Rape on Trial: How the Mass Media Construct Legal Reform and Social Change / Edition 1

by Lisa M. Cuklanz

Overview

Why has so much of the public discussion of rape focused on a few specific cases, and to what extent has this discussion incorporated the feminist perspective on rape? Rape on Trial explores these questions and provides answers based on a detailed examination of the mainstream news coverage of the John and Greta Rideout marital rape case, the Big Dan's Tavern gang rape case, and the Webb-Dotson rape recantation case.

Lisa M. Cuklanz traces where and how rape reform ideas were granted legitimacy in mainstream news coverage. She finds that while the subsequent fictionalized versions frequently adopted the themes foregrounded in the news coverage, they usually were more sympathetic toward—and indeed often took on—the rape victim's point of view.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780812215595
Publisher:	University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication date:	11/01/1995
Series:	Feminist Cultural Studies, the Media, and Political Culture
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Lisa M. Cuklanz is Chair of the Women's Studies Program and Associate Professor of Communication at Boston College. She is on the board of directors of the Radcliffe Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies and the author of Rape on Prime TimeTrial: How the Mass Media Construct Legal Reform and Social Change, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Editorial Reviews

An examination of the ways health, sickness, and healing are related to religious and moral concerns and practices in most cultures. It shows that healing is often a symbolic and ritualistic process and that healers--even in modern scientific medicine--are masters at employing symbols and rituals in their treatment of illness. Its three sections deal with themes and characteristics of traditional medical cultures; the ways those characteristics apply to Christianity; and the ways modern Western medicine is similar to traditional healing. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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