Representations of Sexual Violence Against Women in Bbc News Titles

1. Introduction

It is estimated that approximately a third of women residing in the United States have encountered male violence (the Washington Post, 2014). This suggests that gender-based violence is a serious ongoing occurrence in contemporary American society (See Appendix A). According to Clark (1992), males are more likely to impose physical, psychological or sexual harm on women while women are subjected to such violence. However, the attackers are not always responsible and blamed for the devastating effects their actions bring about on women’s life; rather, the victims, always women, are incidentally denounced (Clark, 1992). They have been criticized for their inappropriate clothing, and failure to defend themselves from the crimes. It becomes ambiguous to blame whom for the attacks since media is prone to portray women as the sources to condemn whereas it tends to victimize the attackers. Likewise, media takes advantage of language as a tool to convey blame (Clark, 1992, p. 209). This underlines the significant role of media, constructing a proper blame on male violence against women. In this report, data gained from the American news-provider media, the CNN, will be examined with two frameworks: naming and transitivity analyses. Also, analyses from various linguists will be discussed subsequently.

2. Methods

Two methods are employed to examine the ideology regarding gender-based violence. The analyses are summarized as follows: (See also Appendix B & C).

2.1 Naming Analysis

Clark (1992) maintains that naming is “a powerful ideological vehicle,” meaning that words utilized for labelling objects are helpful tools of understanding situations (p. 209). Simultaneously, it is a method that pinpoints the ideology of name-givers. In addition to this assertion, a German linguist, Bühler (1934), argues that naming words are exploited to reinterpret objects. By analysing the words, readers can notice who are perpetrators and victims, and the writer’s attitudes regarding the violence. There are some naming choices adopted to describe offenders. In detail, media makes use of some labels that imply the attackers’ subhuman-ness and nonhuman-ness. To be specific, Clark (1992) mentions that the terms such as “beast, monster, maniac and fiend”, and the verb “prowl” are employed to indicate the characteristics of nonhuman-ness (p. 210). Furthermore, naming choices for victims and perpetrators are usually accompanied with the personal information and social normality (Clark, 1992, p. 210). In the news, personal details such as name, gender, age, marital status, occupation, and whether victims are mothers or not, are frequently used to describe victims (Clark, 1992, p. 210). Several naming choices in the reported headlines from the CNN are listed below to investigate the way victims and perpetrators are named (See Appendix B):