Off limits: The role of news and social media in developing sexual assault and harassment as a campaign issue during the Indian parliamentary elections of 2019-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Off limits: The role of news and social media in developing sexual assault and harassment as a campaign issue during the Indian parliamentary elections of 2019

Published:2022-11-14 Issue: Volume: Page:174276652211351
ISSN:1742-7665
Container-title:Global Media and Communication
language:en
Short-container-title:Global Media and Communication

Author:

Guha Pallavi¹^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Towson University, USA

Abstract

In September 2018, the second wave of #Metooindia resumed in India, opening up conversations on sexual assault. Surprisingly, this did not lead to the inclusion of sexual assault as a key campaign issue in the Indian parliamentary elections in early 2019. This study investigates the underlying role of news media and social media in building an anti-sexual assault agenda in the 2019 Indian Lok Sabha election campaign. It builds on past literature on rational choice decision-making theory, social media activism and rape as a political issue in campaigns. This mixed method study includes the analysis of political manifestos and Facebook posts during the campaign, news articles published in the two most circulated English newspapers in India and interviews with political journalists. The restrained mainstream media coverage of sexual assault and pan-Indian social media platforms helped to limit the issue from becoming a part of the campaign during the elections.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous),Communication

Link

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17427665221135110

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