The use of television to raise awareness about date-rape drugs
Title: The use of television to raise
awareness about date-rape drugs
1.
INTRODUCTION
The South African Police Services (SAPS) received more
sexual offenses reports in the period of 2017/2018 than they did in the
previous period, and the highest reports come from Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu Natal.
This number is not a true reflection of the reality as many cases still go
unreported for many reasons. Rape is an aggressive act and is not about sex (SAPS
2018, Rape Crisis 2018 & Sue et al 2013). The media has been trying to do
their part by writing scenes about rape including scenes where drugs or substances
have been used in the crime. The media is one of the greatest sources of
information and education yet this does not necessarily mean only good
information. This blog is therefore about researching the effects of television
texts about date-rape drugs in the real world to see if this has positive or
negative effects on society.
2.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
More
and more women and children are being raped daily in South Africa. Most rape
victims were raped by someone they know. The SAPS and Stats SA report that between
2017/2018 about 50 108 sexual offences cases were reported. As already
mentioned this does not truly reflect what is happening as many cases go
unreported due to fear, stigmatisation and other psychological reasons. Some
people are drugged before they are raped and so they do not report the incident
as they do not know who raped them which makes them feel they do not have a
case (SAPS 2018 & Rape Crisis 2018). There is also the issue of attempted
rape reporting. Most people do not report attempted rape because they and their
loved ones decide that since the perpetrator failed, no crime was committed.
This is not true. The psychological trauma of an attempted rape is just as real
and the perpetrator should be reported to prevent him/her to succeed the next
time or to succeed in raping someone else.
Media
producers have been writing rape scenes into their stories, the most recent
plot being the one about the rape of a learner, Lesedi on SABC 1’s Generations:
The Legacy. It is perhaps in trying to educate society and report factually
about rape that is helping perpetrators to get information they need to
achievement their goals such as which drugs to use when they want to rape
someone. Mass media campaigns are a good method of raising awareness about social
ills as they are able to reach large amounts of people at the same time and
drive conversations about issues. There has been an increase in health
campaigns in media, especially television, however, the effectiveness of such
campaigns has to be questioned. People, at the end of the day, interpret media
texts however they want (based on their understanding and knowledge) and they
are not forced, regardless of being bombarded with similar texts in media, to
adhere to the message (McQuail 2010 & Fourie 2009).
The
focus of this research will be on the effectiveness of media texts about rape
and use of date-rape drugs to assess whether this use of date-rape drugs in
rape cases in South Africa has increased or decreased due to television texts. This
research can help writers and content producers to write their scripts and
direct scenes differently so that they achieve the results they set out to
achieve because as much as the intention may be good, when the process and
implementation has not be done correctly, negative outcomes become inevitable.
3.
BACKGROUND
Being
a women in South Africa has become dangerous. The recent media reports about
the killings of women by their partners or loved ones as in the case of Karabo
Mokoena, have not only sent shockwaves through the country but have left women
feeling unsafe and terrified. Almost all of us have been affected by this
incomprehensible violent crime of rape, either directly or indirectly when the
victim is someone we know. “When a woman is killed every four hours, we can no
longer remain passive” and this is a stand I join Lou-Anne Daniels (2018) in
taking. Daniels (2018) continues to say that as a people, we need “to strive
for a society where women no longer have to live in fear”. We need to ensure
that perpetrators are held responsible and receive the due punishment. This is
my first and most important reason for wanting to conduct this research.
PS:
Please check out IOL’s Facebook post on 10 August & the #RURereferenceList
The
second reason is that, should the study find that too detailed writing does
help criminals be more creative in their planning and execution, writers need
to be more creative in their writing where they get the message out without
giving criminals all the information they need to do the crime. Not everyone
has access to the internet in South Africa and most rape perpetrators would
perhaps not have known about date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol had it not been
for the media. So the media content producers need to be creative in their
edutainment writing so they while they are educating, they do not give
criminals ideas as this counterattacks their purpose.
