“It’s On Us.” The Role of Social Media and Rape Culture in Individual Willingness to Mobilize Against Sexual Assault

Abstract

Stopping sexual violence has become a key issue in the public and media agenda. This study examines the role of social media and bystander intervention in predicting an individual’s willingness to engage in collective action against sexual violence. Two surveys were conducted in fall 2014 and early 2015 examining young adults’ views of social networking sites, rape culture, and collective action. Results indicated that gender and bystander intervention were key predictors of willingness to engage in collective action, along with the privacy concerns of social network users. Views supporting rape culture were found to have a negative association. Implications are discussed.

Notes

¹ We see bystander intervention as an individual’s willingness to stop a potentially harmful event from occurring when it happens directly in front of him or her (e.g., a party or on a sidewalk). Conversely, with willingness to mobilize against sexual assault, we are measuring one’s likelihood to speak out against a general issue or attitude, even if no imminent danger is present. These are two distinct but related concepts—both of which have been studied separately in previous social science literature. To be certain, we found Pearson correlations between the two concepts of .62 (Study 1) and .56 (Study 2), demonstrating a moderate correlation in this study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cory L. Armstrong

Cory L. Armstrong (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2004) is a Professor and chair in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at University of Alabama. Her research interests include influences on news content, gender representations and credibility.

Jessica Mahone

Jessica Mahone (Ph.D., University of Florida, 2013) is a Research Assistant with the News Measures Research Project in the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers University. Her research interests include news media and activism, gender and media, and local news and civic engagement.