From Family Drama to Femicide: A Critical Discourse Analysis of De Telegraaf's Coverage of Intimate Partner Femicide in the Netherlands

Abstract

This thesis investigates how Dutch newspapers construct victims and perpetrators of intimate partner femicide (IPF) and how these constructions reflect or challenge normative gender identities and power relations. Despite increasing recognition of femicide as a structural issue, media reporting often frames it through individualized or depoliticized narratives. Drawing on feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA), 20 news articles published in De Telegraaf in 2023 were analyzed. Four recurring discursive strategies emerged: victim-blaming, victim representation, perpetrator representation, and the use of euphemistic or romanticizing language. The findings show that while direct victim-blaming was less common than in previous research, women were sometimes framed as responsible for their own deaths, particularly through references to infidelity or relationship breakdowns. Indirect victim- blaming appeared through portrayals of perpetrators’ psychological struggles, deflecting responsibility. victims were alternately represented as “ideal” (often through motherhood), or “deviant” (through foreignness, withdrawal, or addiction), with many silenced altogether. Perpetrators were constructed either as “monstrous others” or as “ordinary men,” while euphemistic labels such as “family drama” obscured the gendered nature of the crime. The study concludes that Dutch media continues to reproduce gendered inequalities, underscoring the need for more critical and gender-aware reporting on femicide.