Portrayal of Sexual Assault: Comparing the Narratives of Private and Public Television Media

Abstract

The study undertaken focuses on the portrayal of sexual assault by the television news media. This topic has been selected because sexual assault is an umbrella term inclusive of rape, molestation, groping, stalking, among others and this study will allow the researchers to briefly touch some of these aspects if not all. This topic was also selected because there are very few existing studies that even come close enough to the exploration and comparison of two different sources of reportage of sexual assault. Many studies exist in terms of sexual assault and news media separately and not much work has been done on the collective. Through this study the researchers analysed and compared the portrayal patterns of the public and private media using content analysis and semi-structured interviews. The researchers found great contrast in the portrayal style and narratives of both the news sources which have their own pros and cons.