Date of Award

Spring 2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Sociology & Criminal Justice

Program/Concentration

Applied Sociology

Committee Director

Jennifer N. Fish

Committee Member

Ingrid Whitaker

Committee Member

Randy Gainey

Abstract

Violence against women is a worldwide phenomenon, and while brutal crimes shock us, it is nothing exceptional. This social construction of violence against women is displayed through the media's language. The language then portrays structures of power dynamics, fueling patriarchal discourse, where masculinity becomes the king, and femininity denigrated, birthing a rape culture. This study explores the impact of media reporting of gang rape cases of women in India and investigates the media reporting of nine different gang rape cases, post 2012 Delhi gangrape.

The research looks to identify the media semantics used in portraying the victims in the print media. This qualitative study follows content analysis as its method of research to examine the relationship between the gang rape cases, and the type of information published in the newspaper articles. The study uses framing analysis and intersectionality framework and finds that the Indian media’s treatment towards reporting of gang rape differs significantly along with the socio-economic status of the victims. Results show that lower the victim in the social hierarchy of stratification, class and caste, lesser the positive media coverage, and higher the victim blaming and doubting language.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/m39f-s864

ISBN

9798516058806

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