Assessing the Efficacy of Feminist Interventions on Journalistic Practices

This study tests the effectiveness of incorporating feminist best practices in news coverage of sexual violence through an experiment administered to US and South African adult news consumers (N = 496). Participants were randomly exposed to news stories of sexual violence and asked to evaluate responsibility (blame), believability, punishment, and empathy for both the victim and the perpetrator. Participants who read news stories that incorporated feminist best practices (such as diverse sources, use of statistics, thematic framing, survivor-centered framing etc.) were less likely to blame the victim. They were more likely to believe the victim, less likely to state the victim deserved punishment, and expressed higher levels of empathy for the victim. The opposite was true for all measures among participants who read stories that did not include feminist best practices. This study contributes to feminist theorization of journalism by testing and demonstrating the efficacy of feminist interventions on journalism, showing that incorporating journalistic principles advanced by feminist scholars and activists can impact audiences in ways that might support social justice goals.