Critical discourse analysis reveals victim-blaming structures in news coverage of elite sexual abuse allegations, highlighting the entrenchment of conservative ideology.
This paper considers media portrayals of the case of Virginia L. Giuffre v Prince Andrew as a means of exploring the hegemonising qualities of news discourse. Informed by theoretical accounts of hegemonic domination, news texts pertaining to the alleged sexual assaults of Virginia by Andrew are analysed using techniques and approaches from CDA. This reveals features that reinforce victim-blaming ideologies surrounding sexual violence, disinvite critical scrutiny of powerful societal institutions, and reflect a wider entrenchment of conservative ideology and intransigent masculinity in news production. The findings of the study contribute principally to feminist critical discourse studies and broader understandings of discursively enacted hegemony.
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Sonny Osman (2026) studied this question.
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