News coverage of a women’s hunger strike against “chauvinist violence”

Abstract

This chapter examines the news coverage of a hunger strike conducted by an association of women who demanded the reform of the Spanish Law that deals with gender-based violence. Approaching this type of violence as a public health matter, the contention is that the patriarchal order not only lies at the heart of gender-based violence, but that it also guarantees its continued (relative) invisibility in the news media, and the perpetuation of ineffective legal measures that are meant to address it. Based on a discourse analysis of Spanish news articles, the chapter discusses aspects such as the newsworthiness of the hunger strike, the depth of the coverage and the extent to which it reflected the women’s objectives.