Meet Me Halfway: Mainstream Media Ambivalent Coverage of Feminism

Feminism has become an increasingly important movement globally. But how is this feminism depicted by mainstream media? To approach this question, we analyse all news including “feminis*” terms published in the main Spanish media outlets between 2013 and 2019. We explore how feminism’s coverage has evolved overtime, whether the ideological inclinations of media outlets and global events matter to this coverage, what are the sentiments that can be identified, and what are the main issues associated to the word (equality, violence, culture, protest, institutions, new debates). Our initial expectation was that resistance against feminism could be traced back to a predominantly negative portrayal of feminism in mainstream media. However, our findings do not offer outright and unequivocal evidence of this. Our tone analysis, suggests that, if anything, a slightly positive tone outweighed the negative one, although the media's stance leaned more towards ambivalence. A deeper understanding emerges if we account for the topics that feminism is associated to. Equality, which is one of the core fights of feminism, and one that harnesses transversal public support, is in fact a a minor aspect in the media’s coverage of feminism. Instead, cultural issues, protests, policies, and violence emerged as predominant themes. This nuanced perspective sheds light on why feminism might struggle to gain a more favourable perception among the public through mainstream media channels, as these pervasive topics overshadow the discourse surrounding other aspects of feminism that may gain more consensus.