Summary
"In September of 2010, a 16-year-old girl was raped by several men at a rave in Pitt Meadows, Vancouver. Pictures and video of the assault were posted on the social networking site Facebook. The violent nature of the crime, and the use of Facebook as a means to disseminate information about the rape, caused the case to receive both local and national media attention. This thesis will explore print coverage and discussion of the Pitt Meadows gang rape in newspapers the month following the rape. Using critical discourse analysis, this thesis will explore the prevalence of rape myths in news reporting and the absence of a discussion of rape culture. In this case, technology was posited as the true villain, and a discussion of proper Internet usage replaced a conversation about rape culture."--Page ii.