04/02/2021
By Karen Mullins

The School of Criminology and Justice Studies is proud to announce a Master's Thesis Defense by Shaina L. Ionin entitled "The Aftermath of #MeToo: A Qualitative Review of the Impacts of the #MeToo Movement on Newspaper Coverage."

Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Time: 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Location: Via Zoom Meeting ID: 982 6429 7336

Chair: Melissa Morabito

Committee Members:

  • Wilson Palacios
  • Erica Gagne
  • Kelly Socia

Abstract:
Sexual assault remains an under-reported crime across the United States. The “me too.” movement was founded by survivor and activist Tarana Burke to empower victims of sexual assault to come forward about their victimization. Existing research focuses mainly on the impacts of the #MeToo movement on social media platforms. Very little research exists, however, on the impacts of the #MeToo movement on newspaper coverage of sexual assault. The current study examines the impacts of the #MeToo movement on the support for sexual assault victims in overall newspaper article coverage, by gender of newspaper article authors, and newspaper article headlines. Using data from a local newspaper (N=118), the current study analyzed 118 newspaper articles for supportive or dismissive language throughout articles and headlines towards sexual assault victims and offenders. Analyses show that there are changes in the ways that sexual assault has been reported over time which supports the notion that the #MeToo movement was successful in making positive changes for sexual assault victims