Turning the Tables With Twitter: Shifting Suspicion From Rape Victims to Rape Culture With Social Media

• In Event: The Presumption of Innocence in the Current Media Environment

Abstract

News accounts often construct gender violence with details that invite media consumers to blame rape victims and survivors for their own attacks, such as their choices regarding clothing, alcohol or drug use, and travel to isolated areas (Benedict, 1992; Cuklanz, 1996). Such constructions present a paradox within crime news in that they afford a presumption of innocence to the accused, while casting suspicion on the victim, creating or sustaining a “rape culture” that sanctions gender violence. Research has yet to consider how anti-rape activists might capitalize on the instantaneous and potentially wide reach afforded by Twitter to challenge how rape discourse reinforces pervasive assumptions regarding survivor culpability. This paper employs both qualitative and quantitative content analysis to examine the Twitter group “#rapeculture,” exploring how its users deconstruct misogynist media constructions in their attempt to address a key underlying facilitator of rape.

Author

• Nancy E. Worthington, Quinnipiac U