Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Humanities, Psychology and Social Sciences
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Media Representations of Gender Roles in Organ Donation: A Content Analysis of Parent-Child Dynamics in Turkish News
Sezen Demirhan, İlknur Gürses Köse
ABSTRACT:
This study examines how digital national newspapers in Turkey have portrayed children who donate organs to their parents over the past decade, using content analysis. The research will focus on themes such as self-sacrifice, altruism, family bonds, and communication within the family, assessing how these concepts are represented in news articles. A particular emphasis will be on how the gender of the child influences the portrayal of organ donation, with an analysis of the language used to describe daughters versus sons in these contexts. Through this lens, the study will explore whether daughters and sons are depicted differently based on societal gender roles, particularly regarding themes of sacrifice and family obligations. It will evaluate the adjectives and descriptors used in media language, examining how these contribute to social constructions of both physical and symbolic aspects of children’s sacrifices in organ donation. The goal is to uncover how media language reinforces or questions traditional gender roles by highlighting different expectations for daughters and sons within family dynamics. By identifying potential differences in media portrayals based on gender, this research aims to show how the language used in the news may shape public perceptions of organ donation in a way that reflects broader societal views on gender. Overall, the study intends to illuminate the ways in which the media contributes to constructing gender roles within the sensitive framework of family relations and organ donation.
keywords: Altruism, Construction of the Family, Content Analysis, Gender Roles, Organ Transplant