Abstract
In 2012, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC rebels began formal peace talks. For the first time, there was an interest in the Colombian government to recognize gender as a prominent category for gender equality and the reduction of gender discrimination after the end of the armed conflict. In August 2016, Christian evangelical leaders and some right-wing politicians affirmed in the national media that gender was a dangerous ideology. This anti-gender campaign began vilifying gender and sexuality to spread panic regarding the peace agreement. Two months later, Colombians rejected the peace accord by a slim margin in the plebiscite. My research analyzes the role of the two most popular Colombian printed media in shaping the national coverage of the plebiscite two months before the elections. My results of content analysis in a randomly 301 selected plebiscite news stories published in these two newspapers online reveal the anti-gender ideology campaign was covered with a low frequency and the media coverage tended to support the Yes vote in the elections with positive sentiments. The most frequent sources of information were recognized leaders that rejected the peace agreement and a victory of the plebiscite because the final agreement would benefit FARC impunity. Additionally, a set of 33 interviews conducted in Colombia in 2019 demonstrated that the opponents of the peace plebiscite used gender ideology as a political tool in their agendas for rejecting gender equality policies in the peace agreement.
Presenters
Angela Maria Bohorquez OviedoPhD in Political Science and International Relations, Political Science and International Relations, Independent Scholar, United States
Details
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KEYWORDS
Peace, Plebiscite, Gender Ideology, Media, Colombia, FARC
Digital Media
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