Political communication and gender in Colombia: Contributions from feminist journalism

Abstract

This article explores feminist journalism in Colombia as a form of political communication aimed at challenging dominant meanings, making inequalities visible, and promoting social transformations from a gender perspective. Using a qualitative approach that combines a mapping of feminist digital media with semi-structured interviews with journalists and scholars, the study analyzes the communicative repertoires and narrative strategies that enable the configuration of agendas, the questioning of hegemonic frames of representation, and the creation of counter-publics around women’s rights and sexual and gender diversity. The findings reveal that feminist journalism goes beyond its traditional informative role and consolidates itself as a political actor that, through testimonies, digital campaigns, and the use of empirical data, expands the repertoire of collective action, raises public awareness of issues such as gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive rights, and structural inequality, and exerts influence on both media agendas and public policy processes. The analysis also identifies key challenges, including the spread of disinformation, the persistence of hate speech, and delegitimization campaigns that seek to undermine its impact. Despite these obstacles, feminist journalism emerges as a transformative political and communicative practice that is essential for the democratization of the media field and the construction of social and gender justice, offering an analytical framework to understand how these initiatives position themselves as key actors within contemporary political communication in Colombia.