- Email: [email protected]
Exploring rape culture in social media forums
Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh
Full length article
Exploring rape culture in social media forums Kristen L. Zaleski*, Kristin K. Gundersen, Jessica Baes, Ely Estupinian, Alyssa Vergara University of Southern California, School of Social Work, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Received 4 March 2016 Received in revised form 14 June 2016 Accepted 16 June 2016
Current research has yet to examine the phenomenon of rape culture, particularly within social media forums. The present study investigated the attitudes about rape, rapists, and gender-based violence within the comments section of newspaper articles reporting about rape and sexual assault. Naturalistic observation was used in order to gather statements within the comment sections following newspaper articles posted on either the periodical website or the periodical’s Facebook page. Four themes and various sub-themes emerged from the data. The major themes include, Victim Blaming and Questioning, Survivor Support, Perpetrator Support, and Trolling Statements about Law and Society. Notable findings were found in the amount of victim blaming statements made in the comments responding to articles (25.8 percent) and perpetrator support comments were found responding to every article collected, except for one. The authors discuss the implications of rape culture within and outside social media and suggest future research to be conducted to further understand the impacts of rape culture within the online sphere. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Gender Social media Discrimination Rape Culture Sexual assault
1. Introduction Digital media consumption in contemporary society has become a standard of how many people acquire their news and viewpoints on cultural issues. For instance, the American Press Institute survey found that 69 percent of respondents accessed news information from their laptops and computers within the last week (American Press Institute, 2014). Recently, the Media Insight Project surveyed 1046 Millenials and found that 85 percent polled say, “keeping up with the news is somewhat important” and 69 percent of these individuals read news daily (Media Insight Project, 2015). Most interesting, 86 percent of Millennials report seeing “diverse” opinions in social media on news topics and 40 percent of them pay for a news-specific service, application, or digital subscription (Media Insight Project, 2015). The digital communication through websites and news reports being posted by individuals on those websites contributes to an intersection of cultural discourse about news related events. Thus, leading some sociologists to name the € vheim, phenomenon as the “digitalization of everyday life” (Lo Jansson, Paasonen, Sumiala, & Teologiska, 2013). This digitalization of everyday life both obscures and reminds us of that fact that
* Corresponding author. School of Social Work, University of Southern California, 2300 Michelson Drive, Irvine, CA 92612, USA. E-mail address: [email protected] (K.L. Zaleski). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.06.036 0747-5632/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
identity, agency, and power cannot be attributed to the individual or the machine alone: rather they are the outcome of interactions and negotiations within a network of actors (p.26). Social science researchers and feminist research have both started to focus on how women, people of color, and sexual identities take shape through words on a webpage. For instance, a recent study by Moss-Racusin, Molenda, and Cramer (2015) analyzed over 831 online comments responding to journalistic articles discussing scientific evidence of gender bias in STEM fields, most notably amongst STEM faculty members. Using thematic analyses, researchers found that although most comments acknowledged that a gender bias exists and some even called for social change, there was still a sizable amount of denial and justifications of gender bias. Stavrositu and Kim (2015) examined how blogs and the resulting comments sections influence opinions and intentions of the writers making the comments. It was found that user-generated comments could interfere with the message given by the blog itself. Interestingly, when commenters shared optimistic narratives, it could influence the person reading the comment to agree with them. Conversely, if the person commented pessimistically about a risk (in this study, the risk was skin cancer), the responder would not see themselves exposed to the same risk, but rather different from the other commenter. Similarly, pessimistic discourse in a comment thread has also shown to shape public commentary on social media. Anderson,
K.L. Zaleski et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
Brossard, Scheufele, Xenos, and Ladwig (2014) found that both positive and negative discourse can be helpful in shaping and molding public opinion, however the amount of negative discourse can also have a negative impact on healthy dialogue. They state: Much in the same way that watching uncivil politicians argue on television causes polarization among individuals, impolite and incensed blog comments can polarize online users based on value predispositions utilized as heuristics when processing the blog’s information (Anderson et al., 2014, p. 383). This article will study the digital discourse of rape culture within comments threads that follow a sexual assault news story. The cultural phenomenon of ‘rape culture’ has been defined by Herman (1984) to be created in society because “it fosters and encourages rape by teaching males and females that it is natural and normal for sexual relations to involve aggressive behavior on the part of males” (p. 52). Recently, Time contributor Zerlina Maxwell described rape culture as “a culture in which sexual violence is the norm and victims are blamed for their own assaults” (Maxwell, 2014). Furthermore, Suran (2014) declared that rape culture was no longer a subculture of feminism, but a systematic and collective problem. Suran asserts that rape culture shows that the “cultural or societal explanation of rape [has] moved causation from a micro to a macro level” and is due to “the prevailing heterosexual power hierarchy to which we have all been inured” (2014, p. 277e8). Grubb and Turner (2012) reviewed rape myths, gender roles, and substance-use on victim blaming. In this analysis, men demonstrated a higher rape myth acceptance than women, a finding also supported by Suarez and Gadalla (2010). Furthermore, men also blame women more often than women blame women for an alleged rape. Of particular relevance to the present study, Grubb and Turner (2012) discovered that the literature states that women who consume alcohol prior to being raped had higher rates of victim blaming by both sexes, as compared to women who were assaulted while sober. Most recently, Boux and Daum (2015) examined how technology and social media is used in the investigation of rape and sexual assaults when perpetrators and their peers document the incident. The researchers asserted that technology creates new avenues for victim blaming in regard to rape cases and society, overall. Consequently, it was found that social media challenges, as well as reinforces, rape culture within society by adding rape myth commentary to the discussion. The present researchers seek to expand on this innovative research by exploring rape culture within social media. Moreover, the present researchers are interested in exploring how social media comment threads following newspaper articles shape discourse on attitudes and viewpoints about rape and sexual assault. Specifically, if rape cultural beliefs are observed to be a part of comment threads. As the incidence of sexual assault rises among men and women in the United States, and the media reports on it, the researchers seek to explore how viewpoints on the crime of sexual assault are discussed in social media comment threads. That is, is there a discourse of rape culture within the thread of comments under newspaper articles reporting about rape? 2. Methods 2.1. Publications The researchers reviewed newspaper periodicals in order to assess for evidence of rape culture. According to documentation by the Alliance for Audited Media (2013), the researchers gathered the top four newspapers in the United States, as determined by average
923
