Case Study: Rolling Stone’s ‘A Rape on Campus’ – Junior Gonzalez

Situation Definition:

On November 19, 2014, Rolling Stone magazine published an article titled, “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” online and it appeared in next print issue of the biweekly publication. The article focused on a woman under the pseudonym “Jackie,” who described a brutal gang rape she allegedly experienced by a lifeguard and his friends, many of whom belonged to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at the University of Virginia (Ederly, 2014). The article led to considerable outrage at not just UVA and Phi Kappa Psi, but at Universities and Greek life in general. In fact, all Greek life at UVA was suspended until the following semester (Debonis & Shapiro, 2014). Soon after the article’s publication, doubts were raised regarding some facts due to its sensational clarity and depth. Rolling Stone and the article’s author, Sabrina Rubin Ederly, came under fire to address specific questions about its methods in investigating for this story, and soon thereafter, the story fell apart. Multiple accounts, many of the students friends of Jackie’s came forward to note inaccuracies and outright falsehoods regarding her story (Shapiro, 2014), and after 5 months of investigating, Rolling Stone officially retracted its article on Sunday, April 5, 2015, after the results of report by the Columbia Journalism Review were released. The over twelve thousand-word report noted that the whole debacle was “avoidable” and called Rolling Stone’s reporting, “journalistic failure” (Coronel, Coll, & Kravitz, 2015).

Analysis:

There were clearly problems from the start in terms of news-gathering and fact-checking. Rolling Stone admitted that they didn’t speak to any of the men accused of this rape (Farhi, 2014). This is problematic because although Jackie claimed she was terrified of her abusers and wanted nothing to do with them, she forced her avoidance of these men on to the reporters who were trying to get to the truth. Another major issue was Jackie’s refusal to give the name of the lifeguard who allegedly led her to a dark room that ended in her rape. Ederly got the full name of the alleged rapist only after the story was published, and when she did, Jackie wasn’t even able to spell the man’s last name. This is a far cry from the original accounts that editors at Rolling Stone gave. Sean Woods, who edited the article, found her “completely credible,” as did the magazine as a whole when they said in a statement that they “found Jackie to be entirely credible and courageous and we are proud to have given her disturbing story the attention it deserves” (Grove, 2014). According to a study by Angela Powers and Frederick Fico, credibility is the the most important component in deciding whether to use a source (1994). Instead of investigating and questioning all sides of the story, Ederly seemed to hold Jackie’s respect too-close to heart and unfortunately led to a benefit of the doubt. Also, Ederly did a great job protecting the identity of Jackie, who has yet to be publicly identified.

Conclusion:

Rolling Stone, by overlooking critical flaws and its blind defense of those indefensible flaws, created a great disservice to campus sexual assault victims. It is ironic that Rolling Stone, in an effort to bring credibility to victims and bring about reforms, led to a wave of stigmatization and doubt regarding rape victims that has in-turn worsened their condition. Ms. Ederly became a victim to her own source not because of her source’s inaccuracies, but because she as a journalist ignored her responsibility to make sure that the information was true. Although this is another setback for journalism, a valuable lesson can be learned.

References:

Coronel, S., Coll, S., & Kravitz, D. (2015, April 5). Rolling Stone’s investigation: ‘A failure that was avoidable’ Retrieved April 8, 2015, from http://www.cjr.org/investigation/rolling_stone_investigation.php

DeBonis, M., & Shapiro, T. (2014, November 22). U-Va. president suspends fraternities until Jan. 9 in wake of rape allegations. Retrieved April 5, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-va-president-suspends-fraternities-until-jan-9-in-wake-of-rape-allegations/2014/11/22/023d3688-7272-11e4-8808-afaa1e3a33ef_story.html

Ederly, S. (2014, November 19). A Rape on Campus A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA. Retrieved April 7, 2015.

Farhi, P. (2014, December 1). Author of Rolling Stone article on alleged U-Va. rape didn’t contact accused assailants for her report. Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/author-of-rolling-stone-story-on-alleged-u-va-rape-didnt-talk-to-accused-perpetrators/2014/12/01/e4c19408-7999-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html

Grove, L. (2014, December 5). Rolling Stone Said Yesterday U-VA Rape Story Was ‘Entirely Credible’. Retrieved April 4, 2015, from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/05/rolling-stone-said-yesterday-uva-rape-story-was-entirely-credible.html

Powers, A., & Fico, F. (1994). Influences on use of sources at large U.S. newspapers. Newspaper Research Journal, 15(4), 87-97.

Reich, Z. (2011). Source Credibility and Journalism. Journalism Practice, 5(1), 51-67. doi:10.1080/17512781003760519

Shapiro, T. (2014, December 5). Key elements of Rolling Stone’s U-Va. gang rape allegations in doubt. Retrieved April 7, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-va-fraternity-to-rebut-claims-of-gang-rape-in-rolling-stone/2014/12/05/5fa5f7d2-7c91-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html

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