Browsing by Author "Huikku, Eeti"

Rape is a highly personal, traumatic event that news media has power to portray either in a way that perpetuates myths and stereotypes, or in a way that respects the victim and does not characterize entire communities as perpetrators of sexual violence. This is why studying how media narrates sexual violence is extremely important and even necessary. This thesis is a critical discourse analysis of the use of rape myths in the US press. This thesis aims to answer two questions: do news providers use rape myths, and if so, are there differences to this between political leans. For the analysis, 24 American articles were selected, which were collected from three news publishers of different political leans. The study was conducted as a close reading by identifying instances of rape myths in the articles. The classifications of rape myths were based on the categories by Stephanie Bonnes (2011): Myths Pertaining to the Perpetrator, Myths Pertaining to the Victim, De-emphasis of the Perpetrator and “Atypical” Cases. The study shows that there were differences in rape myth perpetuation between publishers, especially in what myths were used the most often. The right-wing Fox News used myths pertaining to the perpetrator the most and strived to underline the otherness of the offender. The Associated Press and CNN used the “atypical” myth the most often and seemed to tell more sensationalizing stories of sexual violence. All of the media publishers perpetuated rape myths, and the biggest differentiating factors were found in how they did so rather than how often.