Rape, storytelling and social media: how Twitter interrupted the news media’s ability to construct collective memory

Abstract

This study, using the Mary Kay LeTourneau interview on ABC’s 20/20 television program, investigates how social media coupled with citizens’ voices interact with mainstream media in the telling of a story and the construction of collective memory. Grounded in discourse analysis, this research examines the 20/20 story and accompanying Twitter conversations to understand how dominant and feminist ideologies about gender, rape, sexual violence, sexuality, and love are presented and (re)articulated in these texts. In doing so, this study considers how a newly opened public sphere via social media may have the capabilities to influence our collective memories and remove some of this long-held power away from traditional mainstream media.