Campus Sexual Assaults Should Be More Aggressive Summary

Stefani Singleton CRE101 Critical Reflection
Summery
The article “Media Coverage of Campus Sexual Assaults Should Be more Aggressive” was written by Jamie Stiehm via online publication. Jamie Stiehm is writing about how the media is underreporting college sexual assault crimes and feels like this issue needs more attention and awareness to help stop these crimes for taking place. Stiehm’s target audience is to the editors and the media that cover these stories that do not include enough important information that is related to these crimes. Stiehm is also targeting college students and faculty to try and help them see that college sexual assault is a bigger issue than the media is laying it out to be.
Stiehm points out that “At some point,

Stiehm feels as if the media does not include enough information or report enough of these crimes, therefore allowing the problem to continue. I think the author has a good argument and it would carry its own weight with the average person. The author included some examples of underreported sexual assault crimes. The reporter in this example did not contact any of the accused men and did not include many details about the crime in the article. Later, it was found out that this case never even went to court and the alleged victim was not even credible. This was a great example that reporters do need to do more digging into stories because reporting something like this will make the topic less urgent and important. Readers may now read true and serious stories of sexual assault and not think it is true and not take the matter seriously. This is why Stiehm thinks more information needs to be provided to help people understand that sexual assault is happening all the time and it is a serious matter. The author did appeal to pity within the article. Stiehm said because this matter is not taken as seriously as it should be, victims who are being assaulted do not feel as if they need to report these crimes. The victims feel shame and they might not know where to go to find medial help or help from law enforcement. Stiehm feels like the media is empowering the

Stiehm thinks the victims should be more open and honest about being sexual assaulted and should go the media with names and pictures of their attacker and also allow their own face and name to be in the media. Stiehm thinks if we report all information about the assault, who did it and who was assaulted, that it would help reduce the crime from happening. A victim most likely would not want to have their name or face reported publicly that they have been assaulted. They are already trying to cope and handle what has happened to them and the last thing they need is more attention. Also, I think there could be consequences for reporters that do report names and faces in their story, because what if down the line the accused rapist is found innocent? Overall, I think the argument is a good idea on paper, but there needs to be more thought placed into the idea. I agree, more awareness for these kinds of crimes would be good and the media should cover more stories on college sexual assault, but I do not agree that we should include faces and names of the people involved in the crime until someone has been convicted and proven guilty. By doing this, we could really destroy someone’s life if the story is not