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New Study Shows Harmful Impact of Online Harassment of Women Journalists

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Photo by Elisa Ventur on Unsplash

I met some of my closest friends working in television newsrooms. The chaotic nature of news provides moments for incredible bonding. Bonding over late nights and early mornings, bonding over stories that both melt and break your heart, and bonding over the learned truth that being a woman in journalism is tough. It’s really tough.

Some of the bonding moments that stick most strongly to my memory are chats in the makeup room. When I was on-air talent for a national network, five or six of us would get ready for work together. In front of lighted mirrors and in between swipes of mascara, we’d talk about everything: boyfriends, family, and where we wanted to be in five years. And often, we’d talk about the challenges of our jobs, and why we put up with it all. It seemed all of our really tough times on the job, while experienced individually, were eerily similar, and they all revolved around being a woman in this field.

When I left the television industry to pursue my doctorate, I decided to dedicate my research agenda to understanding and analyzing the lived experiences of women journalists. I wanted not only to know how gender impacted journalists’ jobs, but to look for ways to help balance out the gendered inequities that run so rampant in the media industry, and have done so for decades.

My most recent research focuses on the online harassment of women journalists. I recruited a few colleagues to work on several projects with this focus. We spoke to hundreds of journalists, both men and women, through in-depth interviews and online surveys, to get insight into the issues journalists face online. Our findings suggest that these experiences fall sharply along gender lines, with women journalists dealing with unique challenges not faced by their male counterparts.

Our data shows that women journalists are significantly more likely to deal with online harassment than men journalists and that this harassment is more likely to be sexual in nature. And this is not just a problem in the U.S. A similar study led by scholar Gina Chen, published in Journalism, found that the online harassment of women journalists transcends borders, with women in Germany, India, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. all reporting sexist online abuse.

Women in our study experienced unwanted sexual messages, threats of sexual violence, and repeated uncomfortable contact from social media users. One of the journalists we interviewed, Amy,* said, “I mean, my inbox and my messages are flooded with weirdos.” Another journalist, Sarah, echoed this point, saying, “I watch out about certain posts. It definitely is unfortunate, but it’s always in the back of your mind. It’s like who’s going to be a creep today?”

This online harassment even translated into real-world dangers for some of the women journalists we talked to. Julie said, “One piece of advice that someone gave me was to always post where you were and not where you are. That way, you can avoid people trying to come up to you or … you just don’t know what people’s intentions are sometimes.” Another journalist, Kara, said she’s had to call the police because some of her online interactions with news consumers were so alarming.

Our research findings also suggest that women journalists are significantly more likely to tailor their social media strategies for anticipated online harassment. Women were more likely than men to block/report social media users and change what they post or how they act on social media based on past experiences with online abuse. These findings are consistent with a study by scholars Leah Stahel and Constantin Schoen, published in New Media & Society, that found that women journalists are more likely than men journalists to use avoidance strategies as a reaction to online attacks.

One of our interviewees, a broadcaster named Tiffany, said, “I don’t want them to look at me like a piece of meat, really. I know what kind of comments I will be getting. I tried to stay away from certain types of posts that will get certain types of attention.” Beth said, “I deliberately try not to interact with my audience too much, which is, like, not what you’re supposed to do. But I feel like if I engage too much, I’ll just spur an unwelcomed conversation.”

Beth’s point about not interacting on social media, even though it’s an important part of her job, brings up another one of our key findings. Our research suggests that women journalists feel more pressure to perform on social media than their male counterparts. Compared to men, women were more likely to believe that social media increases both competition with colleagues and their audience following. Women also felt more strongly that social media was the most important thing to station management. One of our interviewees, Liz, said social media is top priority in her newsroom. “They [management] look at the engagements, they’re looking at how you’re ranking,” she said. “It’s analytical data that’s showing where you are in the charts. So, it’s part of the job. So you have to do it.”

However, our findings show that women journalists were significantly less likely to ask station management for help when dealing with harassment from social media users. Men were more likely to ask station management for help, while women were more likely to ask a friend or co-worker for help in dealing with online abuse.

Our research findings point to a clear divide between the online experiences of men and women journalists. Women journalists are targeted for online abuse, sexual threats, and even real-life danger simply because they are women. In addition, women journalists face unique career challenges, like adapting their social media strategies to abuse, more pressure to perform on social media, and lack of perceived support from station management.

Given our findings, it’s no surprise that so many women are leaving journalism. A recent study by scholar Catherine Adam, published in Journalism Practice, suggests gender-specific online harassment is one of the main reasons women journalists are not only changing their work routines, but quitting the industry all together.

The goal of our research is not only to raise awareness of the gendered online abuse of journalists, but to look for potential cites of resistance and change. This goal aligns with others who are working on these policies. A recent report by the Women’s Media Center offers suggestions for newsroom management to combat the online harassment of women journalists, including: making support policies clear and accessible, making journalists’ safety a company-wide priority, and working with social media platforms to create an escalation channel. Strategies like these are a critical starting point to creating a more equitable and inclusive industry for the women journalists of today and tomorrow.

*All names changed for privacy



More articles by Category: Media, Online harassment
More articles by Tag: Journalism, Sexual harassment, Media
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