A thematic and quantitative analysis of unreported sexual harassment and assault: utilizing social listening in the Twittersphere

Abstract

Sexual harassment is one of the most underreported crimes despite its seriousness and prevalence. This thesis aims to (1) fully understand why people do not report sexual harassment by analyzing Twitter posts sharing the survivors’ lived experiences; and (2) discover factors that can help the victim's messages garner more attention from the public. Social listening was used to collect sensitive information through scrapping data on Twitter using the hashtag #whyIdidntreport generated during the Me Too movement. The thesis employed a mixed-methods approach to address the research topic. Using the theory of planned behavior as a theoretical framework, the qualitative study applied the thematic analysis to analyze the data and identified nine themes that factored into victims’ decision to not report. The quantitative analysis utilized negative binomial regression and discovered that tweets with high authenticity and expressing strong negative emotions were more likely to engage the audience with the writer's message.