circulation of the top twenty-five U.S. newspapers. This list included digital editions, comprising of those accessible on computers, smartphones, tablets, restricted websites, as well as branded applications. The periodicals chosen for the present study included, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and Los Angeles Times. As of 2013, the total average circulation for the periodicals were 2,378,827 for Wall Street Journal, 1,865,318 for New York Times, 1,674,306 for USA Today, and 653,868 for Los Angeles Times. These four periodicals were chosen based on their rank of being the most popular in the United States. 2.2. Comments section The present study used naturalistic observation of the comments section that followed a newspaper article posted on either the periodical website or the periodical’s official Facebook page. The researchers collected the string of comments from each comment thread under an article, de-identified each comment, and uploaded the data into QSR NVivo 10 (2015) Qualitative Analysis Software. The comments were de-identified in order to keep the anonymity of the commenters, as this study did not gather consent from commenters. Due to the anonymous nature of this study, it is probable that one person (commenter) may have posted multiple comments within one comment thread. Thus, the study did not focus on the specific commenters themselves, but rather coded each comment as separatedeven if the same commenter generated these comments. Therefore, the units of analysis for this study were comments within the comment thread, not the person making the comment. The researchers determined that by coding comments separately from the commenter, the study would be able to capture the complexities of rape culture. 2.3. Procedure Data collection was completed between December 2014 and March 2015. To control for subjective selection bias of articles by the researchersdas well as to control for any news-cycle patternsdthe researchers established parameters on data collection. Comment threads were collected only from articles that included the words “Rape” or “Sexual Assault” in the newspaper title. Additionally, the researchers alternated the location of where the data was collected, two months from Facebook posts and two months directly from the periodical website. This was an attempt to collect comments from differing audiences. One audience, the population that reads newspaper articles directly from a website and must pay a monthly subscription fee to comment in threads. The second audience, the population that reads and comments on an article as it appears in their Facebook feed and does not pay a fee to provide feedback. This was in order for the analysis to include two possibly different populations. One population that reads a newspaper regularly and has disposable income and time to subscribe to a newspaper website and another population that is more casual in how they consume the news. It is noted that is likely that there may be overlap between these two populations. The data collection process controlled for researcher selection bias and news media cycle bias by only selecting articles posted in the first seven days of each monthdrather than self-selecting articlesdto observe rape culture as it occurs in a week’s time. The researchers collected the comment threads on average of three days after the article was posted online to allow the dialogue to commence within the comment threads. Therefore, it is possible that more comments were posted after the data was already collected. In total, the researchers collected 4239 comments between
924
K.L. Zaleski et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
December 2014 and March 2015 from 52 newspaper articles (19 articles in December 2014, 5 articles in January 2015, 5 articles February 2015, and 23 articles in March 2015). 2.4. Media climate during data collection For context of the commentary occurring within the present data collection, it is important to note the headlines that were reported during this particular news cycle. Many of the articles collected had discourse on Bill Cosby’s accusations of sexual assault, Rolling Stone’s article on a campus sexual assault, and a documentary about an Indian gang rape. By the end of the data collectiondMarch 2015dBill Cosby had been accused of sexual misconduct by 35 women, 17 of whom came forward during the data collection. Further, Rolling Stone had reported an article titled, “A Rape On Campus” that reported the gang rape of student, Jackie while at a fraternity party at the University of Virginia. The story was later discredited and retracted by the publisher. Lastly, the documentary titled, “India’s Daughter” was released towards the end of data collection that spurred a great deal of conversation on the 2012 gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student in India. However, these reports were only half of the collected sample. The rest varied in reporting from high profile athletes to small town, non-celebrity sexual assault crimes. 2.5. Data analysis Once de-identified, each article’s comment thread was placed in a Word document and uploaded separately into NVivo. Data analysis was conducted using QSR NVivo 10 (2015) Qualitative Analysis Software and qualitative content analysis was the mode in which data was seen. As discussed by Babbie (1999), the research team sought to achieve “enhanced accountability” (p. 423). In order to control for inter-rater reliability all researchers independently coded December 2014 articles and then met regularly to ensure agreement between observed themes. For the remaining three months, the principal investigator coded each article along with at least one researcher. If a discrepancy was found in the coding between two researchers, the team of five researchers discussed and agreed on the correct analyses. Initially the coding began identifying labels of victim blaming and survivor support, yet soon expanded into 28 identified labels, most which were labeled from a direct quote of the comments being analyzed. Once all the data was saturated, the team created four major themes that represented at least 50 percent (n ¼ 26) of the total articles. Accordingly, there may be other themes within the data that were not as frequent and thus not identified by the researchers. 3. Results The major themes that emerged from the qualitative content analysis include, Victim Blaming and Questioning, Survivor Support, Perpetrator Support, and Statements about Law and Society. For more information on thematic findings refer to Table 1, which summarizes all major themes and sub-themes coded in data analysis. These themes, along with various sub-themes will be discussed in detail below, along with quotations from the data to exemplify the themes. All quotations are direct quotes, which the researchers did not edit nor correct grammar, language, or use of capital letters. 3.1. Theme 1: Victim Blaming and Questioning Within the Victim Blaming and Questioning theme, the
discussions centered around how believable the survivor’s reports were and the circumstances surrounding the alleged assault that would make the survivor an unbelievable story teller. Often, these comments took the form of sarcasm and implicit blame within the statement. Overall, the researchers coded 1097 comments, or 25.8 percent of the total comments, thus making this the largest coded theme. In fact, this theme was present in every article examined except for one. The one article it was not included in was the only article collected that had no comments. Examples of discourse within this major theme included: “Can someone please explain to me how a boy is raped??? If he’s not willing, there’s nothing going on downstairs”. “15 and 16 year old girls have been having sex WITH CELEBRITIES and then claiming rape to get money for decades. This is blackmail pure and simple”. “How do you “take advantage” of young girls partying at a sex palace?” The researchers divided the Victim Blaming and Questioning theme into six thematic areas, where blaming and questioning were most prominent. These six sub-themes and examples of the discourse include: Sub-theme 1: Giving instructions to rape survivors. “I respectfully suggest to women who have been raped, a horrible and dehumanizing crime. Go to the police immediately or as soon as possible. Forget about the University administration. They aren’t trained and they seek to protect their own interests not yours”. Sub-theme 2: The survivor’s story is too unbelievable to be real. “Since I write fiction, it was easy to spot the [Rolling Stone] story of Jackie as a pathetically weak attempt by modern J- School grad to “punch up” some classic“’rape” archetypes. I loudly call out fake, fraud and BS”. Subtheme 3: A hidden agenda was prominent as the reason to ‘make up’ a rape story. “Anyone who doesn’t recognize the political agenda behind these attacks on Cosby hasn’t been paying attention”. Subtheme 4: The passage of time made the story unbelievable. “40 years later, she’s a middle-age washed-up never-was actress and she needs money. What can she do for quick cash?” Sub-theme 5: False accusations (aka ‘the rape card’ as a defense). “Like the race card, the rape card is easily played, because there’s no good defense against it even when it’s played badly. I’m betting that even the truth won’t stop the protesters in the Times photo, because it COULD HAVE BEEN TRUE – right?” Sub-theme 6: Alcohol and drugs (victim consented when drinking). “There needs to be a law to protect men and teenage boys from charges made against them for rape or sexual misconduct by women and girls who are stupid enough to get drunk and allow this to happen then turn around and blame the male. If you are dumb enough to get drunk and put yourself in this position then too bad for you it’s your own stupidity.”
