The new face of homelessness? Examining media representations of women’s homelessness in five Australian news sources

ABSTRACT

The news media plays an important role influencing policy development and public discourse on social issues, however there is limited research available which examines media representations of homelessness through the lens of gender. Content analysis and critical discourse analysis were used to examine media representations of women’s homelessness in five Australian news sources: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Sydney Morning Herald. Five broad themes relating to women’s homelessness were identified: violence and victimization, access to appropriate housing, economic factors, social and health factors, and homelessness policy. Women with children experiencing domestic and family violence were the most frequently represented demographic in the sample of articles. While the media acknowledged the perspectives of women with lived experiences of homelessness, it was homelessness services, advocates and government officials who were most often framed as homelessness “experts.” Overall, the media was largely sympathetic towards the issue of women’s homelessness and often framed it as a “crisis” requiring government attention. However, the media also privileged certain perspectives and discourse regarding women’s homelessness, reinforcing notions of the deserving and undeserving poor and overlooking the unequal gender and power relations that contribute to women’s homelessness.

KEYWORDS:

• Homelessness
• gender
• discourse
• media
• domestic violence

Acknowledgement

This project formed the basis of Georgia Lyons’ thesis submitted to fulfill the requirements of her Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) degree undertaken at the University of New South Wales in 2019.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Georgia Lyons

Georgia Lyons is a Research Assistant at the School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales.

Charlotte Smedley

Dr Charlotte Smedley is an Adjunct Lecturer in Social Work and Social Research and Policy at the School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales.