines the news about violence against women published on the first pages of Hürriyet and Sözcü newspapers, which have different ideological approaches, for the year 2024, and aims to reveal how the media frames violence and discourse strategies by examining them in schematic and thematic dimensions at a macro level using Teun A. Van Dijk's critical discourse analysis method. The study is limited to the news about violence against women in Hürriyet and Sözcü newspapers. This study, which is based on qualitative analysis, seeks an answer to the question of how the media represents violence against women, while also contributing to studies on the extent to which media discourse affects the emergence of the phenomenon of violence. In the study, the way both newspapers cover violence against women is compared, and the language, discourse strategies and news frames are analyzed. The findings show that the Hürriyet newspaper uses a more neutral and event-oriented language in its news, but tends to treat violence as isolated cases in some news. The Sözcü newspaper, on the other hand, seems to be more inclined to address violence against women in its political and social context by using a more emotional and reactive language.