This masters thesis examines the relationship between old and new media through the study of the
#Metoo-movement. The movement started after movie-mogul Harvey Weinstein was accused of
sexual assaults of several women, which resulted in an online movement that exposed sexual
assaults as a structural problem in our society. The thesis examines how social media activism
either has or has not an impact on mainstream media stories. Furthermore it examines how new
media e.i. social media, has a possibility to give voices through social media activism.
This will be examined through a qualitative content analysis drawing on some features from
quantitative content analysis. The 186 articles, the study’s first analysis is based on, have been
collected trough infomedia.dk over a time period of a month - 15th of December 2017 to 16th of
January 2018 and only from danish newsmedia and a open seminar on University of Roskilde.
Furthermore the second analysis is based on 106 Facebook-Updates, collected from a closed
Facebook-group called #Metoo. The study takes form of a Foucauldian discourse analysis using
his theories about discourse objects and power-relations.
The theories in this study are mediatization, meaning the long-term structural change of society
through media using Stig Hjarvard and Nick Couldry among others. In addition to this, theory of
medialogics is used to show how formats of media has impact on the way stories are told.
Additionally theories of social media activism together with celebrity activism are used to show the
interrelations between new and old forms of media using Candi Clark Olson, Rosemary Clark and
Cristine Sarrimo.
The analysis is, as mentioned earlier, split in two - first one is an analysis of newsmedia articles
and the seminar and the second an analysis of the collected Facebook-Updates. The first analysis
shows that discourses about consequences of a sexual assault is not comparable to the
consequences of being charged with the committed sexual assault. Furthermore it shows that
celebrities have a greater chance of getting stories or opinions through to the newsmedia than noncelebrity
people.
The second analysis shows that they way people use social media to gain support or relations to
other people is very far from the newsmedia’s ability to give that support, even though many of the
same media logics repeats through both of them.
Therefore the thesis concludes that the possibility to get a say in mainstream media, is hard
without being a celebrity, who are the link between mainstream -and social media. This means that
social media gives the opportunity to support each other in a network of likeminded, but that this
does not necessarily means getting a voice in mainstream media.