‘Bad girls’: the use of gendered media frames in the Israeli media's coverage of Israeli female political criminals

Abstract

The study examined news media coverage of Israeli female political criminals to determine how the media construct and portray women who commit ideological crimes against the state, ultimately to discern what these framing choices suggest about women involved in political crimes. Studies show that the media tend to rely on stereotypical gender frames to portray female criminals and their motivations to the public. These frames depict women perpetrators as motivated to commit political crime for personal reasons as opposed to political reasons, which are often cited for male criminal behavior. The study examined the Israeli news media's use of stereotypical gender news frames when reporting on three Israeli women who committed ideological crimes against the state. The study compared the coverage of these cases among three Israeli newspapers representing different political affinities. As a country with a long history of political conflict, Israel offers a unique opportunity to examine gender bias in the media's coverage of female actors in the public sphere. The study's theoretical contribution lies in its analysis of Israeli female political criminals who, by definition of their crime, acted within the political sphere. The study confirms previous research on the subject – mainly that the media rely on gender frames and explanations of personal motive in its portrayals of female criminals.

Keywords::

• media frames
• the representation of women
• stereotypes
• domestic terror
• ideological criminality

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

^2. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amit Lavie-Dinur

Dr Amit Lavie-Dinur is Vice Dean and Head of Visual Content Studies at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. She received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Yuval Karniel

Dr Yuval Karniel is a Senior Lecturer at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. He earned an LL.M. in International Law from the American University in Washington, DC and an LL.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Tal Azran

Dr Tal Azran is a Senior Lecturer at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne. His main research and publications concern International Communication, Political Communication, and New Media Technologies Effects.