The Gaze, Image, and (Hi)stories: A critical review of the representation of the rape and murder of Vithya Sivaloganathan

Abstract

Abstract- Media construction, representation and discourse of rape have a considerable power in shaping public understanding and knowledge of rape, and the use of images has a significant impact on this as a "photograph immediately grabs the viewer's attention and triggers profoundly personal responses—emotional, paradoxical and not always rational" (Roberts, 2011). These dynamics are at work in Gossip Lanka news articles on Vithya Sivaloganathan’s rape and murder which occurred in May, 2015, and the present study has analysed the manner/s in which the rape and murder of Vithya Sivaloganathan is constructed, which also enables multiple discourses, ways of seeing (the gaze) and understanding rape, violence and murder along with their re-presentations (the image and (hi)stories), in order to examine the ways in which rape is constructed with the use of images, and identify how constructions of rape enable ways of seeing and understanding rape. The study revealed that the images were often used to guide the audience’s perspective in a particular way desired or pre-designed by media, and at times the accuracy of the images used were also questionable. Therefore, the need for a more responsible, non-sensationalist type of representation of serious issues is identified. However, it was also identified that the audience may have the potential of seeing beyond the media manipulation.