A Report on Sexual Violence Journalism in Four Leading English Language Indian Publications Before and after the Delhi Rape

The Delhi Rape is the most extensively covered rape case in recent Indian history. This report chronicles a media monitoring exercise of rape reporting before the Delhi incident between January 1, 2012 and August 31, 2012 . The report also examines the three-month period after the Delhi Rape in an empirical analysis of four leading Indian English language publications with a combined circulation of 2,946,340: The Hindu, India Today, the Indian Express and Tehelka. Rape reporting increased by roughly 30% after the Delhi Rape, with the Delhi Rape taking between 10-20% of the share of rape stories across varying storylines. Sex crime reporting is best understood by identifying storylines. Monitoring the Delhi Rape, 5 storylines emerged: personal, public outcry, women's safety, police handling and legislative. These storylines enabled us to probe the reporting of rape and sexual violence more deeply with respect to the context under which gender justice was addressed