Behind the scenes of the sexual harassment report that spawned the #MeToo movement: reflections on the journalism from a gender perspective

Abstract

This article deals with conceptual approaches of feminist epistemology, bearing in mind the critical theory of journalism as a form of social knowledge, aiming to discuss the importance of the gender perspective in reports on the rape culture. As a corpus of analysis, we selected a book written by two investigative reporters, She said: breaking the sexual harassment story that helped ignite a movement, which portrays the New York Times production of news regarding sexual abuse and harassment of actresses and women employees by their bosses in Hollywood film industry. We have systematized the theories raised to point out parameters of journalism with a feminist perspective. We defined, as aspects and categories of analysis of the reports, the contextualization, challenges and strategies for investigating gender violence and rape culture as forms of social organization and public health issues. As a result of the study, we reinforce the need for a feminist approach in journalism to generate a reflection on these problems by society, and to confront the gender violence and inequality.