Russell Brand: Rape Myths in 45% of Headlines, Study Says
An Australian researcher analyzed 198 articles on 32 Victorian rape convictions and found rape myths in almost 45% of headlines. Celebrity trials drew most of the coverage, while cases involving family and domestic violence got less than 3%. The findings have not been peer reviewed.
Russell Brand has been convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault and sentenced to ten years and six months in prison. An Australian researcher argues that when it comes to rape cases involving celebrities, the media too often miss the point.
Australian outlets covered the Brand trial, verdict and sentencing extensively. The researcher says that attention is newsworthy, since another public figure has been held to account for years of predatory behavior. The pattern of the reporting is what deserves scrutiny.
What the study counted
The researcher used a legal database to identify 32 rape cases in the County Court of Victoria that ended in guilty outcomes between July 2025 and August 2026. Two were the Tom Silvagni and Ralph Carr trials. The work has not yet been peer reviewed.
A search for news coverage of those trials found 198 articles that met the study's criteria. Silvagni and Carr together drew 85% of the coverage of the whole dataset.
Rape myths appeared in almost 45% of the headlines. They showed up in more than 60% of non-celebrity cases and just over 40% of celebrity cases. Every publication in the study used myths in some headlines.
Two kinds of myth
In non-celebrity cases the myths centered almost entirely on the "monster myth": the belief that rape is committed by deviant strangers who attack innocent young girls in public places. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows the person most likely to rape a woman is her intimate partner.
In celebrity cases, two other myths predominated: that women commonly lie about rape, and that men charged with rape are objects of pity. In the researcher's words, the celebrity too often becomes the story, rather than the rape or the victim-survivor.
Family violence cases barely covered
Of the 32 cases, 13 involved rape in a family and domestic violence context. Fewer than 3% of the articles covered them.
Journalists cannot identify a complainant in a rape trial, so they often cannot name the perpetrator in a domestic case. Courts frequently use pseudonyms for both people in published sentencing remarks. The researcher says reporters could use those names to protect the victim-survivor while still informing the public. None of the articles in the dataset did so.
The researcher also noted that the judge in the Brand trial dispelled monster myths in his sentencing remarks. Heavy coverage of celebrity cases and rare stranger attacks, the researcher argues, reinforces exactly those myths.
In both the Silvagni and Carr cases, the men had suppression orders that stopped media identifying them before conviction. Several Australian newsrooms published editorials or opinion pieces arguing that such orders limit reporting on how criminal courts function.
