Mass media and the toxic narrative of gender-based violence against women in Italy

This thesis is an analysis of gender based violence against women as a societal phenomenon and how it is narrated by mass media in Italy. The thesis is divided in four chapters; the first chapter is an historical, legal overview of the most important steps made by the institutions to combat violence and protect women, from the CEDAW to the the Instanbul Convention, then the last part of the chapter focuses on Italy and its legislation. The second chapter is devoted to an analysis of media and the storytelling of violence between sterotypes and victimization of the woman.The third chapter is a lexical analysis of five italian case studies of abuse and how they have been narrated by mass media and newspapers, and the last chapter focuses on the central role of media used as prevention tools taking into account the never again european project and the GI.U.LI.A association.