Hypermediatization of the Errejón case: analysis of feminist media coverage

Abstract

In October 2024, the resignation of Iñigo Errejón, one of the main assets of the new Spanish Left, was made public, motivated by accusations of sexual assault against him by several women. In step with the hypermediatization of the ‘Errejón case’, the feminist debate on how to frame gender violence in the media so that the story not only meets the standards of good journalism but is also ‘productive’ in a feminist sense, began to gain visibility. In this context, our work has a twofold objective: to examine the journalistic coverage of the Errejón case and to identify the differential forms of feminist journalism. To this end, all texts relating to the case published between 24 and 31 October in national digital media with an explicit ethical-editorial commitment to the active defense of gender equality have been analyzed (El País, Público, elDiario.es, El Salto, La Marea, Ctxt and Pikara Magazine) (n=384). The main results indicate that the case has received special and intense media attention, in which a struggle is identified between the framing of institutional politics and the feminist approach centred on gender violences and the visibilization of its victim-survivors. In this sense, feminist journalism introduces notable differential forms, such as the effort to politicize the case, to explain it in complex interpretative genres and to include the voices of feminist experts and the survivors themselves. The discussion of these results from the theoretical, professional and interpretative framework of feminist journalism hopes to contribute to critical reflection on the im/productivity of the (hyper) mediatization of gender violence.