Redefining a Rape Culture: The Influence of Anti-Violence-Against-Women Organizations on Mass Media Discourse

Abstract

Social movements have a long and rich history of interacting with the mass media. Although scholars have established that social movements target the mass media as a means of achieving social change, few have examined the mass media as a distinct cultural outcome. To better understand the relationship between social movement organizations and the mass media, I draw on mass media coverage of eight anti-violence-against-women organizations (AVAWOs) over a five-year time period spanning from 2011 to 2015. I assess the influence that movement organizational factors (i.e., scope of organizational identity, organizational resources, and use of media tactics) and broad environmental factors (i.e., presence of political and discursive media opportunities) have on whether AVAWOs receive mass media coverage, as well as the variation in the quantity and quality of coverage. Incorporating three types of mass media (broadcast, print, and digital media), I conduct a content analysis of mass media news items to construct two original datasets that measure 1) the presence or absence of mass media coverage (N=300), and 2) the quantity and quality of mass media coverage (N=412). Through multiple regression analyses, I find that the quantity and quality of mass media coverage that AVAWOs receive is dependent on both movement organizational and broad environmental factors; however, the influence of these two factors varies whether the presence of coverage, quantity of coverage, or quality of coverage is analyzed.