3.2. Theme 2: Survivor Support Within the Survivor Support theme, comments were coded that reflected a genuine support for the survivor’s reports and actions. Comments often included personal stories or statistics to defend the survivor from other comments that led to blame. Of the total comments collected, these comments totaled 694, or 16.3 percent of total comments. Interesting, in the sub-theme ‘Confession’ the research team found it notable that 14 comments out of 694 comments discussed personal stories about rape and sexual assault. Overall, the comments were evenly spread between providing
K.L. Zaleski et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
925
Table 1 Qualitative content analysis of rape culture in social media forums. Themes
Sub-themes
Victim Blaming and Questioning
Giving instructions to rape survivors The survivor’s story is too unbelievable to be real A hidden agenda was prominent as the reason to ‘make up’ a rape story The passage of time made the story unbelievable False accusations (aka ‘using the rape card’ as a defense) Alcohol and drugs (victim consented when drinking) Confession made to support the survivor in the story Information giving in support of the survivor Humor and ridicule Double standards Media reporting bias Discrediting rape culture Racial and cultural statements about rape Gender differences
Survivor Support Perpetrator Support Trolling Statements about Law and Society
education, personal disclosures, anecdotal stories, and a stance that rape is not rare. Examples of discourse within this major theme included: “As a former UVA fraternity brother, I do not doubt one detail of the events described in The Rolling Stone article, with all the excesses, abuses and absurdities. Unless you’ve witnessed one, it’s hard to fathom the drunken, chaotic, and lawless abandon of a Virginia frat party, or the “elite” entitlement”. “As to the people here saying go to the court system- please … Who wants to be victimized twice”. The researchers divided the Survivor Support theme into two thematic areas. These two sub-themes and examples of the discourse include: Sub-theme 1: Confession made to support the survivor in the story. “This is the first time I am speaking about my rape when I was 14 by a counselor at camp who was also a coach and I hear he is still in the school system. I wish there was no statute of limitations (like in other countries) and I wish also the courts changed to be a friendlier place for victims. I am gaining the courage to say something the impact on my life (to me, maybe not to others) has been enormous”. Sub-theme 2: Information giving in support of the survivor. “Sexual assault does not happen by accident. The predator targets an individual, has a well-thought out strategy, and commits rape. This happens on campus, in corporate settings, and in the military. The rapist usually is older and has more social standing or power than the victim. The rapist also leaves her with a threat that “no one will believe you” and, sadly, most victims believe it”.
3.3. Theme 3: Perpetrator Support The Perpetrator Support theme was rife with sarcasm, personal stories to endorse accused-perpetrators, and double standards revolving around gender. At times, comments exhibited banter back and forth with demeaning sexualized comments about the rape survivors and the suffering of falsely accused men. Though the comments totaled only 253, or 6 percent of total comments, these comments were found in every article collected except for one. Examples of discourse within this major theme included: “A 30 year old woman “raped” me at age 14 and continued to “rape” me until age 21. I would have faced a firing squad before accusing her of anything”. “LOL. That’s the only reason I got laid so much in college”.
The researchers divided the Perpetrator Support theme into two thematic areas. These two sub-themes and examples of the discourse include: Sub-theme 1: Humor and ridicule. “Somewhere and at sometime, a sexual assault occurred at a fraternity. Therefore any accusation about a sexual assault at a fraternity is true, because it is a fraternity. If you disagree, than you support sexual assault”. Sub-theme 2: Double standards. “Ask any guy, it is impossible for any man, especially a teenager, to be ‘raped’ by an NFL cheerleader!” 3.4. Theme 4: Trolling Statements about Law and Society The Trolling Statements about Law and Society theme was not a direct attack on the survivor or perpetrator referenced within the article, but rather a voice inciting hate or ridicule of an entire group of individuals that often was specific to race or culture. As described by Williams (2012) people who troll online are not insulting a specific person, but would prefer to create a wider disagreement that extends to a broader subject matter and will incite a larger dialogue. The comments in this theme revealed blatant racism, sexism, and made negative, degrading, controversial statements that involved the greater legal society, political climates, and cultural norms. These comments totaled 982 comments, or 23.1 percent of total comments, which is the second largest coded theme. Examples of discourse within this major theme included: “What we can expect from that poor country where cows life’s better than people’s?” “This is an issue with the undocumented”. The researchers divided the Trolling Statements about Law and Society theme into four thematic areas. These four sub-themes and examples of the discourse include: Sub-theme 1: Media reporting bias. “My point is, if the alleged rapists had been black, Fox News would not need a Police report or forensic evidence to begin 24 h worth of programing to the effect that the rape was all the fault of Obama’s America. But because the players don’t fit the narrativedsilence”. Sub-theme 2: Discrediting rape culture. “Twisted statistics to inflate the so-called rape hysteria program initiated by feminists is tantamount to misandry. Where the roles reversed I'm quite sure the feminists would blame this on the patriarchal society. Same animal, different name”. Sub-theme 3: Racial and cultural statements about rape. “Politicians call it “blowing the dog whistle”. Ferguson was winding down, time to start up another distraction”. Sub-theme 4: Gender differences. “‘Protecting’ boys from having
926
K.L. Zaleski et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
sex with older women they find attractive is a waste of taxpayer dollars that could be better spent protecting the group that needs more protecting - girls. The attempt to make the law gender-blind here is misguided”.
4. Discussion The present study sought to examine how prominent rape culture is within online social media forums following news articles reporting about rape and sexual assault. The results show that rape culture is prominent within online social media comment threads and victim blaming is the prevailing attitude in which it is expressed. Even though there are many factors, it appears victim blaming and questioning may be the driving force of rape culture in social media, as it creates hostility and discourse within the comment threads leading to more commentary. As discussed by Franiuk, Seefelt, Cepress, and Vandello (2008) victim blaming permeates social media, as well as popular culture. Thus, these attitudes seep into the collective thought of society as these attitudes impact how society views rape and sexual assault. Instead of seeing the issue of sexual assault as an epidemic, this victim blaming and questioning attitude clouds one’s judgment to believe rape is merely an individual issue and the survivor’s fault. Beyond the research question, the qualitative analysis exposed two notable findings, including the topic of survivor disclosure and differences in comments made based on whether the accused rapist was a celebrity or within pop-culture. The first notable finding of survivor disclosure suggests that some survivors “fight” the victim blaming attitudes in social media threads by bringing a personal narrative into the discussion. Suran (2014) asserts that survivors who tell their story are breaking down rape culture. That is, when survivors feel marginalized by the process of reporting, they turn to social media to regain their voice. By posting to social media, the general public is able to view these stories and have an active voice in rape culture by “liking,” “commenting,” and “retweeting” the articles about the survivors’ stories (p. 302). In turn, creating a collective call to action. Thus, social media seems to have changed the way in which society talks about sexual assault and rape. This is an area of future research that could be valuable in exploring. The second notable finding included how celebrity status played into the comments about guilt versus innocence. This was especially true in the articles that centered on celebrities, such as Bill Cosby and Dustin Penner, as well as the University of Virginia rape scandal in Rolling Stone. Within those comment threads, there was more victim blaming and less perpetrator support as when compared to the comment threads centered on non-celebrity people. See Figs. 1 and 2 for displays on findings regarding popular culture. These findings support prior research conducted by Knight, Giuliano, and Sanchez-Ross (2001) that found perceptions about rape were influenced by the race and celebrity status of a defendant. This research supports their hypothesis that being a celebrity gives one the benefit of the doubt in the public’s eye and that race or culture plays a role in the perceptions about rape. See Figs. 3 and 4 for displays of these particular findings. Given that the present study was the first of its kind, it is suggested that further research be conducted. With further research, studies may be designed to analyze a wider segment of comment threads online, as well as media reporting trends. It would be interesting to monitor active accounts’ commentary and track if these comments influence and shape public opinion, over time. This continued research would provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of rape culture within social media comment threads and the Internet, as a whole.
