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1 | Title | Year | Author (surname, first name) | Institution of Author | Publication Type | Publication | Volume/Issue/Page Numbers/Publisher | Abstract | Link to Publication | Open Access (Yes/No) | ||||||||||||||||||
2 | Cyberactivism in the Egyptian revolution: How civic engagement and citizen journalism tilted the balance | 2011 | Khamis, Sahar and Vaughn, Katherine | University of Maryland | Article | Arab Media & Society | 13 (2011) | “If you want to free a society, just give them Internet access.” These were the words of 30-year-old Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim in a CNN interview on February 9, 2011, just two days before long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down under pressure from a popular, youthful, and peaceful revolution. This revolution was characterized by the instrumental use of social media, especially Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and text messaging by protesters, to bring about political change and democratic transformation. This article focuses on how these new types of media acted as effective tools for promoting civic engagement, through supporting the capabilities of the democratic activists by allowing forums for free speech and political networking opportunities; providing a virtual space for assembly; and supporting the capability of the protestors to plan, organize, and execute peaceful protests. | https://www.arabmediasociety.com/cyberactivism-in-the-egyptian-revolution-how-civic-engagement-and-citizen-journalism-tilted-the-balance/ | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
3 | Online citizen journalism and political transformation in the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions: A critical analysis. | 2013 | Khamis, Sahar and Vaughn, Katherine | University of Maryland | Book Chapter | Online Journalism in Africa | Routledge | N/A | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203382530-13/online-citizen-journalism-political-transformation-tunisian-egyptian-revolutions-sahar-khamis-katherine-vaughn | No | ||||||||||||||||||
4 | Journalism in times of violence Social media use by US and Mexican journalists working in northern Mexico | 2014 | Relly, Jeannine E and González de Bustamante, Celeste | University of Arizona School of Journalism / School of Journalism and School of Government & Public Policy (with courtesy) at the University of Arizona | Article | Digital Journalism | 2(4) pp. 507-523 | Mexico ranks as one of the most violent countries in the world for journalists, and especially for those who work on the country’s periphery such as its northern border. Given the dire situation for Mexican reporters covering the northern part of the country, and the continued responsibility of US journalists to report on the area just south of the border, this qualitative study addresses the overarching research question that examines how Mexican and US journalists who cover northern Mexico are using social media, given the heightened levels of violence in the region. The authors utilize a modified version of the conceptual framework of scale-shifting to investigate how journalists in a specific transnational environment of conflict are using social media. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of 41 interviews gathered in fall 2011 in 18 cities with news media outlets along the United States–Mexico border. Findings describe the innovative ways that journalists are circumventing online security risks (what the authors call scale-shifting) and how social media are used to build cross-border relationships. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2014.882067 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
5 | Risk and journalism in the digital age | 2015 | Hadland, Adrian | University of Stirling | Commentary | African Journalism Studies | 36(1) pp. 129-134 | N/A | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23743670.2015.1008179 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
6 | The Cyberspace War: Propaganda and Trolling as Warfare Tools | 2015 | Aro, Jessika | Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies | Article | European View | 15(1) pp. 121-132 | Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime has taken control of the traditional media in Russia: TV, radio and newspapers. As Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has stated, the Kremlin sees the mass media as a ‘weapon’. Now Russia’s leadership is trying to take control of social media too, and for this massive operation a new information warfare tool has been mobilised—an army of fake social media Putin-fans, known as ‘trolls’. My investigation has discovered that coordinated social media propaganda writers are twisting and manipulating the public debate in Finland, too. Trolls and bots distribute vast amounts of false information in various languages, and target individual citizens for aggressive operations. Aggressive trolls have created a feeling of fear among some of my interviewees, causing them to stop making Russia-related comments online. Trolling has had a serious impact on freedom of speech, even outside Russia. Thus, it should be viewed as a national security threat that needs to be addressed accordingly. The question is: how should the Kremlin’s trolls and disinformation be countered? | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12290-016-0395-5 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
7 | Building digital safety for journalism: a survey of selected issues | 2015 | Henrichsen, Jennifer R., Betz, Michelle, Lisosky, Joanne M. | UNESCO Report | Building digital safety for journalism: a survey of selected issues | UNESCO | In order to improve global understanding of emerging safety threats linked to digital developments, UNESCO commissioned this research within the Organization's on-going efforts to implement the UN Inter-Agency Plan on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, spearheaded by UNESCO. The UN Plan was born in UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), which concentrates much of its work on promoting safety for journalists. | https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232358 | Yes | |||||||||||||||||||
8 | Building digital safety for journalism: a survey of selected issues | 2015 | Henrichsen, Jennifer R., Betz, Michelle, Lisosky, Joanne M. | University of Pennsylvania; Pacific Lutheran University | Book | Building digital safety for journalism: a survey of selected issues | UNESCO | The current study, based on research by Jennifer R. Henrichsen, Michelle Betz and Joanne M. Lisosky, helps us to comprehend and address the new challenges as a growing issue in securing the safety of journalists. The research was enabled by Denmark, to whom we express appreciation. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. | https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232358?posInSet=1&queryId=4aabadc1-0688-43d4-887e-76c8178c029b | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
9 | Social Media Use, Journalism, and Violence In The Northern Mexico Border | 2016 | Relly, Jeannine E and González de Bustamante, Celeste | University of Arizona School of Journalism / School of Journalism and School of Government & Public Policy (with courtesy) at the University of Arizona | Book Chapter | The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies | Routledge | The chapter describes how social media is utilized in an environment of heightened violence and indicates that numerous journalists from 18 cities often use social media to forge cross-border relationships with colleagues. It focuses on a study of social media use by journalists and bloggers reporting in the northern states and uses the conceptual framework of scale-shifting to analyze how journalists from both the United States and Mexico overcome information scarcity while also avoiding digital security risks in the northern Mexican states. The chapter describes how some journalists from Mexico and the United States, covering northern Mexico use social media for their work. In northern Mexico, where bloggers and journalists continue to be threatened, social media present both opportunities and challenges. By employing a transnational approach to explore the connections between social media and journalism practice along the US–Mexico border, the research has set the groundwork for future projects regarding social media in the region. | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315713793-55/social-media-use-journalism-violence-northern-mexico-border-celeste-gonz%C3%A1lez-de-bustamante-jeannine-relly | No | ||||||||||||||||||
10 | Protecting journalism sources in the digital age | 2017 | Posetti, Julie | International Center for Journalists | Book | Protecting journalism sources in the digital age | UNESCO | UNESCO is pleased to release this comprehensive study of changes that impact on legal frameworks that support protection of journalistic sources in the digital age. This research responds in part to a UNESCO resolution by the 38th General Conference held in 2015 as well as the CONNECTing the Dots Outcome Document adopted by our 195 Member States that same year. More specifically, the present publication was elaborated in an effort to address option 6.2 of the Outcome Document which recommends that UNESCO “recognize[s] the need for enhanced protection of the confidentiality of sources of journalism in the digital age”. | https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000248054?posInSet=13&queryId=c03990f6-9327-4bab-bf7d-cdcde9d2fcbf | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
11 | The Future of Investigative Journalism in an Era of Surveillance and Digital Privacy Erosion | 2018 | Julie Posetti | International Center for Journalists | Book Chapter | Digital Investigative Journalism Data, Visual Analytics and Innovative Methodologies in International Reporting | Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 249-261 | While the digital era has delivered unprecedented opportunities for big-data based investigative journalism—from the Snowden Files to the Panama Papers—it has also thrown up a host of new threats to the sustainability of journalism based on confidential sources. These include: mass and targeted surveillance; data retention regimes and the handover of data by third party intermediaries such as social media platforms, telecommunications companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs); national security and anti-terrorism overreach; attempts to ban encryption and online anonymity; and malicious digital attacks targeting journalists. If sources cannot securely connect with journalists, they risk exposure, with impacts including economic penalties through to extra-judicial killings. The effect of these threats to accountability journalism and public access to information is chilling, and it is leading to significant changes in the practice of investigative journalism dependent upon confidential sources and information on a global scale. | https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-97283-1_23 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
12 | Tackling gendered violence online: Evaluating digital safety strategies for women journalists | 2018 | Martin, Fiona | University of Sydney | Article | Austrlian Journalism Review | 40(2) pp. 73-89 | While many reporters regularly experience online violence, women journalists are more likely than their male counterparts to be target-ed for abusive comments and image focused, violently sexualised ag-gression. With such gendered violence having serious implications for media freedom, diversity and equity, as well as participation online, it is imperative that digital safety initiatives address the specificity and diversity of online attacks on women journalists and in ways that address the structural factors underpinning them – that is, going beyond an emphasis on individual responsibility. This paper analyses the gen-der-specific digital safety strategies proposed for women journalists by international anti-violence projects and how they address the responsibility for acting on gendered online attacks. It evaluates the emphasis safety training packages put on promotional, preventative, procedural, or prosecutorial measures and on individual, collective or networked and managerial approaches to these attacks. Drawing on a feminist “ethics of care”, the paper argues that gendered online violence needs to be tackled as a multilevel online governance issue rather than just a personal safety issue, with better support from peers, employers and legal and political institutions | https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.222297051926912 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
