Dissertation
Legal dramas on trial: TV viewers' discourses on sexual violence and social awareness
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
May 2024
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00010599
Abstract
The recent increase in television production around sexual violence has been labeled by some as a "#MeToo genre." This phenomenon blends sociocultural and legal conversations about sex crimes and the criminal justice system; it popularizes and alters them. To better investigate the social awareness implications of this new televised style, this project adopts a reception study approach and feminist critical discourse analysis to examine how participants in four focus groups discuss legal drama stories about sex crimes. The decision to study the legal drama genre is twofold: 1) It is, overall, under-researched, while 2) It offers new conversational frames around a setting, the courtroom, that has been analyzed as an onscreen third rapist (Bergman 2012) and a real-life revictimizing environment, nonetheless remaining a place of justice in the social imaginary. Emerging discourses from the focus groups show resistance to the construct of 'real rape' and different levels of social consciousness. However, they also highlight tensions around questions of consent and collective accountability; internalized biases towards believability and post-trauma behaviors; as well as a reinforcement of justice as exclusively carceral and punitive. This doctoral dissertation ultimately elaborates on how these popular narratives can be positioned within societal debates around rape culture.
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Details
- Title
- Legal dramas on trial
- Creators
- Dacia Pajé
- Contributors
- Rachel R. Reynolds (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- v, 150 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Arts and Sciences; Communication, Culture, and Media; Communication; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991021890311704721