“I Definitely Did Not Report It When I Was Raped . . . #WeBelieveChristine #MeToo”: A Content Analysis of Disclosures of Sexual Assault on Twitter

Abstract

The “Me Too” movement, founded by activist Tarana Burke, began in 2006, before Twitter became the viral platform for political activism and news media that it is known for today. The reemergence of the Me Too movement on Twitter in 2017 sparked a widespread focus on the societal issue of sexual misconduct. This study examines sexual assault disclosures as an aspect of such misconduct through the context of the Me Too movement on Twitter. Through the use of content analysis, online disclosures of sexual assault ( N = 1,459) are examined for variations of sexual explicitness and attainment of social functions per the functional theory of self-disclosure. Specifically, this study explores associations between Twitter network structure and (1) levels of sexual explicitness and (2) retweet count. Through manual coding and statistical analysis, the study finds associations between sexual explicitness of online disclosures and retweet count as well as associations between network structure and sexual explicitness of disclosures. The study shifts the focus of disclosure discourse from dyadic communication to the contemporary context of networked social media. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, which include, but are not limited to, the exploration of associations between disclosing and catharsis, disclosing that may be characterized as neutral or conflicted, and disclosing sexual assault without being sexually explicit.