The media is as much to blame for what happened in Steubenville as anyone else.

The Steubenville rape trial is big news at the moment and I am constantly seeing opinion and comments on what has been happening but I choose to ignore it. People have asked my opinion and when I tell them, I don’t think they expect to hear what I have to say. I point out that opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and sometimes they stink.

My opinion is more around the bigger picture of the story – not the story itself but the way it has been reported and the way people have reacted to it. I obtain my news from a variety of websites and it’s amazing how countries report things differently. I saw the Steubenville story in the North American press and felt that the media furore had become the story more than the actual rape itself and when it got to that stage I ignored it. I had no interest in it any more.

I’m not interested in seeing how the media reports things to try and get more people to watch their news – I am ok to learn the story from the facts but get bored and irritated when people’s opinions and interviews they give on a story become the news itself. This story hardly got a mention in the UK media apart from a snippet on the Traci Lords interview where she admitted she got raped as a child as well – that’s not news to me. For those that don’t know who Traci Lords is, she’s a porn star and this actually becomes interesting when you read on below.

Feeling sorry for these boys isn’t news. It’s the media trying to appeal to our emotions and upset people to keep them locked onto their shows and stay interested for as long as possible so they keep their ratings like some horrific episode of reality TV.

Let’s face it – we need to remember that this story is an exception – it’s not something that happens in society all the time. That’s why it’s news and that’s why the media has drawn us to it. Not all of our sons are like this and not all of our daughters are likely to be the victim of this however, the horror of the story stirs emotions and that soon ensures that everyone has a strong opinion.

‘Opinion stories’ are big ratings draws though and these media companies manipulate the facts and emphasize aspects to keep people hooked. They aren’t worried about the victims – they want to keep people locked on to their channels and it is a finely tuned art. A great example of how they do this was featured in one of the episodes of The Newsroom last year, where Don, an executive producer talks the rest of his team through a rival channels piece and explains how they draw people in. It’s actually fascinating and very clever how they do it using the viewer’s emotions to keep them interested.

The media have reported on this rape case and drawn our attentions to it but what I can’t help think, is that the media is probably as much to blame for what happened in Steubenville as anyone else.

Our media now shapes the society we live in, there’s no denying that. Years ago a band called the Kaiser Chiefs wrote a song called ‘We are the angry mob’ as an attack on the press influencing our modern day culture and the way people react to stories. It’s chorus features the line –

These words are so true.

The way that the media modern reports on misogynies towards women is so contradictory that it is almost funny. They write stories about how internet porn and celebrity culture are leading towards degradation of women and perceiving them as sex objects, while in the next column / byline there will be a picture of a young girl looking ‘stunning, sexy and revealing too much’ accompanied by a gratuitous picture of her showing a lot of skin. When you look back to some of the stuff that was originally written about the child actresses Emma Watson and more recently Chloe Moretz there are lots of stories about them being ‘sexy’. These girls weren’t even 16 at the time.

Another example in the early 00’s, The Sun, the biggest selling daily tabloid in the UK, campaigned (successfully I think) for the introduction of Sarah’s Law, a law relating to the disclosure of the identity registered pedophiles to people who lived near them after the tragic abduction of a little girl called Sarah Payne. At the same time, it still featured stories on Charlotte Church, a child opera star with a countdown to her 16th birthday when she would become ‘legal’.

On one hand they are saying ‘this is bad’ and shouldn’t be done while on the other, they are doing exactly what they are preaching against and glorifying the sexuality of minors. What are people supposed to think? We’re all guilty though – I think of the the recent public service film about breast cancer that used sexy images of guys with their tops off to keep people’s attention and get the full message across (it’s very funny and a very effective too). The sexed up images draws us in and keeps us transfixed while we listen to what they have to say.

I feel media driven, celebrity culture is massively to blame as well – female celebrities becoming famous for just being sex objects. Why are Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton most famous to most men? Reality TV stars or attractive women that have videos of them having sex on the internet???

Yet these women are world famous stars who became more famous for taking their clothes off regularly. What sort of role models are they for young girls who want to become famous and aspire for the attention of others? Worse still – the guys that made these films of Kim and Paris being screwed on their phones are deemed as the heroes (It goes back to a guy who sleeps around is a stud and a girl a slut doesn’t it). One of the only reasons the Steubenville story was reported in the UK press was because a former porn star revealed in an interview that she had been raped once.

I can’t help but think this is what mainstream society thinks is normal – it’s what they see in their papers every day and unfortunately, probably influenced these boys into thinking this was ok. My opinion is the same as most – It wasn’t ok – and if they are guilty then they are scum and I hope they are imprisoned for a very long time.

I have lost all faith / interest in mainstream media now. It annoys me SO SO much and still many people never question it but take what they read as the truth.

The media is such a wonderful tool – soooo powerful and so important to the modern world by bringing our attention to events around the world (look at the arab spring and what it did there) but in turn it is horribly abused as well and I think it’s r
eally important to remember that, unfortunately, the news and the way it is reported is all about $$$ these days (and as we all know sex sells) – it’s a throwaway culture which now relies on people to become emotional so they become attached to it and want to find out more – this boosts ratings and therefore advertising revenue for the channels involved.

It’s so sad that now the stories don’t even have to be true – heresay becomes facts and the media aren’t held accountable for the lives of the people it ruins in the blink of an eye.

The worst thing is that this will probably be forgotten about by the beginning of May when the next story about Kim Kardashian’s pregnancy or Suri Cruise being seen with a boyfriend becomes the next headline news. The majority of society won’t care /remember about the events of that evening in Steubenville and will move on to the next thing. I can’t help but think that this time next year if you mention the gang rape of a girl to most people they will ask if you are talking about Jody Foster in The Accused.

I will teach my kids the rights and wrongs in life but I think that there is also a lesson to be taught in making them have confidence in themselves and their own thoughts and to think about what they are told by the media (in fact they should question everything they are told by anyone), to always look at the bigger picture and the route of the cause rather than the outcomes.

I have realized that to a certain extent, thankfully, this is already happening with my young daughter. She already knows when I am teasing her and questions what I am saying as to whether I am telling her the truth. I hope this will continue with her as she grows older and we start to deal with more serious things but for now I can only shelter her from the horrors of the world and protect her innocence until she has to face it herself.