Fig. 1. Showcasing themes within comments under an article with the topic of popular culture.
Fig. 2. Showcasing themes within comments under an article that does not include the topic of popular culture.
5. Limitations Despite the authors’ efforts to select articles in a systematic method, there are limitations to this study that prevent further conclusions from being drawn. First, during the data collection period, the media climate was rampant with articles about rape and sexual assault, particularly on high profile cases. Bill Cosby is a revered celebrity who is loved by many, which may have influenced the audiences’ views toward Mr. Cosby and the accusations against him may have prompted his fans to automatically jump to his
Fig. 3. Showcasing themes and sub-themes within comments under an article where the accused rapist was American.
K.L. Zaleski et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
927
comments online. In a 2012 article, McAndrew and Jeong found that men in relationships spent less time on Facebook than those who were single. Similarly, Skues, Williams, and Wise (2012) found that individuals with more Facebook ‘friends’ and expressing a personality trait of “openness” were the highest Facebook users. The study defined “openness” as “having a wider range of interests and are more prepared to pursue those interests” (p. 2417). Interestingly, this study also found that Facebook users who were found to have a significant effect for ‘loneliness’ had the most Facebook ‘friends’. The postulation made by the authors was that lonely people engage more often on Facebook as an effort to acquire more friends. Thus, it can be ascertained that those same individuals spent time commenting on various threads on Facebook, including newspaper articles. Fig. 4. Showcasing themes and sub-themes within comments under an article where the accused rapist was not American.
References
defense, thereby increasing perpetrator support. Moreover, the Rolling Stone article was retracted not long after its publication, which caused an outcry of “sensationalizing rape” by painting the accused rapist in a sympathetic light and possibly increasing victim blaming in online forums. Second, it is noted that utilizing the two groups of study, the periodical website and the periodical’s official Facebook page may be limiting. That is, these two forums generally require an individual to use their true identity such as name and gender. Thus, the comments analyzed may not reflect how the commenter truly felt in fear of having their identity and comment be connected. Even though individuals may use pseudonyms for their paid subscription accounts, the account is also linked to a credit card, which may cause some hesitation on the part of the commenter. Also, those commenting on Facebook may not post genuine beliefs about rape and sexual assault in fear of family and friends seeing the comment threads on their news feed. Despite this, the researchers observed open and comprehensive commentary in the content analyzed. Third, given the data was de-identified for privacy, the researchers only coded comments without a connection to the commenter. Thus, it is possible that a particular individual in a minority set of beliefs may dominate a thread of a particular theme. Also, due to de-identification, it is not possible to determine if gender had any influence on a commenter’s perception. Even if the researchers maintained the identification of the commenters, it is common for individuals to use screen names, aliases, and genderneutral names on social media forums, prohibiting the researchers from gathering data on the commenters’ gender. A study by McAndrew and Jeong (2012) found that females engaged Facebook more often than males and sought out “gossip seeking behavior” more often than males (p. 2364). Examining the gender differences among the commenters could bring valuable information into who is writing perpetrator-supporting comments versus who is writing survivor-supporting comments. Additional information beyond gender, such as trauma history, education, nationality, and cultural identity may also illuminate which commenters have more victim blaming attitudes than others, as well as racial and gender-based discriminatory comments. Another consideration is the relationship and personality traits of those that spend time commenting on newspaper articles online. That is, it would be interesting to note the correlation between relationship status and personality traits with how a person
Alliance for Audited Media. (2013, April 1). Top 25 U.S. Newspapers for March 2013. Retrieved from http://auditedmedia.com/news/research-and-data/top-25-usnewspapers-for-march-2013.aspx. American Press Institute. (2014, March 17). How Americans get their news. Retrieved from http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/surveyresearch/how-americans-get-news/. Anderson, A. A., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D. A., Xenos, M. A., & Ladwig, P. (2014). The “nasty effect:” online incivility and risk perceptions of emerging technologies. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(3), 373e387. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1111/jcc4.12009. Boux, H. J., & Daum, C. W. (2015). At the Intersection of Social Media and Rape Culture: How Facebook postings, texting and other personal communications challenge the “real” rape myth in the criminal justice system. Journal of Law, Technology, and Policy, 1, 149e186. Franiuk, R., 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(3), 287e309. Grubb, A., & Turner, E. (2012). Attribution of blame in rape cases: A review of the impact of rape myth acceptance, gender role conformity and substance use on victim blaming. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17(5), 443e452. Herman, D. (1984). The rape culture. In J. Freeman (Ed.), Women: A feminist perspective. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. Knight, J. L., Giuliano, T. A., & Sanchez-Ross, M. G. (2001). Famous or infamous? the influence of celebrity status and race on perceptions of responsibility for rape. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 23(3), 183e190. €vheim, M., Jansson, A., Paasonen, S., Sumiala, J., Teologiska fakulteten, HumanLo €llsvetenskapliga vetenskapsområdet. Religionsbeteendevetenskap. istisk-samha (2013). Social media: Implications for everyday life, politics and human agency. Approaching Religion, 3(2), 26. Maxwell, Z. (2014, March 27). Rape culture is real. Retrieved from http://time.com/ 40110/rape-culture-is-real/. McAndrew, F. T., & Jeong, H. S. (2012). Who does what on Facebook? Age, sex, and relationship status as predictors of Facebook use. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 2359e2365. Media Insight Project. (2015, March 16). How Millenials Get News: Inside the habits of America’s first digital generation. Retrieved from http://www. americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/millennialsmethodology/. Moss-Racusin, C. A., Molenda, A. K., & Cramer, C. R. (2015). Can evidence impact attitudes? Public reactions to evidence of gender bias in STEM fields. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 1e16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0361684314565777. NVivo Qualitative Data Analysis Software (2015). QSR International Pty Ltd. Version 10. Skues, J. L., Williams, B., & Wise, L. (2012). The effects of personality traits, selfesteem, loneliness, and narcissism on Facebook use among university students. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 2414e2419. Stavrositu, C. D., & Kim, J. (2015). All Blogs are not Created Equal: The role of narrative formats and user-generated comments in health prevention. Health Communication, 30(5), 485e495. Suarez, E., & Gadalla, T. M. (2010). Stop blaming the victim: A meta-analysis on rape myths. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25(11), 2010e2035. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/0886260509354503. Suran, E. (2014). Title IX and social media: Going beyond the law. Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, 21, 273e311. Williams, Z. (2012). The guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/ jun/12/what-is-an-internet-troll.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh
Full length article
Exploring rape culture in social media forums Kristen L. Zaleski*, Kristin K. Gundersen, Jessica Baes, Ely Estupinian, Alyssa Vergara University of Southern California, School of Social Work, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Received 4 March 2016 Received in revised form 14 June 2016 Accepted 16 June 2016
