According to the World Health Organization, one in three women experiences physical or sexual violence during her lifetime. Addressing these issues responsibly and gently is undoubtedly a challenge for journalists, but to achieve this we need to have the resources that allow us to report accurately and respectfully.
For this reason, at the Ethical Network, we want to leave you with some key resources that provide guidance and advice on sexual violence coverage in different contexts. Most of these resources are in English and some have Spanish versions, but to ensure that you can access all content, we ask that you use the translation tools offered by your browser.
Learn and try
To get you started, the US National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) has a toolkit of basic information to help you learn what sexual violence is and what to do about it. In it, questions such as what is child sexual abuse, how to involve bystanders, how to talk to victims and who are the people who commit this type of crime can be answered.
Contribute to the debate on prevention
You can also find a tip pack for journalists on the NSVRC site, which emphasizes that we should also highlight sexual violence as not inevitable in our coverage. This can be done by providing concrete and specific reasons for programs, strategies and other prevention strategies that have shown positive results, writing about questions that help change paradigms and perceptions about sexuality, or asking questions to the audience about how prevention works. lest the local authorities and people should think of what to do.
Choose your words well
Using subtle and non-judgmental language that does not blame the victim or suggest that they are in any way responsible for the violence suffered is essential in this type of coverage. RAINN, the largest anti-sexist force in the United States, has a guide to key words and phrases you can refer to, including recommendations on where to use words like “victim” or “survivor.”
Be critical of your approach
Know your 9th guide to reporters and editors covering gender-based violence, especially on college campuses. In it they recommend thinking about the type of institutions in which you place your report and your coverage. Elite universities have dominated this coverage, but it does not mean that sexual violence only happens there, even in public universities, community colleges, technical colleges and other public educational institutions, but those who decide to ignore the new things do not want to pay attention. there
In addition, she invites journalists to ask themselves if they want to tell stories even for unequal coverage of sexual violence, in which the stories of white women receive more media coverage than those of women of color or members of the LGBTIQ+ community.
Sensation and compassion
When interviewing victims and survivors of Internet sexual violence, it is important to give them the opportunity to tell what they have experienced in their own words, and to feel their needs. Remember that this person is going through a difficult time or does not want to talk about a particular situation, so be more respectful of their privacy and wishes. In RAINN you can find a series of tips for interviewing victims and survivors of sexual violence, with specific strategies for each level of interviewing; that is, how to prepare, how to approach the subject, how to write information and how to treat it.
Put a magnifying glass in situations where stigma and taboo are the rules
A space in which sexual violence is not usually discussed is in sports. Global Sports has a leader to cover this crime in the sports space. In it, journalist Jessica Luther affirms the way in which the media reports on these cases. whether other victims or future victims want to tell their stories.
One of her tips is not to use the passive voice when writing or speaking about sexual violence. In this regard, it is worth noting that the study depicts formal differences in the presentation of messages and how they affect readers’ causal attributions, finding that the message’s active words led listeners to attribute agency and responsibility to the people indicated. notizie., compared to the same story written in passive words.
This resource also discusses the importance of considering gender when reporting on the intersection of gender-based violence and sport. While many high-profile athletes are black men, it is important to note that they are often considered “dangerous” because of their skin color. Meanwhile, black women and other women of color are rarely imagined, let alone heard, as victims of gender-based violence. While these things don’t need to be written every time a piece is written, Luther tells reporters to always keep that in mind when deciding how to frame a story and what words to choose.
Sexual violence is also a violation of human rights
In its manual for journalists on reporting violence against women and girls, UNESCO recommends treating gender-based violence as a violation of human rights and not as an isolated event, since some studies show that this type of violence is common. treated as a short story or in a miscellaneous section, but they are systematic attacks that show a social problem of great importance.
It goes into the types of violence that are often unreported
The Investigative Journalism Globalism Network has a guide with recommendations on how to investigate sexual abuse. There he emphasizes the duty that invites journalists to investigate this type of violence, especially war crimes, but he invites them to understand the local laws on this matter, the statistics and the cultural environment of the place where they occur. In addition, she reminds us that telling sex stories requires a combination of compassion, tenacity, empathy, sensitivity, respect, and psychological awareness.
As a final recommendation, we invite you not to listen to these stories. The objective of our complaint as a journalist is to raise awareness about the problem of sexual violence and not to exploit victims, so we advise that before you disclose any information about survivors, make sure you have their consent and protect yourself. Secret; this includes your name, physical description, location, and other identifying details. While reporting on sexual violence is not easy, by following these methods, journalists can raise awareness and ensure that victims and their stories are treated with respect and dignity.
