ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter details the aims of the edited collection. It offers a genealogy of how sexual violence was reported by the media in the lead-up to the revitalization of the hashtag #MeToo (which this collection calls, #MeToo 2.0) on October 7, 2017, by Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano, who wanted to address the unchecked sexual violence behavior by Miramax, film producer, Harvey Weinstein. The chapter highlights that #MeToo 2.0 differed from the aims of the MeToo founder, African American civil rights activist Tarana Burke who began the movement in 2006 to address the sexual violence Black women and girls had experienced in their communities. Building on Burke’s ethos, across 12 chapters, this edited collection also profiles the intersections of sexual violence and marginalized communities, such as people of color, those from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and LGBTQIA+ backgrounds. It brings together scholars from diverse regions (United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Israel, Australia, Japan, and India) who have researched reporting on sexual violence in the #MeToo 2.0 era from a multimethodological, multilinguistic, intersectional, intercultural, transnational, and interdisciplinary lens. The collection concludes by calling for an amplification of reporting on sexual violence using an advocacy, campaign, and solution-driven journalism narrative.
