Covering violence against women and girls on the border: Comparing news from Texas and Mexico

Marta Mensa; Tracy Everbach; Gwendelyn S.  Nisbett

doi:10.26441/RC24.1-2025-3649

Authors

Marta Mensa University of North Texas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8239-3674
Tracy Everbach University of North Texas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7014-7273
Gwendelyn S. Nisbett University of North Texas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26441/RC24.1-2025-3649

Keywords:

border, violence, women, framing, mixed methods

Abstract

This study investigates violence against women and girls (VAWG) along the Texas-Mexico border through the lens of the news published in newspapers: MyRGV in McAllen (Texas), the El Paso Times in El Paso (Texas), El Mañana de Reynosa in Tamaulipas (Mexico), and El Heraldo de Juárez in Ciudad Juárez (Mexico). It employs a mixed-method approach, conducting quantitative content analysis and qualitative framing analysis. The findings reveal that Mexican newspapers primarily chose to publish stories about murder as the main crime against women and girls, while Texas newspapers focused on sexual violence. Mexican newspapers also covered immigration-related VAWG. Female journalists in Mexico often connected crimes with psychological trauma. Texas newspapers employed episodic framing and victim-blaming, whereas Mexican newspapers framed stories in a victim-supporting manner. Texas newspapers did not distinguish crimes against women from other crimes, whereas Mexican newspapers used the term 'femicide' and treated crimes against women and children as gender- and age-specific.

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Author Biographies

Marta Mensa, University of North Texas

Ph.D. from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), is an Assistant Professor of Advertising at the Mayborn School of Journalism, University of North Texas. Her research focuses on representations of gender and race in social media and advertising, Latin American advertising, and Hispanic advertising. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8239-3674, marta.mensa@unt.edu

Tracy Everbach , University of North Texas

Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia, is a professor of journalism in the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas. Her research focuses on representations of gender and race in mass media, women’s leadership in newsrooms, and women in sports media. She is a former newspaper reporter for two U.S. newspapers. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7014-7273, Tracy.Everbach@unt.edu

Gwendelyn S. Nisbett, University of North Texas

Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma, is an associate professor of public relations at the Mayborn School of Journalism, University of North Texas. Her research examines the intersection of mediated social influence, campaign communication, and popular culture. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3628-5020, Gwen.Nisbett@unt.edu

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