Current research has yet to examine the phenomenon of rape culture, particularly within social media forums. The present study investigated the attitudes about rape, rapists, and gender-based violence within the comments section of newspaper articles reporting about rape and sexual assault. Naturalistic observation was used in order to gather statements within the comment sections following newspaper articles posted on either the periodical website or the periodical’s Facebook page. Four themes and various sub-themes emerged from the data. The major themes include, Victim Blaming and Questioning, Survivor Support, Perpetrator Support, and Trolling Statements about Law and Society. Notable findings were found in the amount of victim blaming statements made in the comments responding to articles (25.8 percent) and perpetrator support comments were found responding to every article collected, except for one. The authors discuss the implications of rape culture within and outside social media and suggest future research to be conducted to further understand the impacts of rape culture within the online sphere. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Gender Social media Discrimination Rape Culture Sexual assault
1. Introduction Digital media consumption in contemporary society has become a standard of how many people acquire their news and viewpoints on cultural issues. For instance, the American Press Institute survey found that 69 percent of respondents accessed news information from their laptops and computers within the last week (American Press Institute, 2014). Recently, the Media Insight Project surveyed 1046 Millenials and found that 85 percent polled say, “keeping up with the news is somewhat important” and 69 percent of these individuals read news daily (Media Insight Project, 2015). Most interesting, 86 percent of Millennials report seeing “diverse” opinions in social media on news topics and 40 percent of them pay for a news-specific service, application, or digital subscription (Media Insight Project, 2015). The digital communication through websites and news reports being posted by individuals on those websites contributes to an intersection of cultural discourse about news related events. Thus, leading some sociologists to name the € vheim, phenomenon as the “digitalization of everyday life” (Lo Jansson, Paasonen, Sumiala, & Teologiska, 2013). This digitalization of everyday life both obscures and reminds us of that fact that
* Corresponding author. School of Social Work, University of Southern California, 2300 Michelson Drive, Irvine, CA 92612, USA. E-mail address: [email protected] (K.L. Zaleski). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.06.036 0747-5632/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
identity, agency, and power cannot be attributed to the individual or the machine alone: rather they are the outcome of interactions and negotiations within a network of actors (p.26). Social science researchers and feminist research have both started to focus on how women, people of color, and sexual identities take shape through words on a webpage. For instance, a recent study by Moss-Racusin, Molenda, and Cramer (2015) analyzed over 831 online comments responding to journalistic articles discussing scientific evidence of gender bias in STEM fields, most notably amongst STEM faculty members. Using thematic analyses, researchers found that although most comments acknowledged that a gender bias exists and some even called for social change, there was still a sizable amount of denial and justifications of gender bias. Stavrositu and Kim (2015) examined how blogs and the resulting comments sections influence opinions and intentions of the writers making the comments. It was found that user-generated comments could interfere with the message given by the blog itself. Interestingly, when commenters shared optimistic narratives, it could influence the person reading the comment to agree with them. Conversely, if the person commented pessimistically about a risk (in this study, the risk was skin cancer), the responder would not see themselves exposed to the same risk, but rather different from the other commenter. Similarly, pessimistic discourse in a comment thread has also shown to shape public commentary on social media. Anderson,
K.L. Zaleski et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
Brossard, Scheufele, Xenos, and Ladwig (2014) found that both positive and negative discourse can be helpful in shaping and molding public opinion, however the amount of negative discourse can also have a negative impact on healthy dialogue. They state: Much in the same way that watching uncivil politicians argue on television causes polarization among individuals, impolite and incensed blog comments can polarize online users based on value predispositions utilized as heuristics when processing the blog’s information (Anderson et al., 2014, p. 383). This article will study the digital discourse of rape culture within comments threads that follow a sexual assault news story. The cultural phenomenon of ‘rape culture’ has been defined by Herman (1984) to be created in society because “it fosters and encourages rape by teaching males and females that it is natural and normal for sexual relations to involve aggressive behavior on the part of males” (p. 52). Recently, Time contributor Zerlina Maxwell described rape culture as “a culture in which sexual violence is the norm and victims are blamed for their own assaults” (Maxwell, 2014). Furthermore, Suran (2014) declared that rape culture was no longer a subculture of feminism, but a systematic and collective problem. Suran asserts that rape culture shows that the “cultural or societal explanation of rape [has] moved causation from a micro to a macro level” and is due to “the prevailing heterosexual power hierarchy to which we have all been inured” (2014, p. 277e8). Grubb and Turner (2012) reviewed rape myths, gender roles, and substance-use on victim blaming. In this analysis, men demonstrated a higher rape myth acceptance than women, a finding also supported by Suarez and Gadalla (2010). Furthermore, men also blame women more often than women blame women for an alleged rape. Of particular relevance to the present study, Grubb and Turner (2012) discovered that the literature states that women who consume alcohol prior to being raped had higher rates of victim blaming by both sexes, as compared to women who were assaulted while sober. Most recently, Boux and Daum (2015) examined how technology and social media is used in the investigation of rape and sexual assaults when perpetrators and their peers document the incident. The researchers asserted that technology creates new avenues for victim blaming in regard to rape cases and society, overall. Consequently, it was found that social media challenges, as well as reinforces, rape culture within society by adding rape myth commentary to the discussion. The present researchers seek to expand on this innovative research by exploring rape culture within social media. Moreover, the present researchers are interested in exploring how social media comment threads following newspaper articles shape discourse on attitudes and viewpoints about rape and sexual assault. Specifically, if rape cultural beliefs are observed to be a part of comment threads. As the incidence of sexual assault rises among men and women in the United States, and the media reports on it, the researchers seek to explore how viewpoints on the crime of sexual assault are discussed in social media comment threads. That is, is there a discourse of rape culture within the thread of comments under newspaper articles reporting about rape? 2. Methods 2.1. Publications The researchers reviewed newspaper periodicals in order to assess for evidence of rape culture. According to documentation by the Alliance for Audited Media (2013), the researchers gathered the top four newspapers in the United States, as determined by average
923
