Athletes, Sexual Assault, and Trials by Media

Athletes, Sexual Assault, and Trials by Media PDF

Author: Deb Waterhouse-Watson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-02-11

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1135123519

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Since footballer sexual assault became top news in 2004, six years after the first case was reported, much has been written in the news media about individual cases, footballers and women who have sex with them. Deb Waterhouse-Watson reveals how media representations of recent sexual assault cases involving Australian footballers amount to "trials by media", trials that result in acquittal. The stories told about footballers and women in the news media evoke stereotypes such as the "gold digger", "woman scorned" and the "predatory woman", which cast doubt on the alleged victims’ claims and suggest that they are lying. Waterhouse-Watson calls this a "narrative immunity" for footballers against allegations of sexual assault. This book details how popular conceptions of masculinity and femininity inform the way footballers’ bodies, team bonding, women, sex and alcohol are portrayed in the media, and connects stories relating to the cases with sports reporting generally. Uncovering similar patterns of narrative, grammar and discourse across these distinct yet related fields, Waterhouse-Watson shows how these discourses are naturalised, with reports on the cases intertwining with broader discourses of football reporting to provide immunity. Despite the prevalence of stories that discredit the alleged victims, Waterhouse-Watson also examines attempts to counter these pervasive rape myths, articulating successful strategies and elucidating the limitations built into journalistic practices, and language itself.

The Media's Treatment of Sexual Assault by Athletes in a Post-rape Reform Era

The Media's Treatment of Sexual Assault by Athletes in a Post-rape Reform Era PDF

Author: Philisa J. Weidlein-Crist

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 95

ISBN-13:

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One in three college sexual assaults is committed by an athlete (Crosset et al. 1995). In the past 20 years, athlete sexual violence has gained national attention through the Victim's Rights Movement and specifically through the creation of the National Center Against Violent Athletes. Research reveals that athletes are more likely than their other college counterparts to engage in coercive sexual activity and have rape supportive attitudes; however, little research delves into how victims and athletes are portrayed in the print media during a high-profile case of college athlete rape. Previous research suggests that victims of high profile rape cases are generally criticized and blamed for their role in the assault. Rape law reforms sought to change how victims were treated in the criminal justice system through legislative reforms, but have not achieved all that they intended. This study finds that rape law reforms have contributed to a more favorable view of rape victims in the media, but many stereotypes regarding rape victims still exist. Other findings include the portrayal of victims and athletes in the print media based on description, race, social support and institutional response. This study finds support for previous research that high-profile cases of athlete rape in the print media show evidence of male peer support theory, and that athlete's behaviors are minimized while the victim is placed on trial in the public arena. Future research should be directed to a larger sample of high-profile athlete rape cases, and a more diverse sample of athletic participation.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Unsportsmanlike Conduct PDF

Author: Jessica Luther

Publisher: Edge of Sports

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781617754913

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Over the last three years, sexual assault on college campuses has been a hot topic as people are wondering aloud and often about it, especially when it involves star football players. Unsportsmanlike Conduct explores that playbook: the one coaches, teams, universities, police, communities, the media, and fans seem to follow whenever a college football player is accused of sexual assault. It's a deep dive into how different institutions run the same plays over and over again when these stories break.

Athletes and Acquaintance Rape

Athletes and Acquaintance Rape PDF

Author: Jeffrey R. Benedict

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 1998-03-09

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 1452250960

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In an age of sports hero idolatry, it is essential to understand the relationship between male athletes and violence against women. Reports of well-known athletes, both professional and intercollegiate, who have been charged with crimes involving violence against women are prevalent in the media. Are these athletes more likely to gain the spotlight because of their status as star athletes? Or do their lifestyles make athletes more likely to engage in sexual assault, battering, or other forms of violence against women than nonathletes? Athletes and Acquaintance Rape unravels the controversy of this topic by focusing on three high-profile cases involving professional athletes who have been charged with sexual assault. Jeffrey R. Benedict provides a brief history on each athlete and traces the chronology of events leading up to the charges of sexual assault and the results of those charges. By examining specific aspects of the collegiate and professional athleteÆs life, Benedict reveals a climate predisposed to committing violence against women that provides star athletes with protection from punishment and conviction. Intriguing and thought-provoking, Athletes and Acquaintance Rape will prove useful for academics, practitioners, and students in several fields, including sociology, psychology, gender studies, law, sport management, educational administration, violence against women, and family violence. Written in an engaging style, the general reader will also find this book accessible and enlightening.

