Media Representations of a High-Profile Sexual Assault Case

A content analysis of 147 online news articles regarding the Jameis Winston and Erica Kinsman sexual assault case was conducted to compare the portrayal of the victim and accused in university, local, and national news sources. Findings suggest that there is a difference in media portrayals of the victim and accused across national and local news sources in cases where the accused is an athlete. While not consistent across national or local newspapers, the accused was more likely to represented as a “victim” of the accusations and having great character, while the victim was often blamed for the assault or called a liar. These findings suggest that rape myths are still present within our culture, but more prominently, that athletics and the overall theme of “power” have a strong influence on not only the portrayal of these cases, but likely the overall handling of these cases by authorities. In addition to contributing to the current literature, this study addresses multiple news sources’ portrayal of a victim and emphasizes the influence of athletics on the treatment of the victim.

Author

• Amory, Kacy

Language

• en

Date created

• 2018

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Criminology

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Weitzer, Ronald

Committee Member(s)

• Schwartz, Martin

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/7p88cg85n