1st Edition

Reporting on Sexual Violence in the #MeToo Era

Edited By Andrea Baker, Usha Manchanda Rodrigues Copyright 2022
    224 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    224 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This edited collection examines the role of journalism in reviving and reporting on sexual violence in the #MeToo related, hashtag era.

    Bringing together 15 journalism scholars from around the world, this book explores and offers solutions to the common issues and inadequacies of reporting on sexual violence in the media. Presenting a range of conceptual, methodological, and empirical chapters, the book tackles issues related to, or missing from, journalism in three sections: Part I acknowledges and surveys the role journalism plays in shining a light on social injustices and critiques research deficits in reporting on sexual violence; Part II employs cutting-edge research linked to an intersectional lens to amplify the voices that have been silenced in the media coverage; Part III explores how advocacy, campaign, and solutions journalism offers frameworks for ethical reporting on the shadow epidemic of sexual violence during these COVID-normal times.

    This timely and important work connects established and emerging journalism practices to changing discourses about sexual violence. It is an important reading for students and scholars of journalism, gender studies, media studies, communication studies, culture studies, and sociology.

    Part I: Issues with Reporting on Sexual Violence in the #MeToo Era

    1. Reporting on Sexual Violence in the Pre- and Post-#MeToo 2.0 Era

    Andrea Baker and Usha Manchanda Rodrigues

    2. Objectively Silencing Survivors During #MeToo 2.0: The Case of the US News Media and Donald Trump

    Lindsey Blumell and Jen Huemmer

    3. #MeToo 2.0 as a Critical Incident: Voices, Silencing, and Reckoning in Denmark and Sweden

    Jannie Møller Hartley and Tina Askanius

    4. Marginalizing the Reporting of #MeToo 2.0 With Structural Bias in Japan

    Misook Lee

    5. The Disquieting Demise of a "Watershed" Movement in India

    Chindu Sreedharan and Einar Thorsen

    Part II: Intersectionality, Reporting the Missing Gap in the #MeToo Movement

    6. The Significance of Intersectionality in the United States’ Media Coverage of the #MeToo 2.0 Movement

    Carly Gieseler

    7. Intersectionality and Hashtag Journalism: Giving Women and Girls of Color a Voice in the United States’ Media Coverage of the R. Kelly Scandals

    Andrea Baker

    8. Exploring the Digital Divide as a Component of Intersectionality Through the #DalitLivesMatter Movement

    Ali Saha, Usha Manchanda Rodrigues and Paromita Pain

    Part III: Reporting on Sexual Violence: Advocacy, Campaign and a Solutions Journalism Lens

    9. How the #MeToo 2.0 Campaign Changed the Way Norwegian Journalists Write About Rape

    Thea Storøy Elnan

    10. Australian Media, Intersectionality, and Reporting on Violence Against Women from Diverse Backgrounds

    Usha Manchanda Rodrigues

    11. It’s Personal: An Analysis of Reactions to Disclosure of Sexual Violence Victimization in Israel, by Online Textual Testimonies and by VR Illustration

    Nili Steinfeld and Hila Lowenstein-Barkai

    12. Reporting on Sexual Violence During the #MeToo 2.0 Hashtag Era: Can the Media Be an Agent of Social Change?

    Usha Manchanda Rodrigues and Andrea Baker

    Biography

    Andrea Baker is a senior lecturer in Journalism at the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University in Australia. She is a member of Monash’s Gender and Media Lab, and has published widely in relation to net-radio, urban communication, gender, journalism safety, and reporting on sexual violence in urban music spaces.

    Usha Manchanda Rodrigues is a professor in Communication at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India. As an experienced journalist and academic, her research crosses vocation-theory binary and national boundaries (India and Australia). She has published widely on the digital transformation of journalism practices, social media and political communication, and representation of cultural diversity in the media.

    "The #MeToo movement exposed a multitude of flaws in traditional journalism. Using diverse methodologies and robust scholarship, this book examines how, and to what extent, reporting on sexual violence evolved in the wake of this global phenomenon. The contributors make a compelling case for the need to reimagine the role of journalism as one which not only reflects society, but makes it better.  This is a must-read for every journalist who wants to progress the profession." 

    Tracey Spicer AM, Walkley Award winning journalist, inaugural national convenor of Women in Media (Australia), joint 2019 Sydney Peace Prize recipient (alongside Tarana Burke) for the #MeToo movement 

    "How can journalists be agents of change when it comes to sexual violence? What impact has MeToo had on news and journalism around the world? These are some of the burning questions asked in this critical, provocative, and timely collection on the impact and legacy of #MeToo on global journalism. For those deeply interested in the relationship between sexual violence and journalism, this book is a must read and offers an ethical framework for what journalism and reporting on sexual violence can look like."

    Kaitlynn Mendes, Canadian Research Chair in Inequality and Gender, University of Western Ontario, Canada

    "Demands to improve the quality of news reporting on sexual violence have acquired even greater urgency in the wake of diverse #MeToo movements. This edited collection represents an important intervention, bringing to bear the perceptive insights and analyses of its impressive international contributors, while also inspiring fresh thinking about progressive ways forward. Highly recommended for students, researchers, journalists and activists alike."

    Stuart Allan, School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University, UK

    This collection offers a timely consideration of hashtag journalism, spanning a range of contexts to untangle the relationships between online disclosure, activism and journalistic practices. Incorporating original empirical research with journalists, discussions of newsroom culture and analyses of news texts, it is an important contribution to Journalism Studies.

    Karen Boyle, University of Strathclyde, UK. 

    This volume addresses one of the most important social issues of our times. Reporting gendered violence accurately is a key task of survivors, journalists, social movements, and governments alike. This pioneering volume is as thorough as it is international as it is damning, in terms of the impact of hegemonic masculinity, from violence itself to how it is understood.

    Toby Miller, Stuart Hall Profesor de Estudios Culturales, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México