Here's The Powerful Letter Analysis

The 2006 Duke Lacrosse Case brought to light many of the issues and divisions currently plaguing our media sphere. This terrible act of injustice, which blamed three innocent Duke lacrosse players, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans, for the rape of an African-American stripper, garnered extensive media attention that gripped America for almost an entire year (Wasserman, 3). Today, many scrutinze the media’s methods of covering the case, and deem that certain codes of ethics were not adhered to. Rather than remaining neutral, newspapers and TV outlets allowed themselves to “be used” by Mike Nifong, the former District Attorney for Durham and prosecutor of the case, by reporting

The introduction of Nils Christie’s ‘Ideal victim’ theory (1986: 18) refers to victims of crime who can attain the status of a legitimate victim in the eyes of the public. Christie outlines a criteria which needs to be followed in order to gain this full status of a ‘legitimate victim’. Christie’s ‘ideal victim’ however is not the same as a legal victim and often real victims of crime deviate far from the concept of the ideal victim (Beck & Janbakhsh 2010). This therefore means that using Christie’s ideal victim theory to give someone the title of a legitimate victim is often detrimental. Male victims of sexual assault often deviate from the ‘ideal victim’ criteria set out by Christie, this means that when they encounter the justice system, their experiences are often marginalised or discounted entirely.

A very real, and very common, problem in America is rape—more so the lack of knowledge about rape. This causes many problems for victims of sexual assault. In Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the story of Melinda directly reflects the world today because most kids are not properly educated about rape and many teens in Melinda’s position can’t find a voice to tell their story.

The writer speaks on past experiences where class, gender, race and sexuality have possibly affected the awareness of the news media. Christie (1986: 18) describes an ‘ideal victim’ as someone who looks vulnerable, defenceless, worthy of sympathy and compassion, this would probably be upper class people, elderly women and young children, whereas young men, the homeless and those of lower class suffer from victimization more deeply, they also may find it much more problematic to attain a legitimate victim status even if their case was more severe than others (Carrabine et al, 2004). This shows that the media select stories which involve sensitive and vulnerable people because this is most likely going to intrigue the audience. The issue with

In reference to the media’s role, they have been highlighted for playing a part in maintaining these views by portraying victims in a certain way according to the newsworthiness of each story

Emily Doe embodies the voices of all women who have been raped or sexually assaulted. She has awoken the sleeping giant on this terrible issue. Today it is said that, “Every 109 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted…[and] 1 out of every 6 American women [have] been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime” (“Statistics”). She started a movement followed by women from all across the nation. Which was empowered by her twelve paged letter to her assaulter about her journey to where she is today.

Sexual violence causes intense trauma that surpasses the damages caused physically. It causes a great shift in the victim and interferes with their personality, their trust towards others and causes them to question the kind of world they live in. Sexual violence symbolizes the distraction of one’s ability to control their life, feelings of unsafety in the world, and lack of trust

In today's society, the promotion of rape culture is heavily prevalent. Despite the world making massive headway in a multitude of social injustices, victim blaming and the willingness to ignore the truth in media are still major issues. Although one may not realize, both local and global media frequently create pieces that are biased - using prejudice in favor of one group or individual - to blindly sway public opinion.

Media plays a vital role in society – it’s downloaded on aps on your phone, keeps you informed on your way to work, plays in the background while you’re eating dinner and is the corner stone of conversations. However, in spite of moral obligations, media outlets are often misguided by personal bias and aggrandizement. Journalists, and even more uncannily – health care ‘professionals’ are launching vicious attacks on victims of domestic violence and the government to shift the blame away from malignant perpetrators of abuse. Consequentially, leaving the public stuck in an unrelenting cycle of finger pointing.

Rape is devastating to its victims. I feel as if this statement should stand alone, underlined and in bold typeface. It is crucial that we, as a society, come to a deep understanding and awareness of this message. For that reason, I will state it again:

This article is so important. It talks about how important it is for people to stop blaming the victim. It isn’t fair to blame the victim and by now we should know better. For some reason sexual violence and victim blaming go hand in hand. Society tells us that a person who is sexually assaulted is partly or fully to blame for what happened to them.

The study conducted by both Chermak (1995) and Greer (2012) argues that newsworthiness of crimes can also be determined by the victim. The type of victim, usually “those persons or category of individuals who – when hit by crime – most readily are given the complete and legitimate status of being a victim, including those who are perceived as vulnerable, defenceless, innocent and worthy of sympathy and compassion” (Greer, 2012), appeals to the media more due to the human interest element (Chermak, 1995). Following this theory, victims who generally receive extensive media representation are the elderly, women and children as opposed to men, again contributing to notion of selective reporting (Greer,

This book is not easy to digest and definitely not for the faint of heart. It deals with a controversial subject that never fails to make my blood boil: rape. Every day, on the news, I always see reports of women, girls or even men raped, and every time I do, my heart cries out. And majority of the time, I see the women ashamed of that fact - that they were made powerless and taken advantage of. And these are only the small percent who actually cried for help.

What we know and what we think we may know about victims is greatly influenced by what we see on television, on the internet and in many other forms of media. This representation although sometimes may be misleading it helps shape our outlooks and understandings of victims and the assumption we as society make about them. Media has always been seen as an influential tool that can manipulate society’s opinion and perceptions of a victim. In the public’s mind the term ‘victim’ is seen as a person who has become powerless or submissive due to the result of crime, whether they are injured, killed or involved in events or actions of misfortune in which they are seen as some kind of victim. The increasing visibility of victims within mass media due

Violence against women globally is so widespread a problem that it is now a widely understood fact that approximately one in three women have experienced either physical or sexual violence in her lifetime (WHO, 2013). The media plays a central role in shaping our understanding of the world around us and as a result its influence on how the wider community both views and understands violence against women is powerful. The media story titled: ‘The Steubenville Rape Case: Script goes awry for accused teen,’ tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl who was raped by two high school football players who then shared photos of the rape on social media. This online article published by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) provides a startlingly