Abstract

This paper interrogates the role of media, including new digital technologies, in disseminating sexual violence-related dis/information in a democracy, and how it hinders or furthers gender justice for marginalized women. Drawing from sexual violence cases in contemporary India, it examines how dominant media messages sometimes construct gendered identities and enable social inequalities, such as through film and newspapers, or through the circulation of MMS and the use of new digital technologies by privileged perpetrators. Simultaneously, it also analyzes the rhetorical mobilizing of affective communities via mass media, both print and electronic, for social justice, and its political and judicial impact – including, in rare instances, compassionate responses from the postcolonial state.

Presenters

Debotri Dhar
Full-time Lecturer, Women's and Gender Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Media Cultures

KEYWORDS

SEXUAL VIOLENCE; MASS MEDIA; GENDER JUSTICE; INDIA

Digital Media

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