Framing safety of women in public transport: A media discourse analysis of sexual harassment cases in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of print media in framing incidences of sexual harassment in public transport; particularly in the context of Bangladesh, where gender-based violence is highly prevalent in the public sphere. This article uses Douglas’ cultural theory to reflect on media practices and its institutional power to reframe the social problem through risk and blame attribution. We conducted a discourse analysis of 71 news articles extracted from four of the widely circulated and influential newspapers of Bangladesh. Our findings reveal that the hegemonic discourse of gender-based violence in public transport is systemic and/or primarily reliant on legal recourse. By contrast, discourses presenting sexual harassment as symptomatic of broader gender inequality is less frequent. Moreover, these media platforms belong to an assemblage of patriarchal social-power holders that collaborate with established law and order to facilitate a blame game, thereby relieving the same stakeholders of ownership and accountability. Given the power of news media in constructing meta-narratives of safety (and nudging policymakers), journalists must tread responsibly on issues of blame, women’s safety, and their rights to the city.

Discourses of Fear in Online News Media: Implications for Perceived Risk of Travel

“…It interprets texts including words, phrases, and syntax, considering their wider scale and socio-political formations [64]. Criteria adopted during the analysis of online news media were like those of Altheide [65] and Mowri and Bailey [36], examining content, tone, catchphrases, and framing. Themes were then analyzed at a deeper level, indicating broader social discourses in relation to the phenomenon [66].…”

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“…Researchers can examine broader connections of media texts through critical discourse analysis (CDA), understanding that a text must be analyzed within the social context in which it takes place [36]. CDA follows Foucault's [50] ideas that power and knowledge are primarily inseparable and intertwined and reflect power in and outside of particular social groups and actors [51].…”

Critical Review of Content Analysis Studies on Corporate Social Responsibility

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