13 | TrollBusters: Fighting Online Harassment of Women Journalists | 2018 | Ferrier, Michelle and Garud-Patkar, Nisha | Independent Researcher | Book Chapter | Mediating Misogyny Gender, Technology, and Harassment | Springer, pp. 311-332 | For women journalists, online harassment may result in emotional stress and may require legal and technological remedies to mitigate the damage caused to their identity and reputation. Perpetrators can use a combination of online and offline attacks that threaten the employment and safety of journalists. In the case of women writers, misogynistic and racist attacks can create a chilling effect that silences their voices online and creates a deterrent to freedom of expression that ultimately erodes the freedom of the press. Based on the examination of seminal work, case studies and personal anecdotes, this chapter investigates the consequences of abuse via Twitter and Facebook on the freedom of speech, the emotional and psychological impact on women journalists, and its implications on press freedom. Moreover, before suggesting digital defense strategies for journalists, the chapter also chronicles the development of TrollBusters, a platform for women journalists that counters online hate with positive messaging and just-in-time rescue services. | https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-72917-6_16 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
14 | Social Media in Turkey as a Space for Political Battles: AK Trolls and Other Politically Motivated Trolling | 2018 | Saka, Erkan | Istanbul Bilgi University | Article | Middle East Critique | 27(2) pp. 161-177 | This article focuses on AKTrolls, defined as pro-government political trolls in Turkey, while attempting to draw implications about political trolling in the country in general. It examines their methods and effects, and it interrogates whether (and how) Turkish authorities have attempted to shape or counter politically motivated social media content production through trolling after the Gezi Park Protests that took place in 2013. My findings are based on an ethnographic study that included participant observation and in-depth interviews in a setting that is under-studied and about which reliable sources are difficult to find. The study demonstrates political trolling activity in Turkey is more decentralized and less institutionalized than generally thought, and is based more on ad hoc decisions by a larger public. However, I argue here that AKTrolls do have impact on reducing discourses on social media that are critical of the government, by engaging in surveillance, among other practices. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19436149.2018.1439271 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
15 | Changing Forms and Platforms of Misogyny: Sexual Harassment of Women Journalists on Twitter | 2018 | Rego, Richard | St Joseph's College | Article | Media Watch | 9(3) pp. 472-485 | Across time, in a variety of forms and spaces -from homes and workplaces to digital domains of social media- women have become victims of male dominance. So also are the other vulnerable sections that suffer multi-layered abuse, and endure sexual harassment in social media. Yet, this phenomenon is insufficiently explored. Therefore, this article argues that social media spaces have become domains for sexual harassment and subjugation of women. This article examines gender-trolling on Twitter as a form of sexual violence against women. Employing qualitative analyses of the Twitter conversations on Indian journalists, namely Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose, and Rana Ayyub, it exposes the nature and form of sexual violence against women on the micro-blogging space, and argues that social media platforms constitute convenient havens of harassment against assertive women | https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:39681/ | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
16 | When online commentary turns into violence: The role of Twitter in slander against journalists in Colombia | 2019 | Barrios, Marta Milena; Vega-Estarita, Lina María and Gil, Luis M. | Universidad del Norte in Colombia/ | Article | Conflict and Communication | 18(1) ISSN 1618-0747 | The 55-year long Colombian conflict with the FARC guerrilla movement ended in 2016 with the signing of a peace agreement, which resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of victims of socio-political violence. Paradoxically, this did not improve security for journalists, who were targeted: one was killed, another suffered sexual abuse (Medicina Legal, 2016), and 262 received threats (FLIP, 2017). In a qualitative case study, we content analyzed 592 tweets in order to document how threats from a political powerholder contributed to the formation of networks engaging in verbal violence on Twitter. Results showed that attacks on freedom of the press originated from a legitimate actor, caused an extremely polarized discussion among citizens who took sides, and provoked further threats and accusations. Conciliatory positions were hard to find. | https://regener-online.de/journalcco/2019_1/pdf/barrios-et-al2019.pdf | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
17 | State-Aligned Trolling in Iran and the Double-Edged Affordances of Instagram | 2019 | Kargar, Simin and Rauchfleisch, Adrian | Harvard University, National Taiwan University | Article | New Media & Society | 21(7) pp. 1506-152 | Online harassment is increasingly applied as a form of information control to curb free speech and exert power in online public spheres. In recent years, states have appeared to be particularly invested in weaponizing information against dissidents in an attempt at dominating social and political discourses. Reports by prominent human rights institutions, as well as anecdotal evidence, indicate that Iran remains among the states with a track record of such actions. The scope of targeted cyber abuse varies by case. This study investigates the size and perpetrators of online violence, harassment, and abuse against critical members of the Iranian diaspora, including journalists, civil society activists, and artists, among many others. This study substantiates findings of qualitative interviews with a quantitative study of Instagram accounts of related individuals and explores the patterns and communities involved in disseminating hate speech in an attempt at manipulating public opinion and suppressing voices of dissidents. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444818825133 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
18 | The Online Public Sphere in the Gulf: Contestation, Creativity, and Change | 2019 | Khamis, Sahar | University of Maryland | Article | Review of Middle East Studies | 53(2) pp. 190-199 | This introductory essay sets the stage for this special issue, which explores how online media has changed the Arabian Gulf region's politics, economies, and social norms.2 It provides an overview of the most important themes, arguments, and findings tackled in the four essays in this issue, as well as the intersections, overlaps, and divergences emerging from, and between, them. In doing so, it explains how the similarities and differences, as well as the most significant underlying themes, emerging from these four essays further our understanding of the online public sphere in the Gulf region as a space for contestation, creativity, and change. This introductory essay identifies three important, and overlapping, themes found in this special issue: techno-euphoria, cyberwars, and the public sphere. It concludes by proposing possible next steps and future research on the important, yet understudied, links between the online public sphere and the sociopolitical environment of the Gulf. | https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-middle-east-studies/article/online-public-sphere-in-the-gulf-contestation-creativity-and-change/98494CA7E0AD7F0BE9EEBB8BEAB9512D | No | ||||||||||||||||||
19 | Coping with Audience Hostility. How Journalists’ Experiences of Audience Hostility Influence Their Editorial Decisions | 2019 | Post, Senja and Kepplinger, Hans Mathias | Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz | Article | Journalism Studies | 20(16) pp. 2422-2421 | In digitalized media societies, many journalists encounter audience hostility in publicly visible channels. Scholars theorized on the spiral process of the influence of audience feedback on journalists’ editorial work. In this spiral, audience feedback on past news coverage influences ongoing news coverage, producing audience feedback that influences ongoing news coverage, and so forth. We study an empirically accessible, meaningful sequence of this process – influences of journalists’ significant previous experiences of publicly visible audience hostility on the ways in which they cope with resulting anticipations of audience hostility in their editorial work. Based on a survey of German print journalists (n = 323), we find hints that journalists’ significant previous experiences of publicly visible audience hostility can influence their news coverage in two ways. In line with previous research, we find that some journalists reacted to past significant incidents of publicly visible audience hostility with negative emotions and appraisals. This explains their proneness to complying with anticipated audience hostility. Other journalists took pleasure in significant previous incidents of publicly visible audience hostility and viewed them as a professional success. This explains their proneness to defying anticipated audience hostility. We discuss these findings in light of the political polarization of societies. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1461670X.2019.1599725?journalCode=rjos20 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
20 | Online violence Against Women Journalists: A Global Snapshot of Incidence and Impacts | 2020 | Posetti, Julie; Aboulez, Nermine ; Bontcheva, Kalina; Harrison, Jackie and Waisbord, Silvio | International Center for Journalists; University of Oregon; University of Sheffield; George Washington University | Report | Online violence Against Women Journalists: A Global Snapshot of Incidence and Impacts | UNESCO | This report presents a snapshot of the first substantial findings from a global survey about online violence against women journalists conducted by UNESCO and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in late 2020. Over 900 validated participants from 125 countries completed the survey in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. The findings shared here reflect the input of the 714 respondents identifying as women. | http://icfj.org/sites/default/files/2020-12/UNESCO%20Online%20Violence%20Against%20Women%20Journalists%20-%20A%20Global%20Snapshot%20Dec9pm.pdf | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
21 | The Risks and Challenges for Professional Journalism in the Digital Age: A Malaysian Perspective | 2020 | Tajuddin, Siti Nor Amalina Ahmad and Ali, Roslan | Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia/Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia | Book Chapter | IGI Global, pp. 106-123 | Handbook of Research on Combating Threats to Media Freedom and Journalist Safety | The Internet is a modern Pandora's Box which has exceptionally altered the way we disseminate and receive information messages, particularly news. Despite technological innovations being the apex of our history, it is undeniable that they pose new challenges and threats to a different degree. Hence, this study examined the risks and challenges faced by the Malaysian media professionals in this new age and how technological developments had impacted their work. Situated within the framework of the technological determinism theory, this study employed a qualitative semi-structured interview with thirteen (13) Malaysian journalists. This study found several challenges related to the journalists' safety and their professionalism. Media professionals, such as journalists and editors, often caught in a paradoxical and risky situations, which challenge the process of news production and deliverance ethically and legally. Journalists, who participated in this study, were pressured to produce more story ideas and deliver news assignments with shorter deadlines. This not only impacted the online news quality but also the credibility and transparency of the news organization. | https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/the-risks-and-challenges-for-professional-journalism-in-the-digital-age/246430 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