Football and Sexual Crime, from the Courtroom to the Newsroom

Football and Sexual Crime, from the Courtroom to the Newsroom PDF

Author: Deb Waterhouse-Watson

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-01-02

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 3030337057

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This book interrogates the process of court reporting on rape and other sexual crime cases involving Australian footballers. At the intersection of sport, gender, media and the law, it uncovers the story behind rape myths and stereotypes in media. This book analyses newspaper reporting alongside transcripts of the trials they represent and interviews with the journalists themselves. Waterhouse-Watson’s work maps structural factors within newsrooms, and the complex relationship between the judiciary and media, that affect the practice of court reporting. This book approaches key journalism concepts like objectivity and balance critically, illustrating the layers of mediation that surround a complainant’s testimony; the way sport shapes the meaning of courtroom and media narratives in these cases; and the tension between racism and sexism when race is thematised or otherwise highlighted. Ultimately, the book proposes an ethics of court reporting that protects individual complainants, as well as advancing public understandings of the crime.

Narrative Immunity

Narrative Immunity PDF

Author: Deb Waterhouse-Watson

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 604

ISBN-13:

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In Australia in 2004, several sexual assault allegations were made against footballers from the nation's principal football codes, Australian Rules and Rugby League, sparking an intense media debate around the culture of the leagues and the nature of relations between elite footballers and women. None of the cases was tried in court, and despite several new cases since, no Australian footballer has yet been made to stand trial for sexual assault. There is a disjunction between the growing number of cases and the repeated failure of any case to be criminally prosecuted; however, there is only a small literature on the problem of athletes and sexual assault, and the majority of this attempts to uncover what causes athletes to rape, rather than addressing the silencing of the cases once they have been reported. The Australian events illuminate a previously un-researched aspect of the unfolding of these types of crimes: the extensive public media debates that they ignite, which, I argue, ultimately perform a kind of de facto adjudication of the crimes.Using narratology, I argue that in the public discourse about these events, certain narrative and grammatical techniques are repetitively employed to deflect blame away from footballers and onto the women involved in the cases, providing footballers with what I call a "narrative immunity" against allegations of sexual assault. This narrative immunity is partly constructed through the rhetorical techniques used in criminal rape trials to discredit complainants. I also broaden the traditional boundaries of such investigations by examining the discourses of football reporting generally, including match reports, injury reporting and general sports news. These broader discourses of football underpin the discourses of sexual assault, and I further investigate the ways in which individual narratives intersect with, and are informed by, "stock" or "cultural stories" - those such as the Woman Scorned and the Gold Digger - which are widely understood to have truth-value, and work to undermine the validity of a woman's claim of sexual assault. I show that the circulation of these stories constitutes a de facto adjudication of the women's claims, and thus the media debate supplements and replaces an actual legal process. In this way, the narrative immunity of footballers relegates complainants to the position of Jean-Francois Lyotard's victim: the one who is injured, and deprived of the means to prosecute the injury. However, alternative narratives are possible, and I examine the possibilities that these alternative strategies provide for contesting footballers' narrative immunity, thus making it possible for rape complainants to argue their case in the public discourse, not as victims, but as plaintiffs.

Image Repair and Media Coverage Following Sexual Assault in College Athletics

Image Repair and Media Coverage Following Sexual Assault in College Athletics PDF

Author: Sarah E. Igram

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 63

ISBN-13:

