Media Manipulation Against Social Justice Researchers: Second-Order Sexual Harassment

Abstract

According to scientific studies, manipulation, which is a key concept in critical discourse analyses, is used to gain control of power against those who act to promote transformations oriented toward social justice. In the case of the struggle against sexual harassment, attacks against people supporting the victims constitute second-order sexual harassment. In this article, we analyze a specific case of media manipulation aiming to silence the brave people who dared speak about gender violence at Spanish universities and acted toward eliminating violence at these universities. Most individuals who had assumed a position against gender violence have been professionally and personally attacked and destroyed by structural powers. In this article, we focus on two aspects. First, we analyze how the group that broke the silence in Spain managed to overcome the attacks by the yellow press. Second, we observe how this group achieved increasing social impact by transforming the universities and gaining the support of their family members, social movements, and most journalists. We performed this analysis using communicative methodology, including interviews with the relatives of the brave people who suffered second-order sexual harassment by certain media and compromised journalists. According to their relatives, by contributing to social justice, their families also improved their lives and family relationships.