In 2017, the Me Too campaign, founded ten years earlier to help women of color from low-income communities who were survivors of sexual violence, became a viral social media movement following allegations on Twitter by actress Alyssa Milano of sexual harassment and violence against the powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Using the hashtag #MeToo, Milano unwittingly mobilized millions of women to share their stories via social media, and the #Metoo movement subsequently helped to illuminate both the structural and individual aspects of sexual harassment and abuse by men against women within virtually all aspects of society. As the #MeToo movement swept the globe, millions of women shared stories of sexual harassment and abuse through social media platforms, and indictments of the “inappropriate behavior” against women gained center stage. To understand this movement today and how media made it possible, this study analyses the discussion about online media and social movements surrounding the 2019 World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland. In doing so, this research sheds light on the achievement and impact of the movement. Employing a mixed-method approach providing a feminist epistemological perspective on elements drawn from discourse analysis, comparative discourse analysis, content analysis, and critical discourse analysis, this thesis analyses a sample of ten online reports on how online mass media, and particularly social media, shapes movements for social change. It shows that online media is of great significance in constructing movements for social change because it facilitates the construction and dissemination of a social change discourse and influences how we determine which situations and actions constitute “sexual harassment.” This analysis further shows that feminist principles of gender equality, women’s sexual self-determination, and empowerment no longer define the politics of sexual harassment in the digital age.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-21620 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Delgado Falcon, Gaudi |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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