22 | Double-edged knife: practices and perceptions of technology and digital security among Mexican journalists in violent contexts | 2020 | González, Rubén Arnoldo and Rodelo, Frida V. | Instituto de Ciencias de Gobierno y Desarrollo Estratégico | Article | Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society | 3(1) pp. 22-42 | Violence against Mexican journalists has received significant attention from scholars at home and abroad during the last decade. However, though a diversity of issues have been consistently studied, there is one topic that is still largely neglected: the implications of technology for news workers’ security and their journalistic practice. Drawing on a set of semi-structured interviews with 93 journalists working in 23 of the most dangerous Mexican subnational entities, the aim of this article is to fill that gap. Empirical evidence from all over the country points to a nearly unanimous perception of digital technologies as being a “double-edged knife.” This is because electronic devices and social media may be used as a tool for developing better reporting practices, but also as a weapon against journalists, through – for instance – online harassment or espionage. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25729861.2020.1746502 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
23 | The “triple effect” silencing female journalists online. A theoretical exploration | 2020 | Høiby, Marte | Oslo Metropolitan University | Book Chapter | Journalist Safety and Self-Censorship | Routledge | Online harassment of women journalists imposes self-censorship and threatens women’s participation in online journalism. This is of grave concern for the development of freedom of speech and plurality in the media (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe [OSCE], 2019). Part of this issue’s complexity was summarized by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Deputy General Secretary, Jeremy Dear: “In some parts of the world, it’s a result of what women write and in others it’s because of the mere fact that they write” (IFEX, 2019). Perhaps more often, these two motivational factors are working together creating a significantly more threatening online environment for female journalists than for their male colleagues. When such discontent appears within the ungoverned spheres of the Internet, the dimension of it seems to grow exponentially. The result is a climate of fear, silence and self-censorship – and potentially women’s absence in the future online public sphere. This chapter presents an explorative theoretical approach to understanding the processes at play when women journalists are threatened and harassed online. Looking primarily to research within gender- and feminist- theory, computer communication and cyber psychology studies and literature on antipress violence, I argue that female journalists’ predisposition to online harassment is largely connected to online governance (or lack thereof), an enduring patriarchy and a rise in threats against journalists. | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780367810139-7/triple-effect-silencing-female-journalists-online-marte-h%C3%B8iby?context=ubx&refId=69e5c261-076d-41ce-8176-6620cb54dcb1 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
24 | A battle of two pandemics: Coronavirus and digital authoritarianism in the Arab World | 2020 | Khamis, Sahar | University of Maryland | Book Chapter | Cyber War & Cyber Peace: Digital Conflict in the Middle East | Washington, DC: Middle East Institute | N/A | https://www.mei.edu/publications/book/cyber-war-cyber-peace | No | ||||||||||||||||||
25 | Arab Resistance in the diaspora: Comparing the Saudi dissident and the Egyptian whistleblower | 2020 | Khamis, Sahar and Fowler, Randall | University of Maryland | Article | Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research | 13(1) pp. 31-49 | While much research on Arab and Muslim diasporas in the West focuses on the War(s) on Terror, in this article, we explore how two particular diasporic groups, Egyptian and Saudi activists, work to shape public perceptions of the authoritarian regimes in their countries of origin. Contextualizing the efforts of these activists in the post-Arab Spring political and mediated environments, we investigate how these political exiles employ communication to disrupt, expose and resist the resurgent authoritarianism taking root in their countries of origin. Using a comparative framework, we analyse the discourse of two prominent activists, Mohamed Ali and Omar Abdelaziz, to illustrate the larger dynamics of online cyberactivism amongst these diasporic groups. Critically, we argue, the differences in these two activists’ communicative practices demonstrate how ostensibly similar resistance movements may lead to disparate political outcomes, as their calls for change diverge when it comes to issues of reform versus revolution. In doing so, we seek to complicate overly simplistic understandings of Arab anti-authoritarian resistance taking place online in the post-Arab Spring era. | https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/jammr_00009_1 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
26 | You need a thick skin in this game: Journalists’ attitudes to resilience training as a strategy for combatting online violence | 2020 | Martin, Fiona; Murrell, Colleen | University of Sydney | Article | Austrlian Journalism Review | 42(1) pp. 93-11. | In recent years, resilience training has been recommended as a way to protect news workers from the impact of reporting on traumatic events. However, do journalists see it as a useful tool in dealing with online abuse and harassment? This article explores Australian journalists’ conceptions of resilience training, via a thematic analysis of interviews, and their concerns about its effectiveness in addressing digital violence. The study adopts an ethics of care framework for understanding the uses of resilience training in journalism education for increasing dialogic interaction with audiences. It finds that while some journalists understand resilience training’s relationship to positive mental health, the majority are not clear about its potential and how it might be taught. Our analysis also reveals normative beliefs about journalists’ need to develop ‘a thick skin’ against interpersonal and coordinated violence online. Overall, the article raises questions about how journalists might be better oriented to not only self-care but also collective care. | https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ajr/2020/00000042/00000001/art00009 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
27 | Security should be there by default: Investigating how journalists perceive and respond to risks from the Internet of Things | 2020 | Shere, Anjuli R. K.; Nurse, Jason R. C. and Flechais, Ivan | University of Oxford | Conference Paper | Conference: 2020 IEEE EUROPEAN SYMPOSIUM ON SECURITY AND PRIVACY WORKSHOPS (EUROS&PW 2020) | N/A | Journalists have long been the targets of both physical and cyber-attacks from well-resourced adversaries. Internet of Things (IoT) devices are arguably a new avenue of threat towards journalists through both targeted and generalised cyber-physical exploitation. This study comprises three parts: First, we interviewed 11 journalists and surveyed 5 further journalists, to determine the extent to which journalists perceive threats through the IoT, particularly via consumer IoT devices. Second, we surveyed 34 cyber security experts to establish if and how lay-people can combat IoT threats. Third, we compared these findings to assess journalists' knowledge of threats, and whether their protective mechanisms would be effective against experts' depictions and predictions of IoT threats. Our results indicate that journalists generally are unaware of IoT-related risks and are not adequately protecting themselves; this considers cases where they possess IoT devices, or where they enter IoT-enabled environments (e.g., at work or home). Expert recommendations spanned both immediate and long-term mitigation methods, including practical actions that are technical and socio-political in nature. However, all proposed individual mitigation methods are likely to be short-term solutions, with 26 of 34 (76.5%) of cyber security experts responding that within the next five years it will not be possible for the public to opt-out of interaction with the IoT. | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9229668 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
28 | Now you [don’t] see me: how have new legislation and changing public awareness of the UK surveillance state impacted OSINT investigations? | 2020 | Shere, Anjuli R | University of Oxford | Article | Journal of Cyber Policy | 5(3) pp. 429-448 | Open-source intelligence (OSINT) gathering and analysis techniques are used by investigators from a variety of fields, owing to their accessibility and exceptional capacity for corroboration. It has previously been argued that proposed data protection legislation can chill the free press, but there have been no studies assessing the effect of such reforms on more general OSINT capabilities. European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented in the UK through the 2018 Data Protection Act (DPA) to protect personal data against exploitation. This study surveyed 16 OSINT gathering and analysis practitioners across public and private sectors to determine firstly, what, if any impact the implementation of the GDPR/DPA have had on their ability to successfully operate as OSINT analysts and secondly, if they have noticed any subsequent changes in UK public perception around issues of the surveillance state and digital privacy. I argue that this initial survey shows that the GDPR is merely a first step in establishing societal expectations and regulations around digital privacy. While some changes to OSINT practice have been reported, to date few substantive changes to OSINT methods or analysis resulted or seemed poised to take effect, one year after the advent of the GDPR/DPA. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23738871.2020.1832129 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
29 | Reading the Investigators their Rights: A review of literature on the General Data Protection Regulation and open-source intelligence gathering and analysis | 2020 | Shere, Anjuli R | University of Oxford | Article | The New Collection | 14 pp. 3-21 | Open-source intelligence gathering and analysis (OSINT) techniques are no longer predominantly the remit of private investigators and journalists. An estimated 80-90% of data analysed by intelligence agencies is also now derived from publicly available material. Additionally, the massive expansion of the internet and, in particular, social media platforms, have made OSINT increasingly accessible to civilians who simply want to trawl the Web for information on a specific individual, organisation or product. In May 2018, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented in the UK through the new Data Protection Act, intended to secure personal data against unjustified collection, storage and exploitation. This document presents a preliminary literature review of work related to the GDPR and OSINT, which was collated as the basis for an as-yet-unpublished study evaluating the effects of the GDPR on OSINT capabilities in the UK. The literature reviewed is separated into the following six sections:‘What is OSINT?’,‘What are the risks and benefits of OSINT?’,‘What is the rationale for data protection legislation?’,‘What are the current legislative frameworks in the UK and Europe?’,‘What is the potential impact of the GDPR on OSINT?’, and ‘Have the views of civilian and commercial stakeholders been sought and why is this important?’. As OSINT tools and techniques are accessible to anyone, they have the unique capacity for being used to hold power to account. It is therefore important that new data protection legislation does not impede civilian OSINT capabilities. | https://mcrweb-18.new.ox.ac.uk/docs/NewCollection2020.pdf#page=11 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
30 | Trolling Journalists and the Risks of Digital Publicity | 2020 | Waisbord, Silvio | George Washington University | Article | Journalism Practice | 16(5) pp. 984-1000 | The global phenomenon of trolling of journalists lays out the ambivalent consequences of news interactivity and the risks of digital publicity. The push for digital publicity made journalists more exposed to attacks amid rising digital hate and the populist demonization of the news media. The negative impact of trolling reveals important blind spots of aspirational visions about the consequences of audience interactivity for journalism. The troubling consequences of trolling raise important questions for journalism studies. How to rethink the notion of the public in journalism when newsrooms experience "participation fatigue", disappointment, and frustration with audience engagement? What if members of the public refuse to play by the rules of civility and tolerance? What if interactive platforms are vehicles for hate rather than reason, facticity, listening, or critical thinking? Addressing these questions is necessary to produce nuanced arguments about journalism, the public and publicity. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512786.2020.1827450?journalCode=rjop20 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