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This thesis addresses universities' image repair strategies when a student athlete is accused of sexual assault and the media's coverage of these strategies. This is a particularly important issue due to the prevalence of campus sexual assault, as recent studies have shown that one in five women is sexually assaulted in college. Sexual assaults involving college athletes typically receive more media attention due to their high-profile nature. Athletic programs are typically sites of hegemonic masculinity, where men take action to maintain dominance over women. They may do this through misogynistic and homophobic talk or committing violence against women. Athletic departments' image repair strategies when male athletes are accused of sexual assault also sometimes uphold hegemonic masculinity if their main goal is to maintain the team, which may generate significant revenue for the university. As such, their image repair strategies may allow male athletes to continue to partake in misogynistic practices, including committing violence against women. The media also has been accused of upholding masculine dominance by supporting rape myths or blaming the accuser in sexual assault incidents. This thesis consists of two case studies: the University of Colorado, which faced several allegations of sexual assault by football players in the early 2000's; and Baylor University, which underwent a similar scandal starting in late 2015. It contains textual analysis of officials' image repair strategies at both schools and the media's responses to them. Ultimately, both Colorado and Baylor upheld hegemonic masculinity through their image repair strategies, though Colorado did so on a larger scale. In both instances, journalists were largely critical of their image repair strategies and argued that the strategies were not enough to change the structure of masculine dominance.

Night Games

Night Games PDF

Author: Anna Krien

Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press

Published: 2014-09-04

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780224100021

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Sex, celebrity and power come together in a critically lauded, true-life courtroom drama centering on a rape case in the world of top-level sport. '"The Pies beat the Saints and the city of Melbourne was still cloaked in black and white crepe paper when the rumour of a pack rape by celebrating footballers began to surface. By morning, the head of the sexual crimes squad confirmed to journalists that they were preparing to question two players... And so, as police were confiscating bed sheets from a townhouse in South Melbourne, the trial by media began.'" What does a young footballer do to cut loose? At night, some play what they think of as pranks, or games. Night games with women. Sometimes these involve consensual sex, but sometimes they don't, and sometimes they fall into a grey area. In"Night Games," Anna Krien follows the trial of a young footballer. Fearlessly and without prejudice, she shines a light into the darkest recesses of sports culture."

CTE, Media, and the NFL

CTE, Media, and the NFL PDF

Author: Travis R. Bell

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-06-25

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1498570577

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CTE, Media, and the NFL: Framing a Public Health Crisis as a Football Epidemic examines the central role of mediain constructing an entangled relationship between chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the National Football League (NFL), challenging a predominately symbiotic sports/media complex. The authors of this book analyze more than a decade of media coverage, along with three prominent films, to unpack how media discourse resurrects CTE, a preventable degenerative brain disease linked to boxing in 1928, and subsequently frames it as a football epidemic dating back to 2005. The authors position CTE as a public health crisis, whereby media coverage of CTE and the NFL’s vigorous reliance on controversial published research by the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) Committee parallels the moral panic of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and Big Tobacco’s manufacturing of doubt through faulty science. This book argues that the continued aspiration and idolization of the NFL, and its lack of accountability for health concerns surrounding brain injuries, highlight the firm grasp of hegemonic masculinity on the ideology of American football - further problematizing media’s glorification of the sport. Scholars of sports media, health communication, and general media studies will find this book particularly useful to discuss longitudinal effects of media framing centered on critical health risks in sport and the challenge of translating accurate scientific knowledge to the public domain.

The Routledge Companion to Gender, Media and Violence

The Routledge Companion to Gender, Media and Violence PDF

Author: Karen Boyle

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-09-29

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 1000919358

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With the heated discussion around #MeToo, journalistic reporting on domestic abuse, and the popularity of true crime documentaries, gendered media discourse around violence and harassment has never been more prominent. The Routledge Companion to Gender, Media and Violence is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems and debates in this important subject and is the first collection on media and violence to take a gendered, intersectional approach. Comprising over 50 chapters by a team of interdisciplinary and international contributors, the book is structured around the following parts: News Representing reality Gender-based violence online Feminist responses The media examples examined range from Australia to Zimbabwe and span print and online news, documentary film and television, podcasts, pornography, memoir, comedy, memes, influencer videos, and digital feminist protest. Types of violence considered include domestic abuse, "honour"-based violence, sexual violence and harassment, female genital mutilation/cutting, child sexual abuse, transphobic violence, and the aftermath of conflict. Good practice is considered in relation to both responsible news reporting and pedagogy. The Routledge Companion to Gender, Media and Violence is essential reading for students and researchers in Gender Studies, Media Studies, Sociology, and Criminology.