Lesson 2.2: Media Effects & Public Attitudes

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In this topic, you will examine how sustained negative media coverage impacts public perceptions of feminist, queer, and trans movements. You'll consider how media frames these groups – as dangerous, illegitimate, or foreign – and how such narratives contribute to hostility, marginalisation, funding difficulties, or policy backlash. This topic also highlights how selective visibility and misrepresentation affect the legitimacy and safety of queer, feminist, and trans movements.

2. How framing produces hostility

2.2. SWITZERLAND: Selective visibility and amplification

In Switzerland, hostile discourses have been confidently growing in professional environments, not only shaping public debate, but altering how equality work is valued within institutions. The media often frames gender-inclusive initiatives through the lens of protecting children and families. Coverage of drag story hours or gender education workshops frequently deploys moral-panic imagery such as representations of shocked parents and words such as ‘indoctrination’ or ‘sexualisation.’

These stories amplify fringe controversies while ignoring everyday advocacy and education work, and drifting attention from more urgent problems, such as the growing influence of far-right extremists. Negative media coverage has also had concrete professional consequences, as Swiss data shows. Participants described a wave of initial interest in equality and diversity trainings among professionals, followed by a backlash framed through ‘anti-woke’ discourse:
 
“There were professionals who came to us, who wanted to be trained, to understand better, to do better. And now, there’s a bit of a turnaround. Because people are saying to themselves, this is woke stuff, it’s going too far, they want to replace us all. But not at all!”  (RESIST Report, Switzerland, p. 11)

Activists and trainers reported that their work is now frequently described as ‘too radical,’ ‘too militant,’ or ‘unprofessional.’ They find themselves constantly having to justify the legitimacy of equality work, even within institutions that previously supported it. Such discursive shifts show how media narratives migrate into workplaces and policy spaces, eroding professional credibility and narrowing opportunities for sustained advocacy.

For many participants, being mentioned or pictured in hostile media stories led to waves of online abuse, threats, and professional retaliation.

Drag Queen Story Time
In Switzerland, Drag Story Time events have become a visible target of organised ‘anti-gender’ mobilisation. The RESIST Switzerland Report describes how in October 2020 far-right extremist groups have disrupted these and other queer events. They framed drag story time events as a threat to children. 

These disruptions included coordinated protests, online mobilisation by masculinist/incel groups, and threats that required police presence to ensure safety. As participants reported, hostility surrounding Drag Story Time symbolises a broader moral panic about gender diversity and queer visibility, reinforcing fear within LGBTIQ+ communities and requiring higher security measures for events.

A clear shift in atmosphere was noted, due to such targeting of queer events by the right wing extremist groups: 
“At events where I had no fear at all in Switzerland […] I now go with an uncomfortable feeling, e.g. at Drag Story Time. A few years ago, I never had the feeling that something would happen when I went to a queer event.” 

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