María Oliver Torres, a researcher from the POLCOM-GRP research group, defended her thesis titled "Women and gangs. Voices from within, narrative and media representation in El País (2003-2023)" on July 21, 2025, at the Poblenou campus of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). The research, directed by Dr. Cristina Perales García (UPF), was presented in monographic format.

From her personal experience linked to the phenomenon of Latin gangs, for the academic it has been a fundamental case study to analyze their media representation, especially four entities: Latin Kings; Dominican Don't Play; Trinitarios and Asociación Ñeta. The general objective of her research is to comprehensively analyze, from a gender perspective, the journalistic coverage of the gang phenomenon in the general newspaper El País between 2003 and 2023.

Based on feminist and intersectional studies theories from the seventies, theories of media representation of gangs, and studies on journalistic representation of women, Torres has employed a diverse methodology: content analysis, critical discourse analysis, and in-depth interviews with social agents and women linked to gangs. Her main objective has been specified in four areas: to extract the newspaper's ideological matrix in information on "Latin gangs" in Spain through its editorial pieces; to study the legitimation or delegitimation of the discourse from informative sources and the actors of the conflict that make up the journalistic narrative about gangs; to analyze the thematic categories where the journalistic discourse on gangs in the newspaper is classified and to study the specific characteristics of women's participation in gangs to understand the difference in roles and motivations of women and men within these groups.

Among the main results, the final sample of 117 newspaper pieces highlights events (58%) compared to other formats such as reports (22%) or news (16%). In terms of the ideological matrix, the neoliberal securitization that prioritizes police sources stands out "to the point of transmitting unverified communiqués"; it shows vagueness regarding socio-educational public policies; it emphasizes individual responsibility versus the socioeconomic context or omits underlying causes about gang members and their marginal condition, replicating the deficit theory and violating aspects of the FAPE deontological code.

Furthermore, the absence of a gender perspective in the information analyzed by the researcher reflects the concealment of gender-based violence by "mixing crimes of gender-based violence and treating them as gang crimes," in addition to criminalizing the Latin American population. Regarding female gang membership, Torres found various reasons for women to access these entities within their double stigmatization, the role of female leaderships and their relationship with caregiving roles; the shorter time of active participation and the team spirit and impulse for personal growth of other members.

The tribunal was chaired by Dr. Laura Pérez-Altable (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and also included Dr. María Iranzo Cabrera (Universitat de València) as Vocal and Dr. Ana de Miguel Álvarez (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos) as Secretary. They praised the "exhaustiveness of the presentation" of the thesis, the "solid and well-articulated" theoretical framework, as well as the social relevance of the topic. They also highlighted the use of a gender perspective as a matter of justice and the role of diversity in media newsrooms.