circulation of the top twenty-five U.S. newspapers. This list included digital editions, comprising of those accessible on computers, smartphones, tablets, restricted websites, as well as branded applications. The periodicals chosen for the present study included, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and Los Angeles Times. As of 2013, the total average circulation for the periodicals were 2,378,827 for Wall Street Journal, 1,865,318 for New York Times, 1,674,306 for USA Today, and 653,868 for Los Angeles Times. These four periodicals were chosen based on their rank of being the most popular in the United States. 2.2. Comments section The present study used naturalistic observation of the comments section that followed a newspaper article posted on either the periodical website or the periodical’s official Facebook page. The researchers collected the string of comments from each comment thread under an article, de-identified each comment, and uploaded the data into QSR NVivo 10 (2015) Qualitative Analysis Software. The comments were de-identified in order to keep the anonymity of the commenters, as this study did not gather consent from commenters. Due to the anonymous nature of this study, it is probable that one person (commenter) may have posted multiple comments within one comment thread. Thus, the study did not focus on the specific commenters themselves, but rather coded each comment as separatedeven if the same commenter generated these comments. Therefore, the units of analysis for this study were comments within the comment thread, not the person making the comment. The researchers determined that by coding comments separately from the commenter, the study would be able to capture the complexities of rape culture. 2.3. Procedure Data collection was completed between December 2014 and March 2015. To control for subjective selection bias of articles by the researchersdas well as to control for any news-cycle patternsdthe researchers established parameters on data collection. Comment threads were collected only from articles that included the words “Rape” or “Sexual Assault” in the newspaper title. Additionally, the researchers alternated the location of where the data was collected, two months from Facebook posts and two months directly from the periodical website. This was an attempt to collect comments from differing audiences. One audience, the population that reads newspaper articles directly from a website and must pay a monthly subscription fee to comment in threads. The second audience, the population that reads and comments on an article as it appears in their Facebook feed and does not pay a fee to provide feedback. This was in order for the analysis to include two possibly different populations. One population that reads a newspaper regularly and has disposable income and time to subscribe to a newspaper website and another population that is more casual in how they consume the news. It is noted that is likely that there may be overlap between these two populations. The data collection process controlled for researcher selection bias and news media cycle bias by only selecting articles posted in the first seven days of each monthdrather than self-selecting articlesdto observe rape culture as it occurs in a week’s time. The researchers collected the comment threads on average of three days after the article was posted online to allow the dialogue to commence within the comment threads. Therefore, it is possible that more comments were posted after the data was already collected. In total, the researchers collected 4239 comments between
924
K.L. Zaleski et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
December 2014 and March 2015 from 52 newspaper articles (19 articles in December 2014, 5 articles in January 2015, 5 articles February 2015, and 23 articles in March 2015). 2.4. Media climate during data collection For context of the commentary occurring within the present data collection, it is important to note the headlines that were reported during this particular news cycle. Many of the articles collected had discourse on Bill Cosby’s accusations of sexual assault, Rolling Stone’s article on a campus sexual assault, and a documentary about an Indian gang rape. By the end of the data collectiondMarch 2015dBill Cosby had been accused of sexual misconduct by 35 women, 17 of whom came forward during the data collection. Further, Rolling Stone had reported an article titled, “A Rape On Campus” that reported the gang rape of student, Jackie while at a fraternity party at the University of Virginia. The story was later discredited and retracted by the publisher. Lastly, the documentary titled, “India’s Daughter” was released towards the end of data collection that spurred a great deal of conversation on the 2012 gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student in India. However, these reports were only half of the collected sample. The rest varied in reporting from high profile athletes to small town, non-celebrity sexual assault crimes. 2.5. Data analysis Once de-identified, each article’s comment thread was placed in a Word document and uploaded separately into NVivo. Data analysis was conducted using QSR NVivo 10 (2015) Qualitative Analysis Software and qualitative content analysis was the mode in which data was seen. As discussed by Babbie (1999), the research team sought to achieve “enhanced accountability” (p. 423). In order to control for inter-rater reliability all researchers independently coded December 2014 articles and then met regularly to ensure agreement between observed themes. For the remaining three months, the principal investigator coded each article along with at least one researcher. If a discrepancy was found in the coding between two researchers, the team of five researchers discussed and agreed on the correct analyses. Initially the coding began identifying labels of victim blaming and survivor support, yet soon expanded into 28 identified labels, most which were labeled from a direct quote of the comments being analyzed. Once all the data was saturated, the team created four major themes that represented at least 50 percent (n ¼ 26) of the total articles. Accordingly, there may be other themes within the data that were not as frequent and thus not identified by the researchers. 3. Results The major themes that emerged from the qualitative content analysis include, Victim Blaming and Questioning, Survivor Support, Perpetrator Support, and Statements about Law and Society. For more information on thematic findings refer to Table 1, which summarizes all major themes and sub-themes coded in data analysis. These themes, along with various sub-themes will be discussed in detail below, along with quotations from the data to exemplify the themes. All quotations are direct quotes, which the researchers did not edit nor correct grammar, language, or use of capital letters. 3.1. Theme 1: Victim Blaming and Questioning Within the Victim Blaming and Questioning theme, the
discussions centered around how believable the survivor’s reports were and the circumstances surrounding the alleged assault that would make the survivor an unbelievable story teller. Often, these comments took the form of sarcasm and implicit blame within the statement. Overall, the researchers coded 1097 comments, or 25.8 percent of the total comments, thus making this the largest coded theme. In fact, this theme was present in every article examined except for one. The one article it was not included in was the only article collected that had no comments. Examples of discourse within this major theme included: “Can someone please explain to me how a boy is raped??? If he’s not willing, there’s nothing going on downstairs”. “15 and 16 year old girls have been having sex WITH CELEBRITIES and then claiming rape to get money for decades. This is blackmail pure and simple”. “How do you “take advantage” of young girls partying at a sex palace?” The researchers divided the Victim Blaming and Questioning theme into six thematic areas, where blaming and questioning were most prominent. These six sub-themes and examples of the discourse include: Sub-theme 1: Giving instructions to rape survivors. “I respectfully suggest to women who have been raped, a horrible and dehumanizing crime. Go to the police immediately or as soon as possible. Forget about the University administration. They aren’t trained and they seek to protect their own interests not yours”. Sub-theme 2: The survivor’s story is too unbelievable to be real. “Since I write fiction, it was easy to spot the [Rolling Stone] story of Jackie as a pathetically weak attempt by modern J- School grad to “punch up” some classic“’rape” archetypes. I loudly call out fake, fraud and BS”. Subtheme 3: A hidden agenda was prominent as the reason to ‘make up’ a rape story. “Anyone who doesn’t recognize the political agenda behind these attacks on Cosby hasn’t been paying attention”. Subtheme 4: The passage of time made the story unbelievable. “40 years later, she’s a middle-age washed-up never-was actress and she needs money. What can she do for quick cash?” Sub-theme 5: False accusations (aka ‘the rape card’ as a defense). “Like the race card, the rape card is easily played, because there’s no good defense against it even when it’s played badly. I’m betting that even the truth won’t stop the protesters in the Times photo, because it COULD HAVE BEEN TRUE – right?” Sub-theme 6: Alcohol and drugs (victim consented when drinking). “There needs to be a law to protect men and teenage boys from charges made against them for rape or sexual misconduct by women and girls who are stupid enough to get drunk and allow this to happen then turn around and blame the male. If you are dumb enough to get drunk and put yourself in this position then too bad for you it’s your own stupidity.”
