“Culture Clash” in Phoenix

Abstract

This case study examines online news framing of a group rape occurring in a Liberian refugee community in Phoenix, Arizona, where four boys sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl. Specifically, the paper analyzes how the website of the Phoenix-based Arizona Republic newspaper, azcentral.com, constructed the assault and its aftermath, focusing on what framing suggested about the causes of the crime and the role of identity discourses about gender, class, race, nation, and age. Findings suggest two dominant frames that blame the crime and its aftermath on Liberian culture by mobilizing identity discourse to construct youthful male Liberian refugees as violent “others,” and by suggesting that gang rape and victim-blaming are alien to American culture. A less prevalent frame counters the cultural explanation, pointing instead to individual responsibility. To some extent, dominant framing implicates social structures as a cause of rape, but overemphasizes race and nation to mask how they intersect with gender and age, thereby constructing the story in ways that support public anxiety about refugees more than progressive reforms to alleviate gender violence. The conclusions suggest that the frames identified follow established patterns for news constructions of gender violence involving young perpetrators of color. Thus, the study adds a new dimension to recent research likening online newspapers to their print predecessors in ways that reveal a cautious approach to the embrace of the innovative possibilities of internet-based news.