News on Sexual Violence against Women on Magdalene.co and Female Readers

Abstract

Mass media play a role in building audience perspectives on published content or text, including news about sexual violence. This study aims to investigate and analyze how women readers give meaning to the news of sexual violence against women on Magdalene.co. This study uses reception analysis method with encoding-decoding theory from Stuart Hall to explain the audience reception from women’s perspective about the message of sexual violence news on Magdalene.co. The messages interpreted by the audience regarding cases of sexual violence on Magdalene.co vary, depending on the audience’s background. The findings illustrate that informant 1 and 4 interpreted news of sexual violence in online media led to negative public opinion. Informant 3 and 6 felt that cases of sexual violence in Indonesia would be handled by the authorities when they were widely discussed by the public. Informant 5 also interpreted that mass media has great power in influencing people's attitudes and thought patterns. The factors that contribute to the meaning of reporting on sexual violence against women on Magdalene.co include experience, work, age and interests.

Keywords: Meaning, News, Sexual Violence, Women.