Media Headlines

Rochester, N.Y. area teen charged with setting fire to home, killing father, 2 brothers

Dozens arrested in Occupy DC protests

Police: Female student stabbed by two girls from a rival school

Police: Customer Punches Cabbie in the Face; Fox Island Man Stabs Neighbor

Man Charged with Inappropriately Photographing Target Shoppers, Man Hospitalized Following Dispute on Harding Avenue

Cabby raped me, says ‘drunken’ passenger

To me, one of these headlines is not like the others. Only one of them has the implication of lying in it. Only one focuses on the victim's flaws/character/state of mind, and only one neglects the criminal aspect of the story. All except the last one involve either the police (and what they believe happened) or arrests that were made, or horrors that "happened." The last one is nothing more than an accusation in a headline. Baseless, as compared with the others.

To top it off, the accuser is drunk. Readers would be inclined to believe in all of these stories based on the headlines...except the last. The article on rape invites the reader to make their own judgement, and steers that judgement towards acquittal.

The woman is saying, not the police. The woman was raped, not the cabbie raped her. Police say two girls stabbed a third. A teen was charged with killing his family.

Rape myths are perpetuated in news media in subtler ways than this. I'd say this one is fairly obvious. But a study was done during the Kobe Bryant rape case asking what the effect of these rape supportive headlines was on the general population.

What harm does a <10 word headline do? A lot. And it is much more prevalent than you'd think. In 555 headlines, 6% implied the victim was lying, and over 4% contained victim blaming ideas. They were also more likely to use the term "accuser" rather than "alleged victim."

People who read these headlines, and then the articles are more likely to believe the victim is lying, even when faced with evidence to the contrary.

Men are more likely to show rape supportive beliefs after reading headlines with rape myths than after reading sexual assault headlines without such myths.

And what do these headlines do to a possible trial? With every other crime, the media tends to pit the public against the defendant (think Casey Anthony, OJ Simpson). In rape cases, the opposite is true. The media goes out of its way to question the victim (think DSK, Duke rape case).

Is it any surprise that allegations of rape decline in the aftermath of high profile cases? That suddenly, women are afraid to tell their story after a news media rips apart the character and past of previous victims?

How can we promise justice to these victims, if we torture them into dropping their case prior to trial? Why would anyone come forward when every past discretion and every sexual encounter in your life is subject to media scrutiny? When the media is poised to pit the world against you, and in doing so, pits the world against women everywhere?

It's time victims of (alleged) rape were treated with the same empathy afforded victims of other crimes. It's time to stop the second victimization associated with media harassment of these survivors.

It's time to stop perpetuating rape myths via every aspect of media, whether it's advertising, magazines, music, tv shows, movies, or the news itself.

End victim blaming in the media, and end victim blaming in society.

And end rape.