3.2. Theme 2: Survivor Support Within the Survivor Support theme, comments were coded that reflected a genuine support for the survivor’s reports and actions. Comments often included personal stories or statistics to defend the survivor from other comments that led to blame. Of the total comments collected, these comments totaled 694, or 16.3 percent of total comments. Interesting, in the sub-theme ‘Confession’ the research team found it notable that 14 comments out of 694 comments discussed personal stories about rape and sexual assault. Overall, the comments were evenly spread between providing
K.L. Zaleski et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
925
Table 1 Qualitative content analysis of rape culture in social media forums. Themes
Sub-themes
Victim Blaming and Questioning
Giving instructions to rape survivors The survivor’s story is too unbelievable to be real A hidden agenda was prominent as the reason to ‘make up’ a rape story The passage of time made the story unbelievable False accusations (aka ‘using the rape card’ as a defense) Alcohol and drugs (victim consented when drinking) Confession made to support the survivor in the story Information giving in support of the survivor Humor and ridicule Double standards Media reporting bias Discrediting rape culture Racial and cultural statements about rape Gender differences
Survivor Support Perpetrator Support Trolling Statements about Law and Society
education, personal disclosures, anecdotal stories, and a stance that rape is not rare. Examples of discourse within this major theme included: “As a former UVA fraternity brother, I do not doubt one detail of the events described in The Rolling Stone article, with all the excesses, abuses and absurdities. Unless you’ve witnessed one, it’s hard to fathom the drunken, chaotic, and lawless abandon of a Virginia frat party, or the “elite” entitlement”. “As to the people here saying go to the court system- please … Who wants to be victimized twice”. The researchers divided the Survivor Support theme into two thematic areas. These two sub-themes and examples of the discourse include: Sub-theme 1: Confession made to support the survivor in the story. “This is the first time I am speaking about my rape when I was 14 by a counselor at camp who was also a coach and I hear he is still in the school system. I wish there was no statute of limitations (like in other countries) and I wish also the courts changed to be a friendlier place for victims. I am gaining the courage to say something the impact on my life (to me, maybe not to others) has been enormous”. Sub-theme 2: Information giving in support of the survivor. “Sexual assault does not happen by accident. The predator targets an individual, has a well-thought out strategy, and commits rape. This happens on campus, in corporate settings, and in the military. The rapist usually is older and has more social standing or power than the victim. The rapist also leaves her with a threat that “no one will believe you” and, sadly, most victims believe it”.
3.3. Theme 3: Perpetrator Support The Perpetrator Support theme was rife with sarcasm, personal stories to endorse accused-perpetrators, and double standards revolving around gender. At times, comments exhibited banter back and forth with demeaning sexualized comments about the rape survivors and the suffering of falsely accused men. Though the comments totaled only 253, or 6 percent of total comments, these comments were found in every article collected except for one. Examples of discourse within this major theme included: “A 30 year old woman “raped” me at age 14 and continued to “rape” me until age 21. I would have faced a firing squad before accusing her of anything”. “LOL. That’s the only reason I got laid so much in college”.
The researchers divided the Perpetrator Support theme into two thematic areas. These two sub-themes and examples of the discourse include: Sub-theme 1: Humor and ridicule. “Somewhere and at sometime, a sexual assault occurred at a fraternity. Therefore any accusation about a sexual assault at a fraternity is true, because it is a fraternity. If you disagree, than you support sexual assault”. Sub-theme 2: Double standards. “Ask any guy, it is impossible for any man, especially a teenager, to be ‘raped’ by an NFL cheerleader!” 3.4. Theme 4: Trolling Statements about Law and Society The Trolling Statements about Law and Society theme was not a direct attack on the survivor or perpetrator referenced within the article, but rather a voice inciting hate or ridicule of an entire group of individuals that often was specific to race or culture. As described by Williams (2012) people who troll online are not insulting a specific person, but would prefer to create a wider disagreement that extends to a broader subject matter and will incite a larger dialogue. The comments in this theme revealed blatant racism, sexism, and made negative, degrading, controversial statements that involved the greater legal society, political climates, and cultural norms. These comments totaled 982 comments, or 23.1 percent of total comments, which is the second largest coded theme. Examples of discourse within this major theme included: “What we can expect from that poor country where cows life’s better than people’s?” “This is an issue with the undocumented”. The researchers divided the Trolling Statements about Law and Society theme into four thematic areas. These four sub-themes and examples of the discourse include: Sub-theme 1: Media reporting bias. “My point is, if the alleged rapists had been black, Fox News would not need a Police report or forensic evidence to begin 24 h worth of programing to the effect that the rape was all the fault of Obama’s America. But because the players don’t fit the narrativedsilence”. Sub-theme 2: Discrediting rape culture. “Twisted statistics to inflate the so-called rape hysteria program initiated by feminists is tantamount to misandry. Where the roles reversed I'm quite sure the feminists would blame this on the patriarchal society. Same animal, different name”. Sub-theme 3: Racial and cultural statements about rape. “Politicians call it “blowing the dog whistle”. Ferguson was winding down, time to start up another distraction”. Sub-theme 4: Gender differences. “‘Protecting’ boys from having
926
K.L. Zaleski et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
sex with older women they find attractive is a waste of taxpayer dollars that could be better spent protecting the group that needs more protecting - girls. The attempt to make the law gender-blind here is misguided”.
4. Discussion The present study sought to examine how prominent rape culture is within online social media forums following news articles reporting about rape and sexual assault. The results show that rape culture is prominent within online social media comment threads and victim blaming is the prevailing attitude in which it is expressed. Even though there are many factors, it appears victim blaming and questioning may be the driving force of rape culture in social media, as it creates hostility and discourse within the comment threads leading to more commentary. As discussed by Franiuk, Seefelt, Cepress, and Vandello (2008) victim blaming permeates social media, as well as popular culture. Thus, these attitudes seep into the collective thought of society as these attitudes impact how society views rape and sexual assault. Instead of seeing the issue of sexual assault as an epidemic, this victim blaming and questioning attitude clouds one’s judgment to believe rape is merely an individual issue and the survivor’s fault. Beyond the research question, the qualitative analysis exposed two notable findings, including the topic of survivor disclosure and differences in comments made based on whether the accused rapist was a celebrity or within pop-culture. The first notable finding of survivor disclosure suggests that some survivors “fight” the victim blaming attitudes in social media threads by bringing a personal narrative into the discussion. Suran (2014) asserts that survivors who tell their story are breaking down rape culture. That is, when survivors feel marginalized by the process of reporting, they turn to social media to regain their voice. By posting to social media, the general public is able to view these stories and have an active voice in rape culture by “liking,” “commenting,” and “retweeting” the articles about the survivors’ stories (p. 302). In turn, creating a collective call to action. Thus, social media seems to have changed the way in which society talks about sexual assault and rape. This is an area of future research that could be valuable in exploring. The second notable finding included how celebrity status played into the comments about guilt versus innocence. This was especially true in the articles that centered on celebrities, such as Bill Cosby and Dustin Penner, as well as the University of Virginia rape scandal in Rolling Stone. Within those comment threads, there was more victim blaming and less perpetrator support as when compared to the comment threads centered on non-celebrity people. See Figs. 1 and 2 for displays on findings regarding popular culture. These findings support prior research conducted by Knight, Giuliano, and Sanchez-Ross (2001) that found perceptions about rape were influenced by the race and celebrity status of a defendant. This research supports their hypothesis that being a celebrity gives one the benefit of the doubt in the public’s eye and that race or culture plays a role in the perceptions about rape. See Figs. 3 and 4 for displays of these particular findings. Given that the present study was the first of its kind, it is suggested that further research be conducted. With further research, studies may be designed to analyze a wider segment of comment threads online, as well as media reporting trends. It would be interesting to monitor active accounts’ commentary and track if these comments influence and shape public opinion, over time. This continued research would provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of rape culture within social media comment threads and the Internet, as a whole.
