#MeToo is different for college students: Media framing of campus sexual assault,its causes,and proposed solutions

Abstract

This study analyzes 10 American newspapers to examine how they present stories (N = 500) about sexual assault on college campuses. Attributions for causes are examined, and which entities are framed most responsible for creating solutions to the problem: individuals, universities, fraternities, sports teams, or society. News media attribute causes to individuals such as victims and perpetrators, but solutions to universities. Liberal newspapers framed the victim as most responsible for causes, more than newspapers with conservative ideology, and were overall less likely to attribute responsibility for assaults to universities.

Keywords

content analysis framing campus sexual assault political ideology Title IX

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ansolabehere

Lessem

Snyder

J. M.

(2004). The political orientation of newspaper endorsements in U.S. elections, 1940-2002. Retrieved from http://economics.mit.edu/files/1218

Bahr

(2014, August 1). Campus sexual assault bill relies on public shaming of colleges. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/02/upshot/campus-sexual-assault-bill-relies-on-public-shaming.html

Barnett

(2012). How newspapers frame rape allegations: The Duke University case. Women & Language, 35(2), 11-33.

Benedict

(1993). Virgin or vamp: How the press covers sex crimes. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Bergquist

(2007). The saga of HR 177. American Association of University Professors. Accessed from http://www.aaup.org

Blinder

Perez-Pina

(2015, January 28). Vanderbilt rape trial didn’t stir students on campus. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/us/vanderbilt-rape-trial-didnt-stir-students-on-campus.html?searchResultPosition=1

Bolsen

Druckman

J. N.

Cook

F. L.

(2014). How frames can undermine support for scientific adaptations: Politicization and the status-quo bias. Public Opinion Quarterly, 78, 1-26.

Burt

(1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 217-230.

Carll

E. K.

(2003). News portrayal of violence and women. American Behavioral Scientist, 46, 1601-1610.

10.

Chong

Druckman

J. N.

(2007). Framing theory. Annual Review of Political Science, 10, 103-126.

11.

Conway

Kenski

Wang

(2015). The rise of Twitter in the political campaign: Searching for intermedia agenda-setting effects in the presidential primary. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20, 241-261.

12.

Cuillier

(2012). Subconscious gatekeeping: The effect of death thoughts on bias toward outgroups in news writing. Mass Communication and Society, 15(4), 4-24.

13.

Entman

(1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51-58.

14.

Entman

(2007). Framing bias: Media in the distribution of power. Journal of Communication, 57, 163-173.

15.

Entman

(2010). Media framing biases and political power: Explaining slant in news of Campaign 2008. Journalism, 11, 389-408.

16.

Finch

Munro

A. E.

(2007). The demon drink and the demonized woman: Socio-sexual stereotypes and responsibility attribution in rape trials involving intoxicants. Social & Legal Studies, 16, 591-614.

17.

Fitzgerald

(2013). Climate change reporting in an Australian context: Recognition, adaptation and solutions. Pacific Journalism Review, 19, 203-219.

18.

Foster

Tanner

Kim

S.-H.

Kim

S.-Y.

(2014). National conversations about the costs of U.S. health care: A content analysis of media coverage, 1993-2010. Science Communication, 36, 519-543.

19.

Franiuk

Seefelt

J. L.

Cepress

S. L.

Vandello

J. A.

(2008). Prevalence and effects of rape myths in print journalism: The Kobe Bryant case. Violence Against Women, 14, 297-309.

20.

Gamson

W. A.

Modigliani

(1989). Media discourse and public opinion on nuclear power: A constructionist approach. American Journal of Sociology, 95, 1-37.

21.

Gans

(1979). Deciding what’s news: A study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

22.

Gerhard

Rucht

(1992). Mesomobilization: Organizing and framing in two protest campaigns in West Germany. American Journal of Sociology, 98, 555-595.

23.

Gilson

(2014, December 5). Don’t let the Rolling Stone controversy distract you from the campus rape epidemic. Mother Jones. Retrieved from https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/12/college-campus-rape-sexual-assault-stats-rolling-stone-uva/

24.

Gitlin

(1980). The whole world is watching: Mass media in the making and unmaking of the New Left. Berkeley: University of California Press.

25.

Goffman

(1974). Frame Analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

26.

Golan

(2006). Inter-media agenda setting and global news coverage: Assessing the influence of the New York Times on three network television evening news programs. Journalism Studies, 7, 323-333.

27.

Gray

(2014, June 23). Why victims of rape in college don’t report to the police. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://time.com/2905637/campus-rape-assault-prosecution/

28.

Gross

(2013). Why are professors liberal and why do conservatives care? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

29.

Iyengar

(1991). Is anyone responsible? How television frames political issues. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

30.

Jackson

S. J.

(2013). Framing Megan Williams: Intersecting discourses of race, class, and gender in television news coverage of racialized rape. Feminist Media Studies, 13, 46-63.

31.

Kensicki

L. J.

(2004). No cure for what ails us: The media-constructed disconnect between societal problems and possible solutions. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 81, 53-73.

32.

Kim

S. H.

Carvalho

J. P.

Davis

A. C.

(2010). Talking about poverty: News framing of who is responsible for causing and fixing the problem. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 87, 563-581.

33.

Kim

S. H.

Scheufele

D. A.

Shanahan

(2002). Think about it this way: Attribute agenda-setting function of the press and the public’s evaluation of a local issue. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79, 7-25.

34.

Kim

S. H.

Shanahan

Choi

D. H.

(2012). TV news framing supports societal poverty solutions. Newspaper Research Journal, 22, 101-112.

35.

Kim

S. H.

Willis

L. A.

(2007). Talking about obesity: News framing of who is responsible for causing and fixing the problem. Journal of Health Communication, 12, 359-376.

36.

Klein

D. B.

Stern

(2007). Letter to the editor: A reply to Zipp and Fenwick. Public Opinion Quarterly, 71, 479-481.

37.

Krebs

C. P.

Lindquist

C. H.

Warner

T. D.

Fisher

B. S.

Martin

S. L.

(2007). The Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.

38.

Kurtz

(2005, March 29). College faculties a most liberal lot, study finds. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2005/03/29/college-faculties-a-most-liberal-lot-study-finds/c06d4382-d46a-4bc5-ae03-0de1860bcdbd/?utm_term=.3c39e3b4202b

39.

Lee

T.-T.

(2005). The liberal media myth revisited: An examination of factors influencing perceptions of media bias. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 49, 43-64.

40.

Lessem

(2003). The impact of newspaper endorsements on voting. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

41.

Lowry

(2008). Network TV news framing of good vs. bad economic news under Democrat and Republican presidents: A lexical analysis of political bias. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 85, 483-498.

42.

Lundell

Niederdeppe

Clarke

(2013). Public views about health causation, attributions of responsibility, and inequality. Journal of Health Communication, 18, 1116-1130.

43.

Meckler

(2018, November 14). Betsey DeVos set to bolster rights of accused in rewrite of sexual assault rules. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/betsy-devos-set-to-bolster-rights-of-accused-in-rewrite-of-sexual-assault-rules/2018/11/14/828ebd9c-e7d1-11e8-a939-469f1166f9d_story.html?utm_term=.d7fe56dd81c9

44.

O’Hara

(2012). Monsters, playboys, virgins and whores: Rape myths in the news media’s coverage of sexual violence. Language and Literature, 21, 247-259.

45.

Parmelee

(2013). Political journalists and Twitter: Influences on norms and practices. Journal of Media Practice, 14, 291-305.

46.

Pew Research Center. (2007). Views of press values and performance: 1985-2007. Retrieved from http://www.people-press.org/2007

47.

Phipps

(2009). Rape and respectability: Ideas about sexual violence and social class. Sociology, 43, 667-683.

48.

Protess

McCombs

(1991). Agenda-setting: Readings on media, public opinion, and policymaking. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

49.

Reese

Danielian

(1989). Intermedia influence and the drug issue converging on cocaine. In Shoemaker

(Ed.), Communication campaigns about drugs: Government, media, public (pp. 28-46). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

50.

Salmon

C. T.

(1989). Campaign for social improvement: An overview of values, rationales, and impacts. In Salmon

C.T.

(Ed.), Information campaign: Balancing social values and social change (pp. 19-53). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.

51.

Scheufele

D. A.

(1999). Framing as a theory of media effects. Journal of Communication, 49, 103-122.

52.

Tuchman

(1978). Making news: A study in the construction of reality. New York, NY: Free Press.

53.

United Educators. (2015). EduRisk: Confronting campus sexual assault: An examination of higher education claims. Accessed from www.edurisksolutions.org

54.

U.S. Department of Education. (2014). Not alone: The first report of the White House Task Force to protect students from sexual assault. Accessed from https://www.notalone.gov/

55.

Viswanath

Emmons

K. M.

(2006). Message effects and social determinants of health: Its application to cancer disparities. Journal of Communication, 56, 238-264.

56.

Worthington

N. E.

(2005, May). Feminism, journalism, or both? Local television news framing of a campus rape scandal. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, New York City, NY.

57.

Yoffe

(2014, December 7). The college rape overcorrection. Slate. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/12/college_rape_campus_sexual_assaultis_a_serious_problem_but_the_efforts.html

58.

Yung

C. R.

(2015). Concealing campus sexual assault: An empirical examination. Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 21, 1-9.