31 | Female Journalists’ Experience of Online Harassment: A Case Study of Nepal | 2020 | Koirala, Samiksha | Nepal Open University | Article | Media and Communication | 8(1) pp. 47-56 | This study examines the experiences of female journalists in Nepal in the context of rapidly growing expansion of broadband Internet. By examining the findings of the qualitative in-depth interview of 48 female journalists, it argues that online platforms are threatening press freedom in Nepal, mainly by silencing female journalists. The study also indicates that the problem is particularly severe in such a patriarchal society as a significant number of incidents of abuse go unreported, largely due to a culture of shame as well as ineffective legislation. Over the course of this article, I have attempted to show how social issues raised by second-wave feminism and online feminism are similar. The findings show that some of the female journalists experiencing harassment tolerate it by being ‘strong like a man,’ while many of them avoid social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to keep free of such abuse. The study also suggests that individual efforts to tackle the vicious issue of misogyny might not be enough and collective effort from legislation, media organisations, and feminists is required to address the issue. | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2541 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
32 | Online surveillance and the repressive Press Council Bill 2018. A two-pronged approach to media self-censorship in Nigeria | 2020 | Suraj, Olunifesi Adekunle | University of Lagos | Book Chapter | Journalist Safety and Self-Censorship | Routledge | This chapter examines the perceptions of Nigerian journalists towards the Nigerian Press Council Bill 2018 and the governments’ online surveillance. The study employs survey and interview methods: 217 Nigerian media practitioners selected from print and online media responded to the questionnaire while ten key informants were interviewed. The findings revealed that a majority of the respondents are concerned about the government’s effort in suppressing freedom of expression. They believe that personal interest rather than national interest constitutes the basis for the government’s online surveillance and the proposed new Press Council Bill, which a majority believe will gag the press and restrict freedom of expression in Nigeria. A majority of the respondents also consider the government’s online surveillance an impediment to their professional duties and a violation of their privacy. Hence, they believe that it is not unlikely that their digital presence has been tracked and monitored by government security agencies. As a result, respondents have resorted to avoiding certain topics considered critical of government while also avoiding activities on social media that may be considered controversial or suspicious. Hence, respondents believe protecting the anonymity of their sources and disguising their digital footprints are the needed safety precautions. | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780367810139-6/online-surveillance-repressive-press-council-bill-2018-olunifesi-adekunle-suraj?context=ubx&refId=a6334c53-6f47-411b-85b6-70add363064a | No | ||||||||||||||||||
33 | Red lines of journalism. Digital surveillance, safety risks and journalists’ self-censorship in Pakistan | 2020 | Jamil, Sadia | Khalifa University of Science & Technology | Book Chapter | Journalist Safety and Self-Censorship | Routledge | Drawing on Reese’s hierarchy of influences model, this study investigates the extent to which safety risks and digital surveillance result in journalists’ self-censorship in Pakistan. This study also explores the key areas of journalists’ self-censorship in the country and how it affects their right to freedom of expression. To achieve these objectives, the study uses the quantitative method of survey and the qualitative method of in-depth interviews. The study uses relative frequency statistics and thematic analysis to analyse the survey and interview data respectively. This study reveals that journalists’ self-censorship is related to diverse safety risks (especially physical, financial, legal, topic-specific and public risks) and to digital surveillance by the government, military and its intelligence agencies. This study also highlights that most of the Pakistani journalists are not trained for digitally safe and encrypted communication, which indicates a pressing need for journalists’ education in order to avoid any foreseeable digital and other types of risks. | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780367810139-3/red-lines-journalism-sadia-jamil?context=ubx&refId=32bdba41-11dd-46a5-87a5-f7192ef34ccd | No | ||||||||||||||||||
34 | New Digital Media: Freedom of Expression and Safeguarding Journalists in the Context of East Africa | 2020 | Kirabira, Tonny Raymond | University of Portsmouth | Article | Cross Cultural Human Rights Review | 2(1) pp. 49-71 | Many East African states have developed restrictive legal and policy measures regarding the use of the internet. This has resulted in the declining state of media freedom and safety of journalists. This article addresses freedom of expression as a pre-condition for safeguarding journalists in selected East African countries of Tanzania and Burundi. It highlights notable cases, where the regional court has emphasized the importance of press freedom as a precursor for democracy. It concludes that the relevant regional legal framework offers adequate protection for the safety of journalists. However, countries have not fully implemented their obligations. In particular, press and cyber laws create a chilling effect on the treatment of journalists. The article contributes to a broader interrogation of how discourses about the safety of journalists are constructed and applied in the context of growing online activity. | https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3708069 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
35 | Safety and self-censorship: Examining their linkage to social media use among Uganda journalists | 2020 | Selnes, Florence Namasinga | Oslo Metropolitan University | Book Chapter | Journalist Safety and Self-Censorship | Routledge | This chapter’s point of departure lies in its focus on how journalists and media organizations navigate through unsafe environments and avoid self-censorship. The study specifically explores the connection between safety and self-censorship and journalist’s deployment of social media in the Ugandan context. Through interviews and focus group discussions, the study shows that journalists and media organizations (sometimes) use social media to avoid covering unsafe news scenes and to bypass suppression intended to drive them into self-censorship. Journalists and media organizations are able to overcome state-instigated censorship by using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to obtain journalistic material, which may not be accessible through conventional means. Using the case of the Ugandan government closure of Daily Monitor newspaper in 2013, the chapter shows that the media organization heavily relied on social media to remain in operation during the period when it was under siege. The chapter concludes that employing social media in journalism practice is one of the mechanisms used by journalists and media organizations to surmount safety problems and repression. The author acknowledges the safety problems arising from digital tools and platforms but argues that exploiting the advantages they present, such as being alternative avenues for newsgathering, reporting and dissemination, contributes profoundly to the survival of independent journalism in non-democratic societies. | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780367810139-11/safety-self-censorship-1-florence-namasinga-selnes | No | ||||||||||||||||||
36 | ‘A modern-day equivalent of the Wild West’: preparing journalism students to be safe online | 2020 | Kean, Jenny and Maclure, Abbey | Leeds Trinity University/Journalists | Article | Journalism Education | 10(1) pp. 69-82 | Journalists are increasingly becoming the target of online abuse; the backlash over the death of TV presenter Caroline Flack and coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests are just two recent examples. Yorkshire Evening Post editor Laura Collins has highlighted how female journalists face the brunt of this abuse, describing social media as ‘a modern-day equivalent of the Wild West’. The fact that journalists are exposed to this kind of attack is becoming an increasing focus; but how are we – as educators – to prepare our journalism students for entering this world? What guidance should we be giving them – to respond or not to respond, to block or not to block? And at what point should they report their experience via more formal channels? The authors of this paper set out to identify strategies and tools for students to help protect themselves and remain resilient in the face of online abuse. Through qualitative interviews, we asked how practising journalists are coping with social media attacks, and what steps they and their employers are taking to protect and support them. The result is a set of guidelines offering practical and emotional advice from journalists to directly inform journalism educators and their students. | https://journalism-education.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/A-modern-day-equivalent-of-the-wild-west.pdf | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
37 | Online Harassment and Its Implications for the Journalist–Audience Relationship | 2020 | Lewis, Seth C.; Zamith, Rodrigo and Coddington, Mark | University of Oregon | Article | Digital Journalism | 8(8) pp. 1047-1067 | Amid growing threats to journalists around the world, this study examines the nature of online harassment, the types of journalists most likely to experience it, and the most common forms of response to such abuse. Through a representative survey of U.S. journalists, we find that nearly all journalists experience at least some online harassment but that such harassment is generally infrequent overall and especially in its most severe forms. Nevertheless, online harassment against journalists disproportionately affects women (particularly young women) and those who are more personally visible in the news but not necessarily those who work for larger newsrooms. Moreover, it is clear that the more often a journalist is harassed online, the more likely they are to take a dim view of the audience by seeing them as irrational and unlike themselves, and to perceive interaction with them as less valuable. Additionally, as greater targets of the worst forms of abuse, women face a greater burden in deciding if and how to respond to online harassment. Conceptually, this article advances the literature on journalists and audiences by extending the concept of reciprocal journalism, which emphasizes individual-level perceptions that shape the quality of person-to-person exchanges. We explore how the experience of online harassment may complicate the way that journalists think about and act toward their audiences, offering a window into the downsides of encountering audiences online. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21670811.2020.1811743?journalCode=rdij20 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
38 | Mob Censorship: Online Harassment of US Journalists in Times of Digital Hate and Populism | 2020 | Waisbord, Silvio | George Washington University | Article | Digital Journalism | 8(8) pp. 1030-1046 | Rising numbers of online attacks against journalists have been documented globally. Female, minority reporters and journalists who cover issues interwoven with right-wing identity anchors have been primary targets. This trend reflects growing forms of mob censorship linked to the demonization of journalists and the press by populist leaders. Based on recent cases in the United States, I define mob censorship as bottom-up, citizen vigilantism aimed at disciplining journalism. Effective responses are hard to come by given the pervasiveness of digital hate speech and the limitations of traditional approaches to the problems it represents for democratic communication. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2020.1818111?casa_token=9n9xr1UaoXgAAAAA%3AqtpgEr7vMUs__s6oU-h6dFwu7veovQ5vOOuf0foZZdSduSWamc1_J62lbqkGULZbhLyXgqAOL94 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
