This report aims to explore discriminatory discourse against transgender people in terms of the way murders of transgender women are covered. We examined 28 news articles with the method of critical discourse analysis; these articles have been selected as examples from the news articles covering the murders of transgender women that were published in national print newspapers between January 2013 and August 2016. The focus of our examination was the instruments that are used for reinforcing discrimination and prejudices against transgender women.
In most of the articles we found, transgender murders are legitimized, trivialized and detached from its social context by preference of sources, structure of the stories and choice of words. In the first part, we examined the articles on the basis of the way sources are selected and discussed its consequences. In the second part titled ‘structure of the stories’, we focused on the narration of the articles by regarding the frame of the articles, the way stories are presented and in which context the murder is depicted. In the third part, we focused on how the choice of words in articles regenerates discriminatory discourse against transgender people. In the final part, we featured positive examples that cover the murders with a rights-based approach.
In conclusion, our examination revealed that articles in print media covering transgender murders generate a discriminatory and dangerous discourse against transgender people. In most of the articles we examined, the way for different forms of violation against transgender people and new hate murders is paved by omission the possibility of a hate murder and normalization of the murders. When a crime is committed against a disadvantaged group, journalists should adopt a rights-based journalism and consider the possibility of a hate crime in covering such crimes. Otherwise, when discriminatory discourse against a victim having socially disadvantaged position is regenerated, a vicious circle would be created by giving way to new hate crimes and forms of violence through this discourse. In this regard, transgender murders should not be considered independently of forms of systematic discrimination and violence to which LGBTIs are subjected in social life, state mechanisms and before the law; in fact, the representation of LGBTIs in media is also a part of this issue. Given the relation between media and social perception, a discourse that doesn’t violate the rights of transgender people and reinforce prejudices against them would contribute to decrease of discrimination against transgender people in social life.
