The Rosey Project: Transforming the Media's Role in Addressing Sexual Violence
Sexual violence is a harrowing issue that continues to plague societies around the world, and Scotland is no exception. Recent statistics reveal that sex crimes account for 5% of all reported crimes in the country. However, only a fraction of these cases make it into the public eye, and the media's coverage of them often complicates the trauma experienced by survivors. Over 70% of individuals surveyed on the topic of sexual violence felt that survivors of sexual violence were negatively portrayed by the media, and more than 80% expressed a reluctance to report such crimes to the police due to these depictions. The media must do better.
The Rosey Project, an initiative by Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis, has emerged as a leader in changing media responses to sexual violence in Scotland. However, its mission extends beyond supporting survivors—it also strives to prevent sexual violence from occurring in the first place. The heart of the Rosey Project is the Rosey Project Community (RPC) group, where survivors and staff members come together on a weekly basis.
The RPC group realized that they shared common experiences regarding the media's coverage of sexual violence. This recognition prompted them to embark on a mission to "reassess the press." They decided to scrutinize 43 articles on rape and sexual assault from a variety of media outlets, including The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Mirror, and The Sun, and create an exhibition that represented survivors' perspectives.
“That [the reason for the formation of the group] was a key thing: creating resources by survivors, for survivors,” said one of the survivors and a member of the RPC group who wished to be known mononymously as “Holly.” Language, the group found, plays a critical role in how sexual violence is portrayed in the media. The analysis conducted by the RPC highlighted a glaring discrepancy between reports on child victims, which often described crimes as "horrific" or "appalling," and those involving adult survivors, who were “often subjected to victim-blaming stereotypes, allegations of lying and suggestions of greed.”
Moreover, the media often portrayed high-profile perpetrators positively, emphasizing their accomplishments, wealth, and family status rather than reporting on their crime. The use of the passive voice in articles, such as "a woman was attacked" rather than "a man attacked a woman," further contributed to perpetuating victim-blaming perceptions. Shockingly, only one out of the 43 articles reviewed mentioned a helpline for rape crisis support in the U.K., showing a lack of commitment to providing survivors with the resources they need.
Furthermore, none of the articles featured trigger warnings despite some research suggesting that they could be beneficial for individuals with PTSD. The absence of trigger warnings failed to caution readers about the potentially distressing content they were about to encounter. The lack of appropriate language and information in these articles only serves to perpetuate the problem, adding to the pain and suffering experienced by survivors.
For some participants in the RPC group, the issue lay not only in the language used by the media but also in what remained unsaid. Sexual violence rarely makes headlines unless it features a high-profile participant-0and this lack of visibility negatively affects survivors' experiences. "My experience of sexual violence is very rarely discussed. I have never seen it discussed in the media, which is partly why I think it took me many years to finally identify that my experience was sexual violence, too," said Holly.
Holly's hope is that the exhibition, along with the contributions of survivors, will foster change and awareness. “It’s raising awareness that there is not just one response to gender-based violence or one feeling – that everybody's journey is different. I think that's really important.”
“I wanted to take part because I think it’s important to take part in projects with a survivor's voice, in order to hopefully make positive changes for other survivors,” she clarified. “It’s really important to me that all survivors feel represented, respected and validated, no matter their experience.”
The Reassess the Press exhibition—which displayed the group’s shocking findings in clear, unrelenting terms—is a powerful testament to the survivors' determination to make a difference. The findings from their analysis and reporting examples from the 43 articles are presented through a series of posters, accompanied by illustrations designed by Zoe Stromberg. These posters are visually captivating for the sake of delivering a poignant message.
One poster depicts a mermaid curled up on a stack of newspapers, surrounded by phrases commonly used around sexual assault, such as "Asking for it," "Were you drunk?" "What were you wearing?" and "Your own fault." Another poster features three witches gathered around a cauldron labeled #MeToo, a nod to the women who spoke out about their experiences with sexual violence and faced ostracization from society, similar to the women condemned in the Salem Witch Trials.
The exhibition is not just about highlighting the media's shortcomings in addressing sexual violence; it's also an attempt to address the larger issue of rape culture. “It's raising awareness on how what we are exposed to on an everyday basis contributes to normalizing gender-based violence and sexual violence at its core,” explained an anonymous member of the RPC group. “The exhibition is a way to get that across. It gets people to read through all the parts that have a play in this.”
For survivors like Holly, the exhibition was cathartic. “It was very empowering seeing everything come together. We all turned a negative experience in our lives and used it to fuel a project that is very important, which was quite therapeutic.”
The Rosey Project team isn't done with the exhibition. They plan to take it on the road, visiting schools and universities across Scotland to initiate open conversations about the necessary changes to undermine rape culture and create something new in its stead. The aim is to make students and young adults more aware of the impact of media representation on sexual violence and challenge prevailing norms.
For newsrooms who are eager to adopt these changes, the Reassess the Press initiative offers several recommendations:
Include trigger warnings and helplines in relevant articles. This way, readers who are victims of sexual violence don’t feel further trapped and dismissed by the news they’re consuming.
Avoid the passive voice and sensationalist language. If a man committed rape against a women, the man raped the woman. The “woman was raped by the man” puts the onus on the victim, which leads into the next point:
Avoid victim-blaming narratives. The victim is not at fault, and the perpetrator is not misunderstood or misrepresented.
Focus on survivors and their path to recovery in stories written by journalists. Communities who are disproportionately victims of sexual violence have been told they deserve it for nearly all of human history. That changes now. Those communities first need to heal in order to affect change going forward.
The media may not perpetuate harmful stereotypes intentionally, but journalists and newsrooms alike must be more considerate with their content. By implementing these recommendations, media outlets can play a vital role in changing the way society views and discusses stories of sexual violence, ultimately contributing to a more empathetic, supportive, and understanding world for survivors. The Rosey Project's journey is a testament to the power of survivors working together to drive change and make their voices heard.
