Take Back The News

Take Back The News is a US non-profit organization which criticises what it sees as the misrepresentation and underrepresentation of sexual assault in mainstream media and aims to promote better media coverage of sexual assault by providing an outlet for rape survivors to publish their stories in their own words. Its website, [http://www.takebackthenews.org takebackthenews.org] currently hosts around a hundred such accounts. In May 2006, it received a "Media Award for Excellence in Media Advocacy about Sexual Violence" from The New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

History

Take Back the News was founded by Emily Brandt in 2001. It began as a print project in an independent Boston-based newspaper in response to perceived misrepresentation of a highly publicized sexual assault. The goal was to provide victims of sexual assault a chance to tell the public what happened in their own words.

The success of the first print project prompted the development of [http://www.takebackthenews.net takebackthenews.net] , so that the project could expand to communities around the country. Again, this website provided a forum for sexual assault survivors to tell their stories in a public forum in their own words. Several communities and campuses have sponsored and continue to sponsor local Take Back the News Print Projects, which replicate the format of the original print project.

Take Back the News became an official non-profit organization in the summer of 2005. During that same summer, Emily’s three sisters, Maria Brandt, Laura Blasberg, and Julia Brandt, took on roles as Board Members of Take Back the News. In July 2006, Julia Wey joined the Board of Directors as well. The five women continue to collaborate on all aspects of the project and on the maintenance of the new website, [http://www.takebackthenews.org takebackthenews.org] .

Projects

In addition to collecting and publishing rape survival stories on the web, Take Back the News conducts the following projects:
*Media Response Project: a streamlined system to track and archive media articles regarding rape and to contact editors and reporters regarding our concerns of how rape is misrepresented or underrepresented in the media
*College Writing Workshop: a program for colleges to use to encourage survivors to write about the circumstances surrounding their assault
*Community Print Project Kits: Take Back the News provides step-by-step instructions on how to raise community awareness through newspaper print projects and related events

ee also

*Activism

External links

* [http://www.takebackthenews.org takebackthenews.org]

*"Take Back The News: Emily Brandt's Media Revolution," by Jennifer Chen, Girlistic Magazine, page 21, Spring 2007. [http://www.girlistic.com/magazine/Spring2007.pdf]