The missing and murdered women of Vancouver : framing inequality in media discourse in the Vancouver Sun (2006-2011)

Abstract

This thesis identifies and analyzes media narratives pertaining to the cases of missing and murdered women of Vancouver, published in the Vancouver Sun from 2006-11. Feminist and postcolonial feminist theories are drawn upon to explain the origin and persistence of the dominant narratives as expressions of long-standing societal ideologies concerning marginalized and Aboriginal women in Canada. Employing a frame analysis method associated with critical discourse analysis (CDA), the research accomplishes three related objectives. The first updates the work of Jiwani and Young (2006) by re-identifying the four dominant narratives they uncovered in the Vancouver Sun from 2001-06: police inefficiency; Pickton as the isolated deviant; the house of horrors crime scene; and the persistent grouping of the women victims as Aboriginal. The second research objective identifies and analyzes new media frames in the Sun that emerged after 2006, including: attempts to deconstruct the psychology of the perpetrator’ William Pickton, narratives pertaining to how to manage the problematic issues surrounding the women victims, as well as those related to what it means to be a deviant woman; readers’ reactions to the crimes; tracing of the emergence of grassroots organizations and activism on behalf of the victims. The final research objective contrasts societal responses to the Downtown Eastside missing and murdered women’s cases to those of Juarez, Mexico to illustrate that not only are cases of prolonged and extreme violence against large numbers of women not rare, they are responded to in ways that are unique to historical, political and cultural circumstance. In sum, the research demonstrates the importance of analyses of widely consumed media coverage, especially those pertaining to violence against women, Aboriginal women, women who live in poverty and those involved in the sex trade.