The
third reason is as a result of the high numbers of sexual offences reports, the
institutions we come into with on a daily basis such as universities need to
have stricter drug as well as sexual offences policies and rules. Unannounced
raids also need to happen at student resident places on campus so that students
can stop bringing drugs to school that will help them rape others. Should this
institutions not act accordingly to bringing justice to victims, they should
also be counted as accessories to the crime and be punished by law. What is
happening at Rhodes University is a good example. Yolanda Dyantyi is a former Rhodes student who
was excluded for standing up for herself as result of being raped at the
university and the university did not attend her case and many others which led
to their protest that resulted in their exclusion. The only reason the
university has started acting is because of the death of Miss Rhodes, Khensani
Maseko who wrote “No one deserves to be raped” before she took her life.
Sister,
daughter, aunt, grandmother, wife, friend or partner- this is who is raped
daily in South Africa and for their sake, DON’T LOOK AWAY!
4.
PURPOSE
The
purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of television texts
about date-rape drugs to understand the consequences of such texts on society
whether they are positive or negative so that media producers can create
content that help end the rape crisis in South Africa.
5.
SIGNIFICANCE
Rape
happens every day in South Africa and around the world. Rape does not care
about race, ethnicity, status or background or professionally, as with the
recent media reports shows, rape is also not gender specific. The use of
date-rape drugs is also becoming more prevalent, not only in the media but also
in society. The plot on Generations is a good storyline (so far) as it shows
that the rapist is not always a “dangerous” person who is poor or uneducated.
The accused is a white teacher. The media also tends to focus more on the
behaviour of the victim to show that she somehow attracted the rapist to her.
Thankfully, this is changing as more feminist voices are heard and there is
more empathy shown to victims, however, this change is slow and not as
pervasive. Social media has also played a role in this change (Serisier 2017
& Brennan 2004).
The
media, in their attempt to raise awareness about sexual offences and what they
do to victims, do not always depict the real picture. In addition to possibly
making criminals more creative or giving them information about their crimes,
such distorted images also spread myths and misunderstandings about rape and
other sexual offences. This study can therefore help find out what myths and
misunderstandings about rape and use of drugs in rape crimes are and then led
to solutions where those myths are corrected (Serisier 20 17).
The
media also try to show that false allegations are real and they affect people.
The problem is that they spend more time on this storyline than they do on the
actual incident when it has happened and the damage done on the victim. Yes,
the point is to warn people against falsely accusing someone of such a crime
but this also has negative consequences. The time spent on the skepticism
storyline leads people in real life to also doubt victims. It also makes victim
fear reporting the incident as they are afraid of receiving the same treatment
victims on television receive as in the case of Lesedi (Serisier 2017). So the
media need to find new ways of delaying with the issue of false accusations and
lack of support from loved ones.
What
is disturbing is that sexual offences storylines mostly appear around women’s
day or as a result of media reports. Why can’t writers and media workers write
these storylines comprehensively proactively, not as a response to what
happened? This study therefore wants to encourage content producers to be proactive
when it comes to writing storylines about rape and other sexual offences.
When
it comes to rape, more work needs to be done, especially by researchers. One of
my wishes is for researchers in the field or mental health and neurology to
find, it is exists, the trigger or the structure or part of the brain that is
damage or is involved in such aggressive behaviour. They need to study the
brains of perpetrators thoroughly. This can help with finding preventative
measures.
In
most cases in the media, the rape incident is between a male and a female,
therefore the issue of how males and females interact need to be addressed and
new identities for these sexes need to be created where the females are not as
weak or victims. Parents need to have real, in-depth conversations with their
children about sex, sexuality and sexual offences, and not rely on the media to
do the teaching for them.
Brennan,
S. 2004. “Keeping the ‘lady’ in line: A
media study of the date-rape drug discourse”. Burnaby: Simon Fraser
University Libraby
Daniels,
L. 2018. “#WeRemeber the women we have
lost to gender based violence”. IOL News. https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/watch-weremember-the-women-we-have-lost-to-gender-based-violence-16473645
Fourie,
PJ. 2009. Media studies: Media content
and media audiences. Vol 3. Cape Town: Juta & Co
McQuail,
D. (2010). McQuail’s mass communication
theory. 6th edition. London: SAGE
SAPS.
2018. “Crime situation in RSA twelve
months 01 April 2017 to 31 March 2018”.
Serisier,
S. 2017. Sex crimes and the media”.
Sue,
D. Sue, DW. Sue, D. & Sue, S. 2013. “Foundations
of abnormal behaviour”. 10th edition. Wadsworth: Cengage
learning
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