Current Sociology

Please welcome our Sociologist of the Month for September 2025, Mariana Aldrete (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain). Her article for Current Sociology Challenging the protest paradigm and winning legitimacy. Analysis of the representation of the social movement against femicide in the mainstream media in Mexico is Open Access.

Mariana Aldrete

Could you please tell us about yourself? How did you come to your field of study?

M. Aldrete: My background started with law; I was an attorney before I moved to academia. As an attorney, I realized that in practice, the law is not as fair to women as it sounds. My research started with legal discourse analysis, especially related to gender issues. I found that the legal system tends to exclude common people from knowledge by using complicated language and narrative. This gave rise to the idea that the discussion of laws and policies must be public and not a privilege of power elites. I decided to study how these discussions occur in the most public arena: mass media.

What prompted you to research the area of your article, “Challenging the protest paradigm and winning legitimacy. Analysis of the representation of the social movement against femicide in the mainstream media in Mexico”?

M. Aldrete: I was worried about how gender issues are discussed in the media, and how women are disqualified based on sexist stereotypes. Nonetheless, there is an issue that is attracting media attention around the world: femicide, the murder of women as a result of hatred against the female gender. This topic has involved multiple social and political actors in the public discourse.

My research about femicide in the media and the representation of victims revealed another primary actor: the social movements. Femicide, especially in Latin America, is a powerful force that brings people together and prompts them to action in online and offline mobilizations. This is why I decided to carry on separate research that had as a main objective the representation of the social movement against femicide.

What do you see as the key findings of your article?

M. Aldrete: The main discovery is that traditional mass media behavior, insofar as this social movement, did not fit with the majority of the findings of the studies of other social movements' media representations. I used the protest paradigm as a framework because scholars have demonstrated that news media tend to marginalize protestors in different issues and social contexts. Nonetheless, the representation of the social movement against femicide in Mexico had the opposite; three different news outlets not just avoided marginalizing protestors, but actually, helped to disseminate the movement's claims and views.

What are the wider social implications of your research in the current social climate? How do you think things will change in the future?

M. Aldrete: I believe in evidencing the possibility of breaking the paradigms. Many factors may contribute to people not involving themselves in political and social issues; a main deterrent may be the idea that it is not possible to change policies from below. The protest paradigm treatment of social movements in the media contributes to perpetuating the idea that there is a punishment for people to dare to speak up, public marginalization, and otherization.

Nonetheless, my research reveals another possibility, a social movement capable of building legitimacy and social support from society and political actors such as the media. How this movement managed to achieve that may be helpful to other social movements trying to raise attention to social issues and prompt the necessary changes to improve life quality and social justice.