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Accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins. Credit: The West Australian

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On 15 February 2021, Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins told the media that she was raped by a colleague, Bruce Lehrmann, in the office of Senator Linda Reynolds on 23 March 2019. After the incident, Higgins reported to the police but later withdrew the complaint in April 2019 under pressure. It wasn't until early 2021 that Higgins chose to go public with the story through the media. This incident has attracted widespread attention and controversy.

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This study uses discourse analysis, which is a qualitative method to analyse texts and the use of language.
Specifically, I use Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA), as it focuses on power relations in language.
The analysis will follow the three-dimensional model of discourse (Fairclough, 1992) which analyse the texts from three levels: Text, Discursive Practice, and Social Practice.

Samples:

News articles published by the Australian media website news.com.au between 15 February 2021 and 15 March 2021 with the keyword "Brittany Higgins" and under the subject of "Sex Crimes" in the region of Australia.
The data will be collected from the Factiva database.

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Media stories are told within the gendered social contexts, making media's content susceptible to unconscious gender bias.
“Rape culture” is a term coined by feminist activists in the 1970s to describe a sociocultural context.
In rape culture, sexual assault is seen as excusable in some circumstances. These include situations where women are displaying certain signals, such as drinking, flirting, wearing provocative clothing, or being sexually active.
Rape culture shifts the focus of public attention from the punishment of the perpetrator to the regulation of the victim's behavior.

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Common characteristics in media portrayals of rape cases
-Media tends to be skeptical when describing the incidents.
-Excessive attention to the survivor's behavior.
-Language is used to undermine the credibility of the survivor’s description, particularly the word "alleged".
- In feminist discourse, the word "victim" has a negative connotation.
- In the headlines of past media reports of sexual assault cases, many did not identify the perpetrators by name.

Many women who have been assaulted did not seek for help or report sexual crimes because many survivors anticipate that they may be re-traumatized, shamed and humiliated by friends, society, and the media, so they choose to remain silent for self-protection.

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1. Text Analysis: Focus on the linguistic features of the texts. From this level, we can understand the main themes conveyed by most of the articles and the general attitude towards the survivor and the perpetrator.

2. Discursive Practice Analysis: The second dimension will analyse how these languages are interpreted by the audience in the context. The language used by the media eventually leads the audience to generate different interpretations of the same event.

3. Social Practice Analysis: The third dimension will identify the interrelation between the social structure, cultural context, and power relations embodied in the discourse of the articles. This dimension will relate to social and political contexts to understand the ideologies on which the texts rely and how popular ideologies are shaped or reinforced.

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The way sexual assault cases are portrayed in the media affects public perception of violence against women and gender issues.

Rape culture reflects the power relationships between the different genders in society, and the language surrounding sexual violence matters.

Through three levels of critical discourse analysis, this study gives a better understanding of the Australian media's portrayal of the rape survivor and the perpetrator in reporting the case of Brittany Higgins and the influence of the ideology conveyed by this kind of portrayal on the phenomenon of gender discrimination and sexism in society.

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Aroustamian, C. (2020). Time's up: Recognising sexual violence as a public policy issue: A qualitative content analysis of sexual violence cases and the media. Aggression and violent behavior, 50, 101341.

Chasteen, A. L. (2001). Constructing rape: Feminism, change, and women's everyday understandings of sexual assault. Sociological Spectrum, 21(2), 101-139.

De Ruyter, T. (2022, October 26). Brittany Higgins rape case trial sensationally aborted. The West Australian. https://thewest.com.au/news/brittany-higgins-jury-in-bruce-lehrmann-rape-trial-sensationally-discharged--c-8673025

Easteal, P., Holland, K., & Judd, K. (2015, January). Enduring themes and silences in media portrayals of violence against women. In Women's Studies International Forum (Vol. 48, pp. 103-113). Pergamon.

Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Routledge.

Haime , J. (2018, October). Deconstructing Rape Culture. UNH Today. https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2018/10/deconstructing-rape-culture

Keller, J., Mendes, K., & Ringrose, J. (2018). Speaking ‘unspeakable things’: Documenting digital feminist responses to rape culture. Journal of gender studies, 27(1), 22-36.

Maiden, S. (2021, February 14). Parliament House rocked by alleged rape. NewsComAu. https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/parliament-house-rocked-by-brittany-higgins-alleged-rape/news-story/fb02a5e95767ac306c51894fe2d63635

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Data collection and analysis have not yet been completed, but for now, many of the characteristics of the samples are consistent with the findings of previous studies.

For example, confusing words such as "assaulted", "alleged assault", and "having sex" are used instead of rape in most of the articles.
In the coverage of this case, Brittany Higgins's name was often mentioned throughout media reports and was at the center of the discussion. The perpetrator, Bruce Lehrmann, was rarely mentioned as if he is invisible, and even his name rarely appeared.

Excessive attention to the survivor's behavior and victim-based accusations can lead the public to make negative judgments of the survivor's behavior, thus causing the audience to have doubts or other negative impressions of rape survivors, thereby perpetuating gender inequality and sexism.