When Teens, Sexual Violence and Social Media Collide: #newsworthy

• In Event: Media, Culture, and Crime

Abstract

This paper explores the effect of digital technologies on news media coverage of rape and sexual assault by comparing coverage of three high profile cases of sexual assault involving teens and their use of social media to capture the incidents and bully victims. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis of news articles, supplemented with journalist interviews, reveal a complicated picture. The digital trail in these cases increases their newsworthiness and coverage, but for mainstream media sources, the value of these incidents lies in the cautionary tales of the dangers of new technologies, and their resonance with social and adult concerns around hot button topics such as children and (cyber)bullying, rather than the underlying problem of sexual violence. Alternatively, findings suggest the access, visibility and scale of new media hold potential for complicating and challenging traditional explanations and discourses around rape and victim blaming, as well as increasing public debate and understanding of these issues.

Author

• Anna Gjika, The Graduate Center, CUNY