39 | The Pitfalls and Perils of Being a Digital Journalist in Venezuela | 2020 | Garrido, Mariateresa | University for Peace, Costa Rica | Book Chapter | Handbook of Research on Combating Threats to Media Freedom and Journalist Safety | IGI Global, pp. 319-337 | To be a journalist in Venezuela is very dangerous. In the past decade, there has been an increase of attacks against media and their personnel. On the one hand, attacks against journalists include harassment (physical, digital, legal), illegal detentions, kidnapping, and assassination. On the other hand, digital media have experienced blockages (DNS), internet shutdowns and slow-downs, failures in the connection, and restrictions to access internet-based platforms and content. Since 2014, the situation is deteriorating and limitations to exercise the right to freedom of expression have increased. However, this issue remains understudied; hence, this chapter considers primary and secondary data to analyze the types of limitations experienced by Venezuelan digital journalists from 2014 to 2018, explains the effects of ambiguous regulations and the use of problematic interpretations, and describes the inadequacies of national policies to promote freedom of the press. | https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/the-pitfalls-and-perils-of-being-a-digital-journalist-in-venezuela/246442 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
40 | You Really Have to Have a Thick Skin’: A Cross-Cultural Perspective on How Online Harassment Influences Female Journalists | 2020 | Chen, Gina Masullo Chen; Pain, Paromita; Chen, Victoria, Y.; Mekelburg, Madlin; Springer, Nina and Troger, Franziska | The University of Texas at Austin, National Chung Cheng University, El Paso Times, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, | Article | Journalism | 21(7) pp. 877-895 | In-depth interviews with 75 female journalists who work or have worked in Germany, India, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America reveal that they face rampant online gendered harassment that influences how they do their jobs. Many of the women report that if they aim to engage with their audience online – which is a job requirement for many of them – they frequently face sexist comments that criticize, attack, marginalize, stereotype, or threaten them based on their gender or sexuality. Often, criticism of their work is framed as misogynistic attacks and, sometimes, even involves sexual violence. The journalists have developed a variety of strategies for dealing with the abuse, including limiting what they post online, changing what stories they report on, and using technological tools to prevent people from posting offensive words on the journalists’ public social media pages. Results show that this harassment disrupts the routinized practice of reciprocal journalism because it limits how much these women can interact with the audience in mutually beneficial ways without being attacked or undermined sexually. While experiences of harassment were consistent across the countries studied, cultural differences were evident in how much the journalists were expected to engage online. Results are discussed in relation to the hierarchy of influences model that aims to explain how multiple forces influence media content. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1464884918768500 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
41 | Online Harassment of Female Journalists in Bangladesh: Forms, Reactions, and Consequences | 2021 | Kundu, Priyanka and Bhuiyan, Md. Mahbubul Haque | Bangladesh University of Professionals, Bangladesh/Comilla University, Bangladesh | Book Chapter | Handbook of Research on Discrimination, Gender Disparity, and Safety Risks in Journalism | IGI Global, pp. 143-166 | The online harassment of female journalists is a rising concern around the world and also in South Asia. Bangladesh, a South Asian country, recently, has experienced an increasing number of harassments against female journalists online. Various studies explored the online harassment, mostly from the Western perspectives. Scholars have argued that the online harassments may negatively affect the freedom of expression. But little is known about Bangladesh. Drawing upon feminist theory, this study investigated the experiences of online journalists in Bangladesh. The objectives were to explore the nature and forms of online harassment and to find how this experiences of harassments affect the freedom of expression of the victims. Data were collected through content analysis, semiotic analysis of the uncivil comments available in the online news feedback and in-depth interviews. Results of the study indicate that online harassment is a frequent phenomenon where the victim journalists feel vulnerable in the ‘unsafe' online ‘patriarchal' environment. | https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/online-harassment-of-female-journalists-in-bangladesh/267632 | |||||||||||||||||||
42 | Tackling the emotional toll together: How journalists address harassment with connective practices | 2021 | Kantola, Anu; Harju, Anu A; | University of Helsinki / University of Helsinki | Article | Journalism After September 11 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849211055293 | In this article, we examine how journalists address and tackle online harassment by connective practices that involve joint action with peers and editors that we find are particularly effective in addressing the emotional effects of harassment. Theoretically, we bridge community of practice research with theories of emotional labour to develop a novel perspective to examine online harassment. Drawing on 22 interviews with Finnish journalists, we find three categories of connective practices that are particularly effective in tackling harassment: (1) supportive connection between the journalist and the editor; (2) shared collegial practices among peers in the newsrooms and (3) emotional engagement among peers outside the newsroom. All three categories illustrate how journalists as a community of practice develop new practices through dynamic processes innovation, improvisation, trial and error, reciprocal learning and mutual engagement. Importantly, emotional labour forms an important dimension of these practices as the journalists jointly address and tackle the emotional effects of harassment. We posit that the effectiveness of these connective practices largely stems from their ability to provide emotional support. While addressing feelings of fear, anger and shame, these shared practices also help consolidate the newly acquired knowledge and the professional identity under attack. Finally, we offer recommendations for newsrooms and journalists on how to collectively counter harassment and develop policies to address it. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14648849211055293 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
43 | Confronting Freedom to Inform With Freedom of Expression: The Case of Online Attacks of Journalists in Ghana | 2021 | Appiah-Adjei, Gifty | University of Education, Winneba, Ghana | Book Chapter | Handbook of Research on Discrimination, Gender Disparity, and Safety Risks in Journalism | IGI Global, pp. 269-296 | Globally, there is an increase in online attacks on journalists with gender dimensions to these attacks. Also, it is established that digital innovations have augmented free expression and the augmentation allows means for online attacks. Though evidence submits that studies on the problem of online attacks on journalists abound, there is dearth of such studies in Ghana and this chapter attempts to fill this gap. Using the feminist theory, this chapter explores the types and sources of online attacks on male and female journalists in Ghana and investigates whether an increase in free expression is a contributing factor to the problem. To achieve this aim, the study employs qualitative methods of in-depth interviews and document reviews and offers a thematic analysis of the qualitative data to understand the lived experiences of Ghanaian journalists. Findings revealed that journalists frequently experience psychological and sexist online attacks when perpetrators express their views on unfavourable coverage from the media. | https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/confronting-freedom-to-inform-with-freedom-of-expression/267640 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
44 | “We Have to act Like our Devices are Already Infected”: Investigative Journalists and Internet Surveillance | 2021 | Di Salvo, Philip; | Università della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland. | Article | Journalism Practice | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.2014346 | Internet surveillance has become a crucial issue for journalism. The “Snowden moment” has shed light on the risks that journalists and their sources face while communicating online and has shown how journalists themselves can be targets of surveillance operations or other forms of malicious digital attacks from different actors. More recent revelations, such as those coming from the “Pegasus Project”, have underlined even more dangerous threats posed to the safety of journalists, increasingly targeted with spyware technology. Due to the sensitivity of their work and sources and given their strong “watchdog” role in democracies, investigative reporters are in a particularly dangerous position when it comes to the potential chilling effects of surveillance on their work of journalists. This paper analyzes investigative journalists’ views and self-reflections on the impacts of Internet surveillance on their work by means of in-depth qualitative interviews with reporters affiliated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and working in Italy, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. The paper touches on different angles of the Internet surveillance issue by analyzing journalists’ concerns about national and international surveillance players and the overall impact of surveillance on news work. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512786.2021.2014346?journalCode=rjop20 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
45 | Online harassment of journalists as a consequence of populism, mis/disinformation, and impunity | 2021 | Relly, Jeannine E. | University of Arizona | Book Chapter | The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism | Routledge | This chapter aims to examine additional factors associated with populism, disinformation and online harassment of journalists in an environment of impunity, though the relationship between digital communication and populism has been analysed since the late 1990s. It considers strategies that have been utilised or suggested to combat online harassment of journalists on the path forward. Online harassment of women journalists has been documented more frequently than of male journalists, who often are attacked because of their coverage. Online harassment has risen in recent years via comment sections under online news articles barraging journalists’ emails and social media accounts with defamatory, threatening, demeaning, or even pornographic material. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe recommends that countries consider prosecuting the online harassment of journalists through existing harassment laws. One cross-country study found that online harassment disrupts routine practices and the extent that women journalists can interact with audiences. | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003004431-20/online-harassment-journalists-consequence-populism-mis-disinformation-impunity-jeannine-relly | No | ||||||||||||||||||
46 | Press Freedom and Cybercrimes: Combating Online Harassment on Digital Media in Nigeria | 2021 | Onuche, Samson Ojodomo | Lawyer | Article | African Journal Of Criminal Law And Jurisprudence | 6, pp. 137-151 | The role of the Media to the growth and development of a democratic society cannot be overemphasized. Over the years, the media have served as a watch dog in every society, prompting the need for International and National legislation protecting the Right to Press Freedom. While attacks and threat to traditional Media (Radio, Television, Newspapers, etc) is not new, the wide adoption of Information Communication Technology (ICT’s) and use of Online digital media has transcend such attacks from the physical milieu to Online domain. The paper adopts the Doctrinal research method to examine the concept of Press Freedom. It exposes the various forms of Online Harassment targeted at Online Media and Journalist. The paper assesses The National legal framework for the protection of Press freedom from online harassment, making recommendations in line with best practices adopted in some Jurisdiction. The paper seeks to educate the Government, International Organisations, the Media, and all relevant stakeholders of the Media industry in Nigeria. | https://journals.ezenwaohaetorc.org/index.php/AFJCLJ/article/view/1629/1671 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
