When hazing is not hazing: Media Portrayal of hazing: Developing a typology. Introducing the TAIR model

Abstract

The present article is a preliminary study using textual analysis of 35 news articles regarding media portrayals of hazing. In an effort to better understand howthemedia defines and portrays hazing explanations and the types of injuries victims sustain, we introduce the TAIRModel. Results indicate that the TAIR model provides hazing motivations as being the result of tradition, acceptance, initiation, or ritual and that victims of hazing often sustain physical, psychological, and sexual harm. Furthermore, many "hazing acts" are really crimes that happen to be perpetrated by members of sports teams rather than a sports hazing event. The impact of this analysis suggests that due to media portrayals of hazing, the ways in which we think and speak about hazing, as well as the subsequent "solutions", are counterproductive and distort our understandings of the causes of "hazing".