Sexual Assault and The Media

Payton Lira
 
INTRODUCTION & THESIS STATEMENT
 
Every 92 seconds, an American is assaulted (“The Criminal Justice System: Statistics”); however

63% of sexual assaults are not reported to the police (“Statistics about Sexual Violence”) and for every

1000 rapes, 995 perpetrators will walk free. In fact, many people choose not to report as they do not trust

the criminal justice system to be fair or that assault is a personal issue that should be dealt with by the

victim alone (“The Criminal Justice System: Statistics”). But with the prevalence of social media, many

individuals have shown that while they may not seek criminal justice, they will serve their own form of

justice their own way.

As Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote “This is not a moment, it’s the movement.” The #MeToo

movement, reigniting with Alyssa Milano tweeting “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write

‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet”, sparked victims taking to social media to share their experiences. Not

only was the move cathartic to the victims, it also lead from hashtags to lawsuits as several “big shots”

were dethroned as actions from their past caught up with them and their victims came forward. Some

examples include Lawrence Nassar, the Michigan State Gymnastics doctor who used his job to abuse

young gymnasts and has been recently sentenced to 60 years on child pornography charges, and R. Kelly

who is facing 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse (Johnson, Christen A). Some other notable

characters taken down in this movement are Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein and countless others. 

However, there are negative aspects to this relationship between sexual assault and the media

which this paper will delve deeper into. For example, some victims who had came forward on social

media are now facing legal repercussions in defamation lawsuits from the men and women accused. Not

only are legal repercussions something to consider, but many are arguing that the #MeToo movement is

only relevant to certain individuals and leaves out others. Tarana Burke, the original founder of the “Me

Too” movement spoke in Chicago in October 2018; “‘#MeToo does not have space for black girls,”

Burke said onstage at the School of the Art Institute. “It doesn’t have space for black women, it doesn’t
have space for queer folk, it doesn’t have space for disabled people, people of color, trans people,

anybody else that’s other. … #MeToo is about who is going to be taken down next — what other

powerful, white, rich man is going to lose his privileges for a period of time (Greene, Morgan).’”

With all of that in mind, this study will seek to find out what the relationship between sexual

assault and the media is, exploring both the positive and negative aspects in order to foster a better

understanding of what this relationship will mean for the future. This relationship will be explored both

through previously published works as well as generating my own data through the collection of surveys.

APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY

You should provide a specific, detailed indication of how you will go about assessing the key questions

and/or thesis statement, and why the proposed methodology constitutes the best way to pursue the study

objectives. This section should be highly detailed and answer the following questions: • What methods

will be used? What types of methodological models will you follow? • Do you plan to collect data and if

so how will it be collected and analyzed? If you plan to administer a survey, conduct interviews or a focus

group, identify the intended target population (i.e college students from Georgia) and the number of

respondents/participants you hope to include.

EXPECTED RESULTS AND SIGNIFICANCE (ANTICIPATED OUTCOME)

Though this thesis, I hope to produce enough data to determine what the relationship is between

social media and sexual assault, using the University of South Carolina as a starting point. The digital age

is everywhere: we carry handheld pieces of glass and plastic in our pockets that can hold more memory

than a computer from the 50s, we spend hours scrolling through social media and generating our own

content as well as consuming others. Social media is everywhere in our lives and I believe that this

relationship between the prevalence of talking about sexual assault on social media is one that needs to be

explored.
 For the last three years, I have studied public relations which incorporates both people and media

into one discipline. For me, this thesis is about exploring an idea that I thought of while on a train my

sophomore year when the #MeToo movement was starting to rear its head. It has been something I am

passionate about and something that I believe other students, not just journalism students, but sociology,

psychology, behavioral and all other students should be interested in because this is something we are

living right now and the outcomes are yet to be determined. 

My hope with this thesis is that my results will show if there is a positive or negative relationship

between sexual assault and the media and answer questions such as: are certain groups of people

underrepresented, is this movement making a difference, are there repercussions to those who come

forward, what role does societal norms play in the foundation of rape culture and other questions I hope to

answer in this thesis.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY – 

“The Criminal Justice System: Statistics.” RAINN | The Nation's Largest Anti-Sexual Violence

Organization, www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system.

RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence

organization. RAINN has several programs for survivors such as a hotline to call, programs to help

survivors as well as ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice. This specific link redirects to RAINN’s

statistics on the criminal justice system in reference to sexual assault/rape. The majority of perpetrators

will not face jail or prison time and those who commit crimes of sexual violence are less likely to face jail

than those who commit robberies. At the bottom of the page, RAINN lists reasons why victims may

choose not to report sexual crimes such as ‘fearing retaliation’ or ‘believed the police would not do

anything to help’. These statistics and reasonings help to explain why victims may turn to social media as
a way to get their own form of justice again their attackers as a way to have their voice be heard without

needing to involve the police. 

“Statistics about Sexual Violence.” Nsvrc, 2012,

www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-

violence_0.pdf.

NSVRC is the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. This link goes to a 2015 info and statistics

sheet for journalists with statistics about sexual violence. Some sections on this sheet include sexual

violence in the U.S., child sexual abuse, and crime reports. I used this site mainly for the crime report

section to emphasize how rape is the most under-reported crime but . As I mentioned earlier, 63% of

sexual assaults are not reported to the police. I felt as though this is a very important aspect to consider

when talking about the relationship between sexual assault and the media. I also plan on using the campus

sexual assault section later on in my thesis paper later on to highlight how college students are impacted

by sexual assault. College campuses see some of the highest numbers of assaults and more than 90% of

victims do not report it which I find horrifying. 

Johnson, Christen A. “#MeToo: A Timeline of Events.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 7 Mar. 2019,

www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-me-too-timeline-20171208-htmlstory.html.

The Chicago Tribune has many articles referencing the #MeToo movement. This specific article details

the timeline of the #MeToo movement, going back to 2006 when the phrase was initially coined by

Tarana Burke. From there, it moves on to the October 5, 2017 accusation that Ashley Judd levered against

Harvey Weinstein that appeared in The New York Times. After that, it moves to the October 15, 2017

tweet that actress Alyssa Milano shared that read “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me

too’ as a reply to this tweet”. The movement quickly picked up speed with accusations against Larry
Nassar and Kevin Spacey as well as the revelation that Matt Lauer had been fired from NBC after

evidence of his sexual misconduct was exposed in November 2017. The timeline continues with details of

accusations and results until March 3, 2019  as the last date on the timeline so far.

Greene, Morgan. “#MeToo's Tarana Burke Tells Local Activists Movement 'by Us and for Us' Must        

Include Women of Color.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 11 Oct. 2018,  

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-tarana-burke-me-too-20181010-story.html.

As I mentioned above, the Chicago Tribune has several articles regarding the #MeToo movement. This

article talks about Tarana Burke who coined the phrase “Me Too” back in 2006 as a way for women of

color to come together and share their stories. However, this article explores how the movement has

seemingly lost its roots in helping women of color and appears to be more about white women taking

down white men with Burke herself saying that #MeToo does not have space for women of color or

people who are other. This is a very important point that I want to explore in my thesis which is are

people underrepresented in this movement? If that is the case, then I also would like to consider adding a

section about how the movement could better incorporate everyone regardless of gender, race and sexual

orientation.