47 | The new frontline Women journalists at the intersection of converging digital age threats | 2021 | Posetti, Julie | International Center for Journalists | Book Chapter | Insights on Peace and Conflict Reporting | Routledge | The chapter identifies the new threats posed by digital developments and how they affect women journalists in particular. There are three main converging safety threats confronting women journalists in the digital age: online harassment and abuse against women journalists; orchestrated disinformation campaigns targeting women journalists; and digital privacy and security threats exploiting women journalists' vulnerabilities. Online violence targeting women journalists manifests in a variety of ways that, nevertheless, share a number of common characteristics. The chapter exposes how a trend has emerged involving the specific targeting of women journalists by state and corporate actors engaged in “disinformation wars”. To illustrate the “new frontline” and bear witness of a rampant cyber-misogyny now confronting women journalists, the chapter presents four new international case studies from the Philippines, South Africa, India and Finland, and shows how all four female journalists used the techniques of research and investigative journalism against their attackers. Based on the research and policy analysis, the chapter ends with a series of recommendations, which could be used as part of a “combat plan” for key actors seeking to counter online violence against women journalists. | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003015628-9/new-frontline-julie-posetti | No | ||||||||||||||||||
48 | “Not Their Fault, but Their Problem”: Organizational Responses to the Online Harassment of Journalists | 2021 | Holton, Avery E.; Bélair-Gagnon, Valérie; Bossio, Diana and Molyneux, Logan | University of Utah, University of Minnesota Twin Cities,Swineburne University, Temple University | Article | Journalism Practice | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.1946417 | Journalists are increasingly reporting that online harassment has become a common feature of their working lives, contributing to experiences of fatigue, anxiety and disconnection from social media as well as their profession. Drawing on interviews with American newsworkers, this study finds at least three distinct forms of harassment: acute harassment such as generalized verbal abuse, chronic harassment occurring over time and often from the same social media users and escalatory harassment that is more personalized and directly threatening. Women journalists said they especially are experiencing chronic and escalatory forms of harassment. Journalists also discussed a perceived lack of systemic efforts on the part of news organizations to address such harassment, leaving journalists to search for preventative and palliative coping mechanisms on their own. Such labor may be driving journalists’ disconnection from social media as well as the profession of journalism and highlights a growing need for news organizations to address harassment as a systemic, rather than individual, issue. The mental health and well-being of journalists may depend on such action, especially at a time when more journalists are reporting fatigue, burnout, and a desire to exit the profession. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512786.2021.1946417?src=recsys | No | ||||||||||||||||||
49 | Understanding Nascent Newsroom Security and Safety Cultures: The Emergence of the “Security Champion” | 2021 | Henrichsen, Jennifer R. | University of Pennsylvania | Article | Journalism Practice | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.1927802 | This paper utilizes concepts from new institutionalism to help explain journalists’ and news organizations’ resistance to implementing security-related practices despite a deteriorating safety and security environment for journalists in the United States. Through 30 interviews with journalists, technologists, and media lawyers, I identify three main variables for the resistance to the development of newsroom security cultures, as well as a new social actor necessary for the development of security cultures in newsrooms: the “security champion.” The emergence of this new institutional entrepreneur highlights an intriguing tension. Although news organizations have engaged in slow adoption of the anonymous whistleblowing platform SecureDrop, they have not necessarily engaged in an institutionalization of security practices throughout the newsroom. The decoupling of these two factors represents attempts by news organizations to have institutional legitimacy while not changing core practices. In conjunction with this phenomenon, inspired individuals in newsrooms across the country are becoming ad hoc “security champions” in order to build security cultures from the ground up. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512786.2021.1927802 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
50 | Journalism beyond the Coup: Emerging Forms of Digital Journalism Practices in Post-Coup Zimbabwe | 2021 | Munoriyarwa, Allen; Chibuwe, Albert; | University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa / University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa | Article | Digital Journalism | 10(7) pp. 1198-1218 | Utilizing a constellation of conceptual tenets drawn from critical digital technology theory, field theory and concepts of digital democracy, this article argues that the post-coup period in Zimbabwe has solidified digital journalism practices in three main ways. These are: (i) the consolidation of a digital leak journalism culture, (ii) an increasingly ferocious form of digital guerrilla journalism, and (iii) the rise in popularity, of small digital-based news platforms that, arguably, are increasingly eclipsing already established mainstream (digital) news platforms as sources of news. These practices’ nascent roots have their genesis in the early 2000 period. In the post-coup context, they have assumed a new and wider meaning, and have become part of the mainstream. This solidification of digital journalism practices has consequently enabled journalists to “speak back” to power by providing robust forms of investigative journalism, and simultaneously avoiding being ‘swallowed’ by the state. While we admit to various gradations of digital journalism practices before the coup, we use the coup as our point of departure in order to factor in the incrementally disruptive and repressive political environment that has forced journalists to adopt digital journalism practices more than in any period of the country’s history. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21670811.2021.1957966?journalCode=rdij20 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
51 | Burning out and turning off: Journalists’ disconnection strategies on social media | 2021 | Bossio, Diana and Holton, Avery, E. | Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Utah | Article | Journalism | 22(10) pp. 2475-2492 | This study explores forms of social media fatigue described by professional journalists, including frustration with the perception of their increased affective labor, dissatisfaction with communication environments on particular social media platforms, and increased anxiety about the possible impact of social media use on both their professional reputations and personal well-being. We argue that these forms of social media fatigue have influenced new professional practices on social media practice that include strategies of disconnecting from, but not necessarily terminating, social media use. Using a comparative analysis of semistructured interviews with Australian and American professional journalists, this study illustrates that experiences of social media fatigue over time have resulted in a careful renegotiation of professional and personal boundaries around journalists’ social media use, influenced by the technological, social, and cultural affordances of specific media platforms, organizational and institutional constraints, as well as the online literacies and behaviors of journalists themselves. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1464884919872076 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
52 | ‘Lockdown’ on Digital Journalism? Mapping Threats to Press Freedom during the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis | 2021 | Papadopoulou, Lambrini and Maniou, Theodora A. | Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences and Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences | Article | Digital Journalism | 9(9) pp. 1344-1366 | Across the globe, governments have issued emergency and drastic measures aimed at tracking the spread of COVID-19 and safeguarding public health. Notwithstanding the necessity and importance of some of these measures, this work argues that numerous governments around the world used the pandemic crisis as a pretext to push through restrictions that hamper critical journalism. Drawing from worldwide press freedom monitoring tools and platforms established by various credible global organizations, this study shows that the pandemic crisis exacerbates existing obstacles to press freedom and adds new dimensions to the already documented threats. This is evident not only in authoritarian states, but also in western democracies. Most of the threats documented specifically aim to silence digital journalism, which has gained significant momentum as a result of the pandemic crisis. Overall, the main target of this work is to offer an enriched conceptual approach to the types of threats that press freedom faces in the context of global crisis situations. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2021.1945472 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
53 | Between Attack and Resilience: The Ongoing Institutionalization of Independent Digital Journalism in Brazil | 2021 | Ganter, Sarah Anne and Paulino, Fernando Oliveira | Simon Fraser University, Universidade de Brasília | Article | Digital Journalism | 9(2) pp. 235-254 | Digital journalism in Brazil is dominated by a few big players and has recently been threatened by the country’s challenging political and economic environment. Still, organizational structures promoting independent digital journalism (IDJ) persist. Originally understood as “the blogosphere,” independent digital journalism in Brazil (IDJB) quickly evolved into several professionalized initiatives and now consists of dozens of news organizations. This article contributes to the field by (a) adding to scholarly conceptualizations of independent journalism in North America, Europe, and Latin America through the idea of “positive dependence” and (b) refining the understanding of IDJ in times of acute crisis. Based on an analysis of six emblematic cases, we show that IDJB is relational and distinct and that it functions without clearly defined boundaries. We further find that this relationality is necessary for IDJB to survive the attacks it faces. Different support networks shape “models of resilience” that, while not perfect, facilitate the institutionalization of IDJB by allowing for the slow but ongoing creation of new structures within the news ecosystem. Thus, the findings of this study suggest that the continuing institutionalization of IDJB and its particular characteristics contributes to the creation of a more diverse news ecosystem. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21670811.2020.1755331 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
54 | The Chilling: A global study of online violence against women journalists | 2022 | Posetti, Julie (lead researcher) | International Center for Journalists; University of Sheffield | Report | The Chilling: A global study of online violence against women journalists | https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000383044?posInSet=1&queryId=94f80c9e-1081-4b90-a063-916fff33b533 | This is an extracted chapter of a wider UNESCO-commissioned global study on online violence against women journalists produced by the Inter-national Center for Journalists (ICFJ). The full-length study will published in 2022. The chapter identifies the role of big tech companies and especially social media platforms, as vectors and facilitators of gender-based online violence targeting women journalists. And it assesses the responses of these companies to the problem, making 23 recommendations for more effective countermeasures. | https://www.icfj.org/sites/default/files/2022-11/ICFJ_UNESCO_The%20Chilling_2022_1.pdf | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