Fig. 1. Showcasing themes within comments under an article with the topic of popular culture.
Fig. 2. Showcasing themes within comments under an article that does not include the topic of popular culture.
5. Limitations Despite the authors’ efforts to select articles in a systematic method, there are limitations to this study that prevent further conclusions from being drawn. First, during the data collection period, the media climate was rampant with articles about rape and sexual assault, particularly on high profile cases. Bill Cosby is a revered celebrity who is loved by many, which may have influenced the audiences’ views toward Mr. Cosby and the accusations against him may have prompted his fans to automatically jump to his
Fig. 3. Showcasing themes and sub-themes within comments under an article where the accused rapist was American.
K.L. Zaleski et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 63 (2016) 922e927
927
comments online. In a 2012 article, McAndrew and Jeong found that men in relationships spent less time on Facebook than those who were single. Similarly, Skues, Williams, and Wise (2012) found that individuals with more Facebook ‘friends’ and expressing a personality trait of “openness” were the highest Facebook users. The study defined “openness” as “having a wider range of interests and are more prepared to pursue those interests” (p. 2417). Interestingly, this study also found that Facebook users who were found to have a significant effect for ‘loneliness’ had the most Facebook ‘friends’. The postulation made by the authors was that lonely people engage more often on Facebook as an effort to acquire more friends. Thus, it can be ascertained that those same individuals spent time commenting on various threads on Facebook, including newspaper articles. Fig. 4. Showcasing themes and sub-themes within comments under an article where the accused rapist was not American.
References
defense, thereby increasing perpetrator support. Moreover, the Rolling Stone article was retracted not long after its publication, which caused an outcry of “sensationalizing rape” by painting the accused rapist in a sympathetic light and possibly increasing victim blaming in online forums. Second, it is noted that utilizing the two groups of study, the periodical website and the periodical’s official Facebook page may be limiting. That is, these two forums generally require an individual to use their true identity such as name and gender. Thus, the comments analyzed may not reflect how the commenter truly felt in fear of having their identity and comment be connected. Even though individuals may use pseudonyms for their paid subscription accounts, the account is also linked to a credit card, which may cause some hesitation on the part of the commenter. Also, those commenting on Facebook may not post genuine beliefs about rape and sexual assault in fear of family and friends seeing the comment threads on their news feed. Despite this, the researchers observed open and comprehensive commentary in the content analyzed. Third, given the data was de-identified for privacy, the researchers only coded comments without a connection to the commenter. Thus, it is possible that a particular individual in a minority set of beliefs may dominate a thread of a particular theme. Also, due to de-identification, it is not possible to determine if gender had any influence on a commenter’s perception. Even if the researchers maintained the identification of the commenters, it is common for individuals to use screen names, aliases, and genderneutral names on social media forums, prohibiting the researchers from gathering data on the commenters’ gender. A study by McAndrew and Jeong (2012) found that females engaged Facebook more often than males and sought out “gossip seeking behavior” more often than males (p. 2364). Examining the gender differences among the commenters could bring valuable information into who is writing perpetrator-supporting comments versus who is writing survivor-supporting comments. Additional information beyond gender, such as trauma history, education, nationality, and cultural identity may also illuminate which commenters have more victim blaming attitudes than others, as well as racial and gender-based discriminatory comments. Another consideration is the relationship and personality traits of those that spend time commenting on newspaper articles online. That is, it would be interesting to note the correlation between relationship status and personality traits with how a person
Alliance for Audited Media. (2013, April 1). Top 25 U.S. Newspapers for March 2013. Retrieved from http://auditedmedia.com/news/research-and-data/top-25-usnewspapers-for-march-2013.aspx. American Press Institute. (2014, March 17). How Americans get their news. Retrieved from http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/surveyresearch/how-americans-get-news/. Anderson, A. A., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D. A., Xenos, M. A., & Ladwig, P. (2014). The “nasty effect:” online incivility and risk perceptions of emerging technologies. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(3), 373e387. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1111/jcc4.12009. Boux, H. J., & Daum, C. W. (2015). At the Intersection of Social Media and Rape Culture: How Facebook postings, texting and other personal communications challenge the “real” rape myth in the criminal justice system. Journal of Law, Technology, and Policy, 1, 149e186. Franiuk, R., 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(3), 287e309. Grubb, A., & Turner, E. (2012). Attribution of blame in rape cases: A review of the impact of rape myth acceptance, gender role conformity and substance use on victim blaming. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17(5), 443e452. Herman, D. (1984). The rape culture. In J. Freeman (Ed.), Women: A feminist perspective. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. Knight, J. L., Giuliano, T. A., & Sanchez-Ross, M. G. (2001). Famous or infamous? the influence of celebrity status and race on perceptions of responsibility for rape. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 23(3), 183e190. €vheim, M., Jansson, A., Paasonen, S., Sumiala, J., Teologiska fakulteten, HumanLo €llsvetenskapliga vetenskapsområdet. Religionsbeteendevetenskap. istisk-samha (2013). Social media: Implications for everyday life, politics and human agency. Approaching Religion, 3(2), 26. Maxwell, Z. (2014, March 27). Rape culture is real. Retrieved from http://time.com/ 40110/rape-culture-is-real/. McAndrew, F. T., & Jeong, H. S. (2012). Who does what on Facebook? Age, sex, and relationship status as predictors of Facebook use. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 2359e2365. Media Insight Project. (2015, March 16). How Millenials Get News: Inside the habits of America’s first digital generation. Retrieved from http://www. americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/millennialsmethodology/. Moss-Racusin, C. A., Molenda, A. K., & Cramer, C. R. (2015). Can evidence impact attitudes? Public reactions to evidence of gender bias in STEM fields. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 1e16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0361684314565777. NVivo Qualitative Data Analysis Software (2015). QSR International Pty Ltd. Version 10. Skues, J. L., Williams, B., & Wise, L. (2012). The effects of personality traits, selfesteem, loneliness, and narcissism on Facebook use among university students. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 2414e2419. Stavrositu, C. D., & Kim, J. (2015). All Blogs are not Created Equal: The role of narrative formats and user-generated comments in health prevention. Health Communication, 30(5), 485e495. Suarez, E., & Gadalla, T. M. (2010). Stop blaming the victim: A meta-analysis on rape myths. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25(11), 2010e2035. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/0886260509354503. Suran, E. (2014). Title IX and social media: Going beyond the law. Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, 21, 273e311. Williams, Z. (2012). The guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/ jun/12/what-is-an-internet-troll.