When Words Shape Action: Editorial Guidelines, Media Narratives and Audience Reactions
Short abstract: Editorial guidelines on reporting gender-based violence lead French local newspapers to cover more femicides, in more legally precise language, and their readers respond by signing more petitions against gender-based violence.
Draft available upon request
Abstract
How the press covers femicide matters. Between 2018 and 2025, 43 French local newspapers
adopted editorial guidelines on reporting gender-based violence, requiring legally precise
language and discouraging euphemisms. Combining exhaustive femicide records with article-level
text analysis, I show that adoption raises the probability that an outlet covers a local
femicide by 87% and the use of recommended legal terminology by 132%. These shifts move
audiences: departments more exposed to guideline-compliant coverage record more signatures on
petitions against gender-based violence and, suggestively, more calls to the national 3919
helpline. A low-cost editorial rule can turn gender-based violence into a more salient public issue.
