“He's funny, he's intelligent, he opens doors, a perfect gentleman” : a mixed methods approach to analyzing rape myths within newspaper accounts of the Jian Ghomeshi trial

Abstract

A great deal of literature provides an American perspective to the prevalence of rape myths in newspaper accounts of sexual assault cases. The present research attempts to bridge the Canadian gap by first providing a Canadian context to present literature on the prevalence of rape myths within newspaper accounts of the Jian Ghomeshi trial, and secondly, by analyzing the prevalence of positive statements relating to Jian Ghomeshi’s status (i.e. citizenship, good standing, class, privilege, celebrity status). A mixed methods approach combining a content analysis and critical discourse analysis was used to examine articles sampled from four newspapers– The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, and The Vancouver Province. A total of 200 articles were coded for rape myths and positive statements relating to Jian Ghomeshi. Of the articles, 14.5% (n=29) contained at least one rape myth, while 35% (n=70) contained at least one positive statements relating to Jian Ghomeshi. Upon establishing the prevalence of rape myths and positive statements relating to Ghomeshi within the articles, a critical discourse analysis was used in order to better understand how language reproduces and maintains the perpetuation of rape myths and endorses Ghomeshi’s status.