The Representation of Victims of Femicide by the German News Magazine ‘Hallo Deutschland’

Almost every third day, a woman is murdered by her intimate (ex-)partner in Germany (Erl, 2023). Including other forms of femicide, the rate is even higher. The way these women are represented by the German news creates a certain picture of violence, which may lead to a misunderstanding of the problem (Meltzer, 2022). Previous research in Germany regarding the representation of victims of femicide mainly focused on newspaper reports and was approached through quantitative research. This is why this qualitative research aims to answer the following question: ‘How does the German audio- visual news magazine ‘Hallo Deutschland’ represent victims of femicide?’ The outcome of this research is intended to invite television broadcasters to reflect on their practices regarding the representation of femicide victims. To answer the research question, different approaches to the news value theory and representation theory are discussed in the theoretical framework. The use of these theories aimed at analyzing which victims are deemed newsworthy by ‘Hallo Deutschland’ and how these victims are represented. The examined material consists of 48 news reports from ‘Hallo Deutschland’, which were analyzed by conducting a thematic analysis, following the steps developed by Braun and Clarke (2012). The use of this method provided insights into patterns of meaning throughout the data set (Braun & Clarke 2012). Looking at the results, it was found that the victims deemed newsworthy are mostly young, were brutally murdered, and are victims of murders resulting from intimate partner violence or sexual assaults. Furthermore, some of these cases contained striking audio-visual material. These victims were on the one hand found to be represented in a negative manner through subjective representation. These were tendencies of victim blaming, for example by representing the victim through the interpretation of others. Furthermore, a classification of the victims was observed, by highlighting their age. Lastly, instances of individualization were found, where inaccurate sources were used to describe the victim’s relationship with her partner. On the other hand, the victims were also found to be represented in a positive manner through objective and partly subjective representation by ‘Hallo Deutschland’. This was done by emotionalizing and personalizing the victims, and by providing relevant information.