Leer, Interpretar y (Re)construir: Percepciones de Jóvenes sobre las Mujeres en la Política

Santos, Anabela
Cabecinhas, Rosa
Cerqueira, Carla
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This paper examines reception practices of contents spread through the Portuguese newsmagazines “Sábado” and “Visão”, exploring, in particular, the way young audiences understand, interpret and position themselves in relation to representations of women who hold political posts. The thematic analysis conducted on the data resulting from a sequence of focus group discussions shows that participants tended to prefer readings that were aligned with traditional gender ideology. Despite occasional moments of negotiation, contestation and resistance, the results indicate that most participants did not critically problematize the role of the media in the gendered (re)construction of social reality, supporting instead the reification of the male-political-public and female-personal-private triads. Moreover, participants rarely questioned the economic, socio-cultural and political factors that exert influence on the news production. Informed by a feminist perspective, this study therefore highlights the need to empower the audiences in relation to the gender assumptions that the news media have spread and to reflect about the impact of the media representations on the (re)configuration of the public sphere ​
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