Continuums of worth: a newspaper deconstruction of missing Canadian women

This thesis analyses how the print media represents the problem of missing women in Canada. Using an open and reflective feminist discourse analysis, I examine 240 newspaper articles from 11 major Canadian newspapers from April, 2006 to April, 2007. Guided by a feminist intersectional framework, my research posits that missing women are placed along continuums of worth according to how they perform ‘appropriate’ femininity. Four key identity factors emerged as central to women’s constructed identity: motherhood, association to criminal/deviant behaviour, class position and racial identity. The findings of this project reinforce the use of moralising discourses throughout news coverage of missing women and serve to affirm, or refute, a woman’s worth as a victim.