Alexis Pellechio
"Media Framing and Public Understanding of Sexual Assault”
This study examines how media framing in news media can influence media consumer thoughts and attitudes in regards to reports about sexual assault. The media frames that were examined and analyzed were: (1) prevalence of victim blaming, (2) the role of alcohol as a main cause of sexual assault, (3) the role of social media in sexual assault cases, and (4) the placement of the content in newspapers. This study specifically analyzed two news reports about the 2013 Steubenville, OH rape case and readers’ thoughts about causes of the assault after reading the provided news articles. The results are analyzed and discussed in relation to how they can be used to encourage media producers to be more aware of how news media is received and understood by the public.