55 | Harassment of Journalists and Its Aftermath: Anti-Press Violence, Psychological Suffering, and an Internal Chilling Effect | 2022 | Kim, Changwook and Shin, Wooyeol | Kyungnam University | Article | Digital Journalism | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2034027 | Anti-press sentiment based on negative emotions of disgust and hatred has prevailed in Korea since the mid-2010s. Through in-depth interviews with ten journalists working for Korean news organizations, supplemented with an analysis of self-reflective articles, this study investigates how journalists experience this audience hostility and harassment, how they cope with it, and how their practices are influenced by it. The analysis reveals that, combined with the dualistic views of populist politics and the influence of misogynic narratives, journalists who cover topics, such as politics and gender, are more likely to become targets of anti-press violence. Moreover, it shows that anti-press violence induces negative emotions, such as discomfort, anger, lethargy, and fear, among journalists. To cope with these emotions, with little support from their news organizations, journalists tend to pursue emotion-focused coping strategies, such as striving for perfection in the newswork process, building emotional boundaries between the audience and themselves, counter-hating readers, and blaming other journalists. Finally, the paper suggests that anti-press violence in Korea promotes a chilling effect in news organizations that, consequently, may infringe on individual journalists' autonomy and editorial independence. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21670811.2022.2034027?journalCode=rdij20 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
56 | Women journalists in the pandemics of digital hate: A time where less is more | 2022 | Frutuoso Costa, Bruno | University of Coimbra | Conference Paper | Conference: World Press Freedom Day 2022 | pp. 1-20 | Digital platforms quickly became prevalent over physical public space, allowing debates, interactions, and activism to flourish. With women journalists contributing significantly to the formation of a vibrant digital public space, offline violence has adapted and evolved with digital platforms. Since 2015, the safety of journalists has profiled as an object of research in the field of communication sciences. Researchers identify, explore, and analyze the nature, prevalence, mediums of support and impacts, both personal and journalistic, of new aggressions specific to the digital environment, which aim to discredit, condition, and silence female participation. However, the wide diversity of terms and definitions used by academics has made it difficult to identify the phenomenon of digital violence against journalists and what would be the appropriate way to legislate it, to guarantee a protection of rights adapted to the digital environment. Based on scientific papers that have carried out a systematic review of terms used in previous research to characterize digital violence against women journalists, we intend to identify the best way to conceptually characterize the phenomenon and which issues need to be considered for a legislation of journalists' safety in digital arena. | https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bruno-Costa-68/publication/360346090_Women_journalists_in_the_pandemics_of_digital_hate_A_time_where_less_is_more/links/6271c560973bbb29cc5faa6b/Women-journalists-in-the-pandemics-of-digital-hate-A-time-where-less-is-more.pdf | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
57 | Beyond Incivility: Understanding Patterns of Uncivil and Intolerant Discourse in Online Political Talk | 2022 | Rossini, Patricia | University of Glasgow | Article | Communication Research | 47, pp. 1-27 | This article takes up the popular argument that much online discussion is toxic and hence harmful to democracy, and argues that the pervasiveness of incivility is not incompatible with democratically relevant political talk. Instead of focusing on the tone of political talk, scholars interested in understanding the extent to which digital platforms threaten democratic values should focus on expressions of intolerance. I demonstrate the validity of this conceptual model by investigating the discursive and contextual features associated with incivility and intolerance online in the context of public comments in two different platforms—news websites and Facebook. Results show that incivility and intolerance occur in meaningfully different discussion settings. Whereas incivility is associated with features that reveal meaningful discursive engagement, such as justified opinion expression and engagement with disagreement, intolerance is likely to occur in homogeneous discussions about minorities and civil society—exactly when it can hurt democracy the most. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650220921314 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
58 | Comparing Risks to Journalism: Media Criticism in the Digital Hate | 2022 | Cheruiyot, David | University of Groningen | Article | Digital Journalism | DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2022.2030243 | This study examines digital media criticism—publicly shared evaluations and judgements of journalistic text and actors on various digital platforms—as a risk to journalism. It specifically interrogates how journalists negotiate the diverse nature of criticism in digital spaces and in a comparative context. Through qualitative interviews with practising journalists, the paper identifies the following four main journalistic responses to digital media criticism: consolidation (ringfencing journalistic discourse); filtering (cleaning up journalistic discourse); rationalisation (acknowledging criticism or non-responses) and counter-discourse (counteracting anti-media discourses). These responses, referred to as forms of digital discursive resistance, show that journalists are both defensive against and accommodating of risks to journalistic authority, but usually aim to reinforce and expand journalistic discourse in digital spaces. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2022.2030243 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
59 | Cyber security, surveillance and journalism in Scotland | 2022 | Angela Daly, Elaine Robinson, David McMenemy | University of Dundee/University of Glasgow | Report | Cyber security, surveillance and journalism in Scotland | Science, Policy and Law Series; No. 1 | The report is the output of a RSE-funded project on how journalists in Scotland undertake their work in the digital age from the point of view of cyber security and surveillance impacts. This research interviewed ten journalists from Scotland, from various beats, locations, and employment backgrounds (including freelance, editorial, broadcast, etc.) during July and August 2022. Interviewees were asked about their perceptions of cyber security threats, surveillance, and their knowledge of cyber security. They were also asked about other related issues that affected their work, including defamation, harassment, and data protection. | https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/publications/cyber-security-surveillance-and-journalism-in-scotland | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
60 | Securing Australian Journalism from Surveillance | 2022 | Dr Diarmaid Harkin & Dr Monique Mann | Deakin University | Report | Securing Australian Journalism from Surveillance | ACCAN Grants Program | A Deakin University study involving investigative journalists and media lawyers has renewed fears for press freedom in Australia in the wake of tough new surveillance laws. | https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/news-and-media-releases/articles/australias-surveillance-laws-endanger-press-freedom | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
61 | Digital (In)Security in Latin America: The Dimensions of Social Media Violence against the Press and Journalists’ Coping Strategies | 2022 | Harlow, Summer; Wallace, Ryan and Cuev Chacón, Lourdes | University of Houston, University of Texas at Austin and San Diego State University | Article | Digital Journalism | DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2022.2128390 | As the journalism industry faces increasing risk and insecurity in the digital environment, there is still much to know about how journalists are reacting to and internalizing online harassment, and what the consequences are for their routines. Approaching the problem from a socio-technical perspective and using focus groups with Latin American journalists, this study identified the dimensions of social media violence against journalists, and the actors and coping strategies involved in responses to social media violence. This study shows that social media violence against journalists permeates all stages of news production stages. The study also identifies new and changing actors—such as the social media agent provocateur, who, working on behalf of governments and parties, stirs up mob censorship as part of orchestrated online harassment to try to dictate what news is told—, as well as actants, such as messaging apps that journalists use to create support networks. Implications for Latin American journalism are discussed. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2022.2128390?casa_token=Dfh8ReLz9GoAAAAA%3ACAlV_wakd9d5a0N9b1xbJl2UZJqN4XTUj8NN2vjJpGWzTsdSSbkymNuuDZDeY488CF4N9RyAOn1k | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
62 | “I Really Wanted Them to Have My Back, but They Didn’t”—Structural Barriers to Addressing Gendered Online Violence against Journalists | 2022 | Claesson, Annina | CREST (Institut Polytechnique de Paris) and Sciences Po Médialab | Article | Digital Journalism | DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2022.2110509 | Despite rising scholarly interest in online violence as an “occupational hazard” for journalists, we know little about the dynamics that shape the often-limited support given by media organizations to media workers affected by online violence. In this study, I explore how the working environment of journalists constrains opportunities for addressing gendered online violence. Through a total of 27 interviews with experts and media workers in the United Kingdom and India, I find that these structural barriers play out through three main dynamics: stratified access to support resources, workplace norms that punish reporting online violence as signs of “weakness,” and precarious conditions that leave journalists with little control over their work. Adverse press freedom conditions also appear to exacerbate the impact of these dynamics. Relating these findings to broader inequality regimes in the contemporary working world, I argue that online violence both reinforces and is reinforced by inequality regimes within media organizations. In the same way that organizations often fail to adequately address other forms of workplace harassment, structural barriers complicate newsroom responses to online violence. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2022.2110509?casa_token=Mr45b9JqZ2gAAAAA%3AdT5q7GZnMjcuYU8oKIIhDrnENpXAHiVJIltLwUN649GoR3MJ3ei2rZdysfyKr20qM0urxl8Ua7_X | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
63 | Expanding the Analytical Boundaries of Mob Censorship: How Technology and Infrastructure Enable Novel Threats to Journalists and Strategies for Mitigation | 2022 | Henrichsen, Jennifer R. and Shelton, Martin | Washington State University and Freedom of the Press Foundation | Article | Digital Journalism | DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2022.2112520 | Mob censorship, which “expresses the will of ordinary citizens to exert power over journalists through discursive violence” is traditionally considered a grassroots phenomenon. However, within technically mediated systems, who is behind the mob is sometimes unclear. We therefore ask how the technical affordances of the Internet and telecommunications networks complicate the identification of attackers and their motivations and multiply the forms of retaliation that attackers level against journalists. We conducted 18 semistructured interviews with seven current or former journalists, as well as 11 professionals with experience defending news organizations, including security specialists, press freedom advocates, and newsroom infrastructure support staff. Through a constructivist grounded theory approach and in conversation with Lewis and Westlund’s (2015) 4A framework, we found that journalists and those defending news organizations do not reliably identify sources and motivations behind attacks, which may be grassroots in nature but may also be instigated by corporate or government actors. Journalists nonetheless infer attribution and motivation from the context surrounding attacks. Systemic issues related to the lack of diversity, ongoing financial constraints, and journalistic norms of engagement, alongside a lack of internal and platform support, exacerbate repercussions from these attacks and harm journalism’s role in a democracy. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2022.2112520 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
