Online Harassment: from the Outside and Within

DISCRIMINATION FROM WITHIN: 

Journalists around the world, as established in the previous page, face growing online violence and vitriol from many different sources. However, women are not only fighting against outside harassment, they are also dealing with harassment from within. This can include anything from gender discrimination to sexual harassment and violence from their own coworkers.[1] According to one study, as many as two-thirds of respondents, “(64.8%) said they had experienced acts of ‘intimidation, threats and abuse’ in their work.”[2] The report continues, “the most frequent accounts classify the acts as abuses of power or authority by male bosses, supervisors, colleagues, interviewees, government officials and police.”[3] In addition to this, 21.6% of the respondents said that they had experienced, “physical violence during the performance of their job; 14.3% say they have suffered sexual violence at work; and 47.9% suffered sexual harassment at work.”[4] This is not a new problem. Women in the workplace have faced discrimination and harassment, often sexual in nature, for many years. One account, based in Washington D.C. in the 1990s, found that 80% of the women who responded to the survey believe that sexual harassment is a problem that they faced in Washington D.C.[5] The same study found that 60% of those respondents had experienced a type of harassment while on the job.[6] Of those who reported this harassment, 20% said it was perpetrated by both their coworkers and their news sources.[7] 40% of respondents said the harassment was perpetrated by their coworkers only, and the other 40% said the harassment was perpetrated by their news sources only.[8] Certain types of journalism, as had been mentioned previously, tend to attract more harassment than others. Women who are experts in, or are reporting on, extremism, ‘fake news,’ and misogyny tend to face the brunt of harassment because they are facing the perpetrators head-on, exposing them, or otherwise challenging them. This is in spite of the fact that female journalists, specifically those on the social media platform Twitter, “were found to provide significantly greater transparency in their tweets,” than their male counterparts.[9] This could be a result, at least in part, of the type of harassment that women face, however further research would have to be done to determine if there is a correlation.  

DISCRIMINATION FROM THE OUTSIDE: 

Women in sports journalism are also the victims of virulent online harassment. One study analyzed the hashtag that circulated on social media, “#MoreThanMean” and how it was used to address the specific type of sexist online vitriol that women in sports journalism face,[10] from both sports fans and their own co-workers.[11] 

This type of discrimination and violence has always existed, but the internet has made women who work in public-facing jobs such as journalism much worse. A case study based in Nepal, where broadband internet is now widely accessible, found that social media and the internet have gotten to the point where they are threatening press freedom in the country, especially the freedom of expression for women in journalism.[12] This is not a phenomenon that is strictly an issue in Nepal. On the contrary, this is a global issue that should concern every individual that values freedom of expression and press freedom, both are rights that are crucial to maintaining any democracy. 

The next case study is a first-hand account of the experiences of Julia Carrie Wong, who describes herself as half-Chinese and half-Jewish. She was quoted as saying, “I used to really enjoy online spaces, having a personality and a voice.”[13] This changed when she sent out a tweet supporting another journalist who had been targeted by a white-nationalist website,[14] one that the article did not name. Amongst the comments attacking her ethnicity and race, the perpetrators also photoshopped photos of Wong so that she appeared to have horns. They also knew where she lived.[15] The situation worsened when Wong covered the tragedy in El Paso in 2019, where the accused shooter killed 23 people and posted his manifesto to 8chan.[16] After posting the article, groups of individuals on that website attacked Wong, sending her death threats and threats of sexual assault.[17] Wong describes being afraid not only for herself, but also for those close to her, her family and friends. She suffered from numerous panic attacks that were so severe that she had to take leave from her job.[18] Fortunately, The Guardian, whom Wong works for, considers her mental health struggles as a workplace injury, and has helped her with tools and resources[19] that unfortunately are not yet widely available to women struggling from the abuse. 

Julia Carrie Wong is not alone. The situation she is experiencing is increasingly common for female journalists globally. The online violence is motivated largely by misogyny, but also racism and prejudice. It is also having a ‘chilling effect’ on journalism[20] and free expression. According to Sullivan, “reporters may decide to pull back to protect themselves, asking whether a particular article is really worth the abuse it will bring. They may decide to leave the profession altogether.”[21] The author of the article, Margaret Sullivan, also experienced online violence. In her short account, she explains that she had been on the receiving end of, “viciously misogynistic name-calling and sexualized fantasies about dismembering me – to understand it a little. Most of mine came when I criticized former president Donald Trump or his media allies, but the subject matter isn’t really at the core. It’s simply an unhinged rage that women dare to have a voice.”[21] To help counter the online violence, the International Women’s Media Foundation partnered with other organizations to launch a digital security center to provide, amongst other things, support and resources to journalists that are experiencing online violence.[22]

  1. Roseli Figaro, “The World of Female Journalists: feminism and professional discrimination,” (Brazilian Journalism Research, 2018). 555.
  2. Figaro, “The World of Female Journalists: feminism and professional discrimination.” 556. 
  3. Figaro, “The World of Female Journalists: feminism and professional discrimination.” 556. 
  4. Figaro, “The World of Female Journalists: feminism and professional discrimination.” 556. 
  5. Katherine C. McAdams, and Maurine H. Beasley, “Sexual harassment of Washington women journalists,”(Newspaper Research Journal; Thousand Oaks, 1994), 127.
  6. McAdams, and Beasley, “Sexual harassment of Washington women journalists.” 127.
  7. McAdams, and Beasley, “Sexual harassment of Washington women journalists.” 127. 
  8. McAdams, and Beasley, “Sexual harassment of Washington women journalists.” 127.
  9. Dominic Lasorsa, “Transparency and other journalistic norms on twitter, The role of gender,” (Journalism Studies, 2012). 411. 
  10. Dunja Antunovic, “We wouldn’t say it to their faces: online harassment, women sports journalists, and feminism.” (Feminist Media Studies, 2019). 428.  
  11. Antunovic, “We wouldn’t say it to their faces: online harassment, women sports journalists, and feminism.” 430.
  12. Samiksha Koirala, “Female Journalists’ Experience of Online Harassment: A Case Study of Nepal.” (Media and Communication, 2020). 50.  
  13. Margaret Sullivan, “Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure,”(Washington Post, 2021). 
  14. Sullivan, “Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure.”  
  15. Sullivan, “Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure.”  
  16. Sullivan, “Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure.”  
  17. Sullivan, “Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure.”  
  18. Sullivan, “Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure.”  
  19. Sullivan, “Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure.”  
  20. Sullivan, “Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure.”  
  21. Sullivan, “Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure.”  
  22. Sullivan, “Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure.”  
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