Beacons over bridges: hashtags, visibility, and sexual assault disclosure on social media

ABSTRACT

Aside from #MeToo and similar campaigns, sexual assault survivors use social media to disclose personal experiences. This paper uses a mixed-methods approach and draws on network ethnography (Howard, 2002) to explore the visibility of these ‘everyday’ sexual assault disclosures and how such disclosures further survivors’ disclosure motivations. Social network analysis of 23 Twitter hashtags related to sexual assault shows minimal engagement with disclosive tweets, while interviews with survivors (N = 27) indicate that hashtagged disclosures can result in impactful interactions with other survivors, particularly via less visible social media channels, such as direct messages. In combination, results suggest (1) that survivor networks can and do form around mundane hashtags, and (2) that highly visible hashtagged disclosures act as beacons to other survivors and are employed in pursuit of motivations such as supporting other survivors and challenging stigma associated with sexual assault.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• sexual assault
• disclosure
• visibility
• hashtag

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the editors of this special issue, Karolina Koc Michalska and Anya Schiffrin. I am also deeply grateful to Katharina Heger, who provided feedback on a previous version of this paper. Thank you also to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristen Barta

Kristen Barta is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan School of Information. Her research explores visibility, social support, marginality, and identity on social media. email: [email protected]