No longer invisible, but still mistreated: Trans minors and the Spanish digital press (2006-2020)

ABSTRACT

The increase in media attention towards trans issues in the last two decades has contributed to reinforcing its visibility. However, the media coverage of trans minors has hardly been addressed by previous literature. The objective of this study is to analyze the media coverage of trans children and adolescents in the Spanish digital press during the period 2006–2020. To do that, this article has conducted a quantitative content analysis combining manual coding and rule-based text classification. The results confirm that the media coverage of trans minors has increased. Most of the analyzed delegitimization patterns of trans people have decreased over the years, although they remain relatively stable during the last period. Contrary to what could be thought, childhood and adolescence do not seem to act as a protective factor against media delegitimization. These findings suggest that trans children are at the front-page of Spanish public debate. Despite the increasing visibility of trans minors, they continue to be mistreated in the media. In fact, trans children may be even more questioned than adults. All in all, this study underlines the importance of trans minors in the news coverage of trans issues and, in extension, in the fight for trans rights.

IMPACT SUMMARY

• Prior state of knowledge: Even if previous literature suggests that news media coverage seems to be associated with the number of trans children who go to clinical services to start their social transition, there is no longitudinal quantitative evidence on the news media representation of trans children.

• Novel contributions: Neither childhood nor adolescence seem to act as a protective factor against media delegitimization. In fact, trans children may be even more questioned than adults and they have become a centerpiece for anti-trans media strategies.

• Practical implications: The need to continue raising awareness among journalists about trans minors is underscored. Some possible courses of action could be the participation of journalists in the creation and dissemination of guidelines and the organization of asynchronous online courses and offline workshops.

KEYWORDS:

• Transgender
• trans
• media agenda
• news media
• longitudinal analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

 This work was supported by the University of the Basque Country through a predoctoral grant.

Notes on contributors

Rubén Olveira-Araujo

Rubén Olveira-Araujo is a journalist, sexologist and researcher in the area of social communication at the University of the Basque Country. Interested in gender and sexual diversity, organizational communication and the application of Big Data to media analysis and journalism, the evolution of trans issues in the news media is the main focus of his research.