Exploring the Role of Social Media As Storying Campus Sexual Assault

Background and Purpose

The purpose of this oral paper presentation is to share the findings from a qualitative study that explored the role of social media, specifically Instagram, as a platform where undergraduate students shared their stories of campus sexual assault (CSA). In May 2020, students turned to social media in response to the murder of George Floyd and police brutality, as well as frustration with their universities as they moved to virtual settings during COVID-19. Students called upon university leadership to examine their policies and responses to violence, including CSA. Although limited, research has begun to explore the role of social media (e.g., #MeToo movement) in the context of CSA. This exploratory study also was framed by several theoretical perspectives, including theories pertaining to self-disclosure, trauma and recovery, and digital social activism, including cyberfeminism. The guiding research question was, “How do students use social media, specifically Instagram, as a platform to share their stories of CSA?”

Methods

This exploratory research study was based on a qualitative inquiry design, specifically using qualitative content analysis, to identify patterns and themes in the written textual data. Data was collected from the public account @campus.survivors that was created in May 2020 and included written, textual stories (N=300) about CSA from students who experienced a CSA while an undergraduate. Steps of analysis congruent with qualitative content analysis were used to analyze the data, including multiple readings of the data, comparing and contrasting initial codes, and memoing to arrive at a consensual understanding of the data underlying the final list of themes.

Results

Three themes emerged from the data. The first theme was sharing for specific audiences, which included students sharing their stories in ways that explicitly called out student leadership within various student organizations on campus and the hierarchy of these organizations. The second theme was action-oriented stories, where students were vocal in how their campus, particularly fellow students, needed to change the campus culture, power dynamics, and take responsibility. Finally, the last theme, which speaks to previous research and activism, was breaking the silence. Within this theme, students shared frequently that this was their first time disclosing their CSA and the challenges that came with finding the right words or language to name or describe their experience, as well as encouraging others that they are not alone or at fault for what had happened to them.

Conclusions and Implications

Given the lack of research on the lived experiences and student stories of CSA, uniquely within the social media context of Instagram, researchers have called for increased qualitative research. Through this study, the goal was to expand the CSA literature to enhance the understanding of the lived experiences of victim-survivors in their post-assault healing process, specifically through re-centering their stories. Related, this study meets the call for increased social work efforts across research, practice, and policy pertaining to the prevention and response to CSA, as well as to explore how student victim-survivors are using their voices as advocates and leaders in their communities.