Grab Them by the Comments Section: Reader Responses to the Trump Access Hollywood Tape

• In Event: Alternative Facts and Alt-Media

Abstract

On October 7, 2016, online newsreaders were bombarded with stories following the leak of a 2005 tape that featured Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a conversation with Access Hollywood host Billy Bush. The now infamous recording includes many concerning comments, the most disturbing of which involve boasts of a history of non-consensual sexual behaviour. Immediate and ongoing reactions to the tape were polarizing, with Trump’s statements being dismissed by some as “locker-room banter” and by others as a clear admission of sexual assault. With these reactions in mind, this research examines the comments sections of multiple online news articles published the day the tape was leaked to the public via The Washington Post. Stories were selected from multiple online sources, including both right- and left-leaning news publications and traditional news outlets, several of which have since been discredited as “fake news” by President Trump. This qualitative and quantitative analysis examines the comment threads linked to these stories to determine how readers responded to this controversial breaking news. Themes of interest include pro- and anti-Trump sentiments, evidence of rape culture, rape myths, victim blaming, minimization of comments, and the application of neutralization techniques.

Authors

• Aynsley Pescitelli, Simon Fraser University

• Vanja Zdjelar, Simon Fraser University