20Fox in Mexican criminal news: necro-journalism and symbolic violence in the visual representation of femicides in Mexican nota roja newspapers

This thesis provides a critical analysis of the photographic representation of femicides or feminicides in the Mexican press known as nota roja. This is a journalistic genre that specialises in the sensationalist coverage of crimes, violence, and tragic events, distinguished by a visual and narrative style designed to emotionally shock the reader through striking headlines, the use of the colour red, and graphic photographs of violent scenes and victims. Employing a qualitative approach based on critical visual discourse analysis, the research examines how these images and journalistic narratives diminish the humanity of victims by exposing mutilated and sexualised bodies, thereby reinforcing patriarchal stereotypes, normalising gender-based violence, and reproducing social inequalities. The thesis is grounded in an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that integrates visual, cultural, communication, and feminist studies, applying semiotic tools and encoding/decoding models to unveil the multiple layers of meaning within the analysed photographs and texts. The sample comprises 743 press reports published between 2000 and 2018 in the Mexican newspapers La Prensa and Metro, complemented by 14 interviews with journalists, reporters, and other experts. The results demonstrate that the nota roja contributes to the symbolic re-victimisation of murdered women, perpetuates patriarchal discourses, and constrains the possibilities for the cultural and political transformation required to eradicate violence against women in Mexico. Finally, the thesis expands the field of media and gender-based violence studies and introduces the nota roja to Anglo-Saxon academic literature.