NewsTracker: the new conversation on the journalism of rape
We talk about rape. But do we talk enough about how rape is reported?
NewsTracker is a community of young journalists who have come together to write about the representation of rape and sexual violence in the Indian news media.
We believe news journalists have a crucial role to play in combatting sexual violence. They can question stereotypes; influence attitudes, beliefs; help us rethink the way we read, we write, we think about rape and solutions for rape.
There are thousands of conversations about rape today. But not many on how rape is reported.
NewsTracker exists in this vacuum — as the start of a new conversation on the journalism of rape.
For us bloggers (and we hope our community will soon grow), it is a hands-on media literacy programme, an opportunity to immerse ourselves in news of an issue of utmost significance, to read it against the grain.
For our readers (media students, journalists, educators, those interested in issues of media representation), NewsTracker hopes to be a useful online resource of information, thoughts, questions.
Who runs NewsTracker?
NewsTracker is published by Bournemouth University (England) and Ashoka University (Sonepat), in collaboration with Amity School of Communication (Noida); Docfort Meducation (Benguluru); Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts (Pune); the Department of Journalism and Communication at University of Madras (Chennai); Manipal Institute of Communication, Manipal University (Manipal); and Department of Communication, St Joseph’s College (Bengaluru).
NewsTracker is co-ordinated by Dr Chindu Sreedharan, Dr Einar Thorsen (Bournemouth University), and Professor Vaiju Naravane (Ashoka University), with Dr Chindu Sreedharan serving as the lead publisher and editor. You can read more about our team by following this link. And if you like what we are doing, and want to join this conversation, please email us here.
Tell us more
NewsTracker forms part of a research and capacity building project titled Media Action Against Rape and Sexual Violence (MAAR, for short), led by Bournemouth University. See our web site.
MAAR is co-directed by Dr Chindu Sreedharan and Dr Einar Thorsen of Bournemouth University. It involves an ambitious 20-month study — the largest of this nature attempted in the Indian context — to profile news coverage and map the journalistic challenges of reporting rape and sexual violence across India.
See our project web site, and do follow us on Twitter @maarnews.
Contact
We would love to hear what you think of NewsTracker. Email us on newstracker@maar.in
