A q-metholological approach to audience reception of public awareness messages on sexual violence
- Authors: Bennie, Rachel
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Psychology -- Research -- Methodology , Psychology -- Research , Communication in social action -- South Africa , Psychology -- Research -- South Africa , Women -- Violence against -- South Africa , Women -- Violence against -- South Africa -- Prevention
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140805 , vital:37920
- Description: Public awareness poster campaigns are an often-used method for raising awareness about, and engaging audiences on the topic of rape and other forms of sexual violence (Potter, 2012). However, poster campaigns, as social artefacts, operate in a public arena in which numerous discourses about a phenomenon are produced, reproduced and interact with each other, with sometimes unintended/unanticipated discursive consequences (Böhmke, Bennie, Minnie, Moore, Pilusa & Pollock, 2015). How messages aimed at raising awareness of sexual violence are framed has the potential to reproduce dominant social narratives and gendered subject positions in ways that reinforce notions of men as active sexual agents and potential perpetrators, and women as sexually passive and potential victims (Gavey, 2005). Other approaches, such as bystander intervention, seek to move away from a focus on victims and perpetrators to emphasise the role that community members can play in risk detection, safety promotion and the prevention of sexual violence (McMahon & Banyard, 2012). Since a range of possible messages about sexual violence can be communicated through poster campaigns, it is important to critically examine the content and orientation of campaign material. This study focused on intended audience views regarding messages about sexual violence contained in anti-sexual violence poster materials. The purpose was to collaborate with a selected audience to better understand which messages are effective and which strategies of communication are perceived to be less so. Through the use of Q-methodology, volunteer participants were invited to express their opinions in relation to messages about sexual violence from a range of posters from several international campaigns. The analysis focused on uncovering the discursive subject positions that participants’ express in their attitudinal responses to the poster messages, providing not only a description of these positions, but also illustrating the level of resonance that the poster messages may find with intended audiences. The aim of the study is to potentially inform the development of more focused campaign material, tailored to the specific context from which participants were drawn. Analysis shows clear patterns of audience resistance towards stereotypical representations of sexual violence and messages that are geared towards the simple prohibition of behaviours. The findings highlight the need for the development of alternative strategies of engagement that focus on specific engagement with understandings of sexual violence in the context of intimate and/or acquaintance relationships and which are aimed at inviting audiences to take up a position in relation to sexual violence phenomena that troubles the reproduction of received notions of gendered subjectivities and (hetero) sexuality
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- Date Issued: 2020
Just saying “No” is not enough: a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of anti-rape poster campaigns
- Authors: Böhmke, Werner , Bennie, Rachel , Minnie, Chantel , Moore, Sarah-Ann , Pilusa, Mikaylah , Pollock, James
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143727 , vital:38277 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Sexual violence is a serious social concern, especially in South Africa. Explanations for high levels of sexual violence often point to normative cultural expectations regarding gendered behaviour. Consequently, attempts to address sexual violence frequently take the form of public health initiatives aimed at increasing awareness of the problem, encouraging reporting and, much more recently, addressing the social attitudes believed to be held by perpetrators of this violence. A common format for such initiatives is anti-rape poster campaigns. This paper argues, through applying Foucauldian discourse analysis to a series of posters, that very often the messages conveyed by these initiatives are addressed at the prohibition of behaviours associated with sexual violence. The analysis shows that this strategy may not be sufficient, and instead argues that alternative strategies - aimed at inviting audiences to take up an ethical position - may be more effective at producing change.
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- Date Issued: 2015