Media representation of women: A multimodal critical discourse analysis

master's thesis

• Title (croatian): Medijsko prikazivanje žena: kritička multimodalna analiza diskursa
• Author: Lucija Jelenić
• Mentor: Anđel Starčević (mentor)
• Committee member: Višnja Josipović-Smojver (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Marina Zubak Pivarski (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2024-10-31, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

This paper investigates different representations of women in media through a multimodal critical discourse analysis. A theoretical framework is provided in the first part of the paper, explaining key terms linked to gendered language such as gender performativity, social and gender norms as well as the meaning and tools of MCDA. The empirical part focused on ten different articles from various media publishing houses to use as examples to illustrate different feminist-related issues. The core problems identified underrepresentation and reductionist representation of women in various domains, including everyday life, celebrity lifestyle, sports, politics, and entrepreneurship. These findings show that women are commonly portrayed in terms of their looks and personal affairs, which might reinforce harmful stereotypes. As a result, women’s value is often tied to their appearance, which can create further disparity in unequal opportunities in male-dominated areas such as in sports, politics and business.

• Keywords: multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA); social media; representation; gender stereotypes; objectification; gendered language
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:748589
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: TEFL; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra edukacije engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra edukacije engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2024-11-11 14:16:07