Gender violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: Analysis of the journalistic discourse on the Almassora (Castelló Province) femicide

The Almassora femicide, which occurred on 19 March 2020, was the first of the media cases of gender violence during the lockdown and state of emergency caused by COVID-19. In this article, we take a critical feminist approach to study the images and linguistic tropes that the digital press published in Spain – in both the Catalan and Spanish languages – used to cover this news. We also focus on whether or not the media related it to the situation of home lockdown. We analyze the follow-up and the sections in which the case was presented, the information on the legal consequences of gender violence and the available help resources, the inclusion of data that allow the identification of the victims, the use of morbid details and euphemisms, and the creation of erroneous cause-effect relations. Consequently, we check whether in this specific case the recommendations on the treatment of gender violence in the media are fulfilled and whether the disseminated data reflect a sensitivity with respect to gender violence as a social problem.