64 | Online Trolling of Journalists | 2022 | Waisbord, Silvio | George Washington University | Book Chapter | The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism | Routledge | Academic studies and news stories alike have been documenting a quite devastating picture of the online trolling of journalists, especially women and minorities, around the world. The scale and the magnitude of trolling have attracted the attention of governments and international organizations, particularly those considering it a threat to human rights. This chapter examines the dimensions and consequences of online trolling of journalists and suggest four lines of action to address the problem. Although journalists across news organizations and news beats are frequent targets of trolling, not all journalists are similarly vulnerable. Trolling is disproportionately directed at two clusters of journalists. Digital harassment is both a relatively new form of anti-press violence and censorship as well as the continuation of authoritarian forces determined to silence critical journalism and other forms of public expression. | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003174790-18/online-trolling-journalists-silvio-waisbord | No | ||||||||||||||||||
65 | Protecting journalists from harassment Comparing existing protection mechanisms and the effects on democracy | 2022 | Baroni, Alice; d’Haenens, Leen and Lo, Wai Han | University of Padova; KU Leuven and Hong Kong Baptist University | Book Chapter | Success and failure in news media performance: Comparative analysis in the Media for Democracy Monitor 2021 | Nordicom, pp. 59-77 | There is a quickly increasing body of studies and reports on harassment and intimidation of journalists around the world. These series of acts have a chilling effect on media freedom and journalists’ freedom of expression. The research literature on the topic has mostly focused on intimidation and harassment of journalists – particularly sexual harassment of women journalists – or journalists’ experiences of online harassment, and the impact on press censorship. In this chapter, we contribute to the debate by exploring the nexus between the harassment of journalists and the protection mechanisms adopted by leading news media organisations, professional journalism associations and other institutions, and national governments. We then discuss the effects on democracy in the 18 countries participating in the 2021 Media for Democracy Monitor (MDM). Our findings indicate how legal support and protection mechanisms might enhance journalists’ capacity to realise the news media’s democratic role in practice. | http://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?aq2=%5B%5B%5D%5D&c=14&af=%5B%5D&searchType=LIST_LATEST&sortOrder2=title_sort_asc&query=&language=en&pid=diva2%3A1641177&aq=%5B%5B%5D%5D&sf=all&aqe=%5B%5D&sortOrder=author_sort_asc&onlyFullText=false&noOfRows=50&dswid=5262 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
66 | Boundaries, Barriers, and Champions: Understanding Digital Security Education in US Journalism Programs | 2022 | Henrichsen, Jennifer R. and Shelton, Martin | Washington State University and Freedom of the Press Foundation | Article | Journalism Studies | DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2022.2148267 | Journalists are increasingly attacked in response to their work yet they often lack the necessary support and training to protect themselves, their sources, and their communications. Despite this, there has been limited scholarly attention that addresses how journalism schools approach digital security education. This paper draws from an analysis of 106 US programs and 23 semi-structured interviews with journalism students and professors to examine how the next generation of journalists learn about digital security practices. Our findings show that most programs (88.7%) don’t offer formal digital security programming and that digital security skills are often deprioritized in favor of skills seen as more significant contributors to post-graduate hiring—a key priority of journalism programs. Additional barriers include a lack of space and time in existing curricula for added digital security coursework, a perception that students are not interested, and few professors with related knowledge. When security education is introduced, it’s done so in often informal and ad-hoc ways, largely led by “security champions,” both within and outside of journalism, who advocate for its legitimacy. These findings have important implications for journalism education and journalists’ capacity to carry out their work amidst a deteriorating safety environment in the United States. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2148267?casa_token=rnKRVy4tflQAAAAA%3AH1588042d-tAxMF5yJW4kFXhweLb0Y3IObaBOa7-xcXuE0dzPZjYnkChquYaaQ4U72VyQAAnvTmq | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
67 | Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (Kap) of Digital Safety in Nigeria: A Study of Online Journalists in Kano State | 2022 | Ridwanullah, Abdulhameed Olaitan; Abbas, Bilkisu Musbahu and Abdulsalam, Lauratu Umar | Skyline University and University of Lagos | Article | SSRN | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4192438 | This study examined the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of digital safety among journalists in Kano State. It aimed at examining the awareness of digital safety and threats and also the mechanisms used by Kano state online journalists to respond to such threats. The study adopted the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT). The study employed a survey method using structured questionnaires. Data were gathered from 210 respondents through a simple random sampling of online journalists. Findings of the study revealed that most online journalists in Kano state are quite aware of digital safety and digital threats. However, the majority of journalists just use strong password and changing of password as a mechanism to prevent attacks online. Findings also show that most female journalists in Kano experienced intimidation and harassment online. This could be due to the fact that women in northern Nigeria are not given much freedom like men. Therefore, there is a high need for professional training of Kano journalists, especially female journalists, on advanced strategies to prevent themselves and their data online. | https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4192438 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
68 | A Matter of Organisational Silence: Media Managers Struggling to Make Sense of the Online Harassment of Journalists as a Collective Issue in Journalism | 2022 | Malcorps, Sylvain; Libert, Manon and Le Cam, Florence | Université libre de Bruxelles and Université de Mons | Article | Digital Journalism | DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2022.2140301 | The online harassment of journalists is a phenomenon which has been on the rise in Europe over the last decade and it affects journalists' working lives. As an expression of mob censorship, online harassment raises questions about how media organisations react to online aggressions targeting their journalists, the consequences on the victims’ well-being and on the role of journalism in society. Yet, previous research has shown the lack of support mechanisms provided by journalists’ employers. In this article, we explore the hypothesis that the lack of organisational support towards targeted journalists is partly due to the challenges faced by media managers when trying to make sense of the phenomenon. This article offers a unique viewpoint on how 22 Belgian media managers from five media organisations struggle to define what online harassment is and how to respond to it. In turn, it shows that the vague understanding of what online harassment is seems to favour case-by-case organisational responses. Missing words and unstructured actions related to online harassment impede media managers from addressing online harassment as a collective issue in journalism and its consequences on the democratic debate. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2022.2140301?casa_token=mdXT_sxbQmcAAAAA%3AzYaHSeSbddmLLySHtADdielchBL6xGUxHxyMzhFh6h79OU11Y3E8GShaPeu6tCBQko9hLjmtblhu | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
69 | “Who’s Going to be a Creep Today?” Understanding the Social Media Experiences of Women Broadcast Journalists | 2022 | Kempton, Stefanie Davis and Connolly-Ahern, Colleen | Penn State University | Artice | Social Media + Society | 8(2) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221108410 | Reports of the online harassment of journalists have continued to increase as more newsrooms place higher emphasis on social media engagement with audiences. However, this harassment is subject to gendered dynamics, as women journalists are most often the target of online abuse, and the attacks themselves are often gender-centric. This study employs a mixed-method approach to explore how gender influences broadcast journalists’ social media interactions with audiences. Qualitative interviews with US broadcast journalists, along with a social media discourse analysis of the journalists’ Twitter pages, reveal the sexist nature of these interactions. Specifically, findings show that women journalists are treated not only as sexual objects, but also as non-serious journalists. In response to this treatment, women journalists adjust their social media strategies by limiting what they post and blocking certain users. This puts women journalists in a difficult position: increase coveted audience engagement and deal with online harassment or block abusive social media users and suffer the career impacts of low audience engagement. Implications are discussed. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051221108410 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
70 | Strategic Rituals of Loyalty: When Israeli Journalists Face Digital Hate | 2022 | Panievsky, Ayala | University of Cambridge | Article | Digital Journalism | DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2022.2118144 | This article examines how and why Israeli journalists use their military service as a shield in response to online violence and digital hate. This practice, termed here the military-as-alibi strategy, is highly consequential. First, it excludes Israeli citizens who are exempt from military service (mostly Palestinian citizens of Israel and ultra-orthodox Jews). Second, it affirms the presumption that “good journalists” are not to be measured by their reporting, but rather by external loyalty tests that allegedly demonstrate their commitment to the national cause. Drawing on analyses of interviews with 20 Israeli journalists, media coverage and social media content, this article frames the military-as-alibi strategy within the local context of a militarised society, but also as part of journalists’ global struggle to win the hearts of their audiences in challenging times. Building on Tuchman (1972), the article labels journalists’ references to their military backgrounds as a strategic ritual of loyalty. The article proposes an alternative strategy to counter anti-press attacks: if journalism is indeed a public good (Pickard 2019), then “good journalism” should be considered “good citizenship”. This approach could free journalists from surrendering to nationalist loyalty tests, and lay better foundations for journalists–audiences relationships in the future. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2022.2118144 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
71 | Counter digital revolution, disinformation, and journalistic constraints in Arab media | 2022 | Khamis, Sahar and Al-Jaber, Khalid | University of Maryland and MENA Center in Washington D.C | Article | Journalism Research/Journalistik | 3(5) pp. 234-252 | The spread of social media platforms ushered the beginning of an unprecedented communication era, which is borderless, immediate, widespread, and defies restrictions and censorship. Digital technology aided the spread of democracy and freedom of expression and helped to overthrow some Arab regimes in 2011. At that time, it was believed that these platforms paved the way for democracy by allowing citizens to easily circumvent governmental censorship, and by facilitating communication, networking, and organization among activists, thus weakening authoritarian regimes. These assumptions were overly optimistic, as the