How female victims of violent sexual crimes are discussed in the three major news platforms of the United States of America : a discourse analysis

Abstract

Sexualization and sexual objectification, as well as sexual and other gender-based violence are issues affecting countless women. Rape myths and other harmful attitudes and sentiments affect the way in which perpetrators, victims and assaults themselves are viewed by other people. Victims of violent sexual crimes can face secondary victimization through victim shaming and distorted blame assignment. This thesis analyzes how language used in three different news platforms exemplify sexist or otherwise problematic language taking part in distorted blame assignment and victim shaming. The articles chosen from cases of Pieper Lewis and Tabatha Means both display language that convey a tone minimizing the assault itself, the perpetrator, and the reliability and experiences of the victim. Minimizing these three factors directly affects both blame assignment and victim shaming.

The focus of this thesis is on the discourse of female victims of violent crimes in three major US news platforms: CNN, Fox News, and NBC News. Critical discourse analysis is used in order to categorize and further analyze the data. The phenomena of victim shaming and distorted blame assignment are analyzed through seven specific discourse categories. The categories compiled from the data are the following: 1. use of indirect quotations, 2. modifiers minimizing responsibility, 3. equivocal labeling, 4. biased event description, 5. victim blaming, 6. passive voice, and 7. substituted noun phrases. All these categories affect the tone and victim shaming and distorted blame assignment in their specific ways.

Mostly the examples categorized in the above groups demonstrate language that minimizes the assault, the role of the perpetrator and both the experience and the reliability of the victim. Minimizing language affects blame assignment, because it undermines the perpetrator’s responsibility as well as the victim’s reliability and significance of the assault itself. Out of the seven discourse categories identified, the most common linguistic means affecting blame assignment and victim shaming in the news articles concerning Pieper Lewis and Tabatha Means are the following: 1. use of indirect quotations, 2. noun phrase modifiers, 3. equivocal noun phrases and labeling, and 4. embellished language.

It was found that both distorted blame assignment and victim shaming are present in all five articles analyzed in this thesis. Especially noun modifiers, equivocal labeling, and biased event descriptions as well as substituted noun phrases minimized the assault, the role of the perpetrator and the experiences and reliability of the victim. This minimizing increased the blame assigned to the victim whilst decreasing the blame assigned to the perpetrator. Furthermore, increased victim blaming was found to lead to victim shaming.