After the ruling of the Steubenville Rape Case was announced, journalists had to present their gathered stories about the victim and offenders. Perhaps due to lack of substantial information about the unnamed 16-year-old victim, most of the narratives seemed to focus mostly on the two offenders; Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond. This paper discusses how ABC and CNN reporters portray the victim and how their reports influence public perception of the victim. The two media reports focused on the two offenders, portraying the victim who remains unnamed as the one who got herself to problems and ruined the lives of the two bright young stars.
CNN and ABC reporters relied on the public details about offenders and emotions around football game to frame a sympathetic portrayal of the offenders whose lives are ruined by the case’s ruling. On the other hand, they portray the victim as “drunk” and failed to clarify that the offenders were also drinking. By doing so, they portray the victim as the one who was supposed to be blamed for rape. ABC reports that Trent's lawyer claimed that the girl persuaded Trent to join her in a party where she was with several girlfriends (Lombardi, Soloway, & Dooley, 2013).
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CNN focuses on how the offenders were “promising students” with a “promising future” and fails to give enough details about the victim (Wemple, 2013). This portrays the victim as a girl who did not have a bright future even before the incident. On the other hand, the ABC report makes excuses for the offenders. The victim is shown as the one who persuaded her offender. She is shown as the one to blame.
The two reports influence public perception of the victim by depicting her as careless and one who got herself into a problem. She had an option to go with her friend but instead insisted on going with Trent. The public can perceive the girl as the one on wrong for being intoxicated and accompanying boys. Besides, based on the reports, she is portrayed as the one who persuaded her sex offenders.
In conclusion, after going through the two reports, I felt that the reporters did a shoddy job and that they played a part in glorifying “rape culture” among football teams. The two media outlets failed to get details about the victim and instead portrayed her as an intoxicated 16-year old girl. They focus on framing a sympathetic portrayal of the two offenders. The two are shown as individuals who had a bright future ahead, which was ruined by the criminal justice system. The victim is shown as just a “girl” who was aiming to taking advantage of a young man with a bright future.
References
Lombardi, M., Soloway, L., & Dooley, S. (2013). Steubenville: The Untold Story. Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/2020/steubenville-rape-case-story-heard/story?id=18705357
Wemple, E. (2013). CNN is getting hammered for Steubenville coverage. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/03/18/cnn-is-getting-hammered-for-steubenville-coverage/
