Victim blaming in media: language framing of sexual harassment reporting in university settings

Purpose This study aims to examine the forms of victim blaming in online news coverage of sexual harassment cases in higher education and analyze the extent to which the news patterns affect readers’ perceptions of victims. Design/methodology/approach The research used a mixed method that combined qualitative and quantitative methods through a sequential exploratory design model. The text of the news coverage of sexual harassment cases in higher education published in online media was analyzed using the discourse analysis model. The survey was conducted among 300 university students in Indonesia, who were selected using the cluster sampling method. Findings Many news reports in online media still use approaches that implicitly or explicitly indicate victim blaming in cases of sexual violence. There are three common types of victim blaming found in media reporting on sexual violence: seeking attention, passive behavior and being unalert. Findings show that although students, as readers, show a significant tendency to blame victims of sexual harassment after reading the news excerpts provided. This shows that reporting on sexual harassment, which is categorized as leading to victim blaming, has been proven to make readers blame the victim in the context of the sexual harassment case. Practical implications This study can provide recommendations for fairer and more sensitive reporting toward victims, as well as raising awareness of the importance of supporting victims of sexual harassment. Originality/value This study identifies forms of victim blaming in the news and analyzes how these patterns affect readers’ perceptions. Previous research has not studied this combination of analysis.