Maive Bellios
Comm 180 Blog #3
Dr. Bu Zhong
March 23, 2018
Sexual Assault in Journalism
Introduction
Kristen Houser of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape came to speak at Penn State and gave a lecture on sexual assault. She spoke on how we as future journalist’s should and should not be reporting on the topic. The two main lessons I took from her lecture were that accidental victim blaming is pretty common even still in journalism. The second takeaway I got from Houser’s talk was how journalists choose an unfair range of stories to report on concerning sexual assault.
Word choice is extremely important when it comes to sexual assault. One example is journalists’ can accidentally blame the victim by using the word accuser opposed to the victim. Using the word victim is really important because the connotation of using accuser can make it seem like the sexual assault victim is doing something wrong by reporting. In reality, they are the ones that were harmed and deserve justice, and anyway, the media can make them feel as comfortable as they can about coming forward is ideal. Also, Houser stated journalists should never refer to sexual assault as a sexual relationship because that can also lead to blaming the victim. Overall, the language should be more sensitive when reporting on sexual assault.
Choosing to write stories mainly about children and women is very common in the media today. But representing all sexual assault victims is extremely important because it raises awareness that all humans can be victims of sexual assault. Houser raised a question to the audience during her lecture, “What would journalism look like if it reflected the whole scope of sexual violence we would see more working-class victims, elderly victims, some male victims too.”
Analysis
Victim blaming can be so easy to do by just reading a story in the paper and making a judgment on the victim. “By labeling or accusing the victim, others can see the victim as different from themselves.” (Rape culture, victim blaming, and facts.) This is such an important point to discuss, sexual assault is something people never want to experience, so when an incident happens to someone and people read it in the newspaper, they may think certain things to themselves. Statements such as “that would never happen to me because I wouldn’t do something like walk home by myself.” These types of reactions make people feel more comfortable with the fact that it happened to someone else and not them. When people continuously react in this manner, it makes victims less likely to come forward and report the issue.
In the issue of reporting on such a small scope of sexual assaults, it doesn’t let people see the full real picture because the reality is that all races, genders, ages, and orientations experience sexual assault. We as a society must open our eyes to the fact there really isn’t discrimination when it comes to sexual assault, it happens to all walks of like. “It is estimated that one in three girls and one six boys will be sexually assaulted by the age of eighteen.” (Rape culture, victim blaming, and facts.)
On college campus’ statistics show that students are significantly more likely to be sexually assaulted. It is such a prevalent issue at Penn State and many other universities around the country, due to the nature of social life and alcohol consumption at college campus’ all over, the statistics go way up. Here at Penn State students get emails daily to alert them of sexual assaults that have been reported, the scarier thing is that those are only the incidents people have come forward to report which means there are so many other cases happening even if we don’t know about it. “More than 27% of female college seniors reported having experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact since entering college.” (Journalist Resource)
At many campuses’ around the country, preventative measures are taken, such as courses to teach, bystanders how to intervene and know what to do if ever encountered with a situation of a friend or anyone disclosing to them that they have experienced sexual assault. This is extremely important because making the victim feel comfortable and that you believe they will make them more likely to report. With so many universities around the country, it’s hard to reach every school and tell them just how important it is to take part in measures of this nature. The good news is, over 125 colleges participate in the CDC’s rape prevention and education program (Journalist Resource.)
Conclusion
Keeping this issues at the surface of education for future journalist’s is necessary, sexual assault in any capacity is a huge issue in our country and around the world. People need to be aware of when sexual assault happens, but they need to be informed in the right way. So, I learned how to make the victim look like a true victim, and not blame victims by my word choice. I learned that these cases and stories need to be reported in the most respectful way possible because many victims are already scared enough to come out and report their story.
The media has a huge influence on people’s perception of what “looks good” in society. So if writers of the millennial generation can make stories truly advocating for victims across the world, it could make a huge difference in the world of reporting sexual assault cases.
References
Mastropasqua, Kristina. “Sexual Assault and Rape on U.S. College Campuses: Research Roundup.” Journalist’s Resource. N.p., 09 Feb. 2017. Web. 24 Mar. 2018.
“RAPE CULTURE, VICTIM BLAMING, AND THE FACTS.” Rape Culture, Victim Blaming, and The Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2018.
