Media and Activist Discourses on Feminism in Quebec: Between Issues of Women’s Representativeness and the Mobilization of a Solidarity Network

Abstract

The research has two objectives: (1) to document the mediatization of feminism by the Quebec media and (2) to identify the uses of social-digital media by Quebec feminist interest groups to make their demands heard in the traditional media. It is in line with the work on digital advocacy and the mediatization of feminism. The analysis is based on the media discourses produced by three Quebec newspapers in the context of International Women's Day (March 8) between 2017 and 2021 and the Facebook and Twitter publications of the Collectif 8 mars in 2020 and 2021. The results show that the Quebec media pay more attention to issues of women's under-representation in the public space and sexism than to the political dimensions behind the inequalities. For its part, the feminist group uses social and digital media more to cultivate and promote a feminist solidarity network than to disseminate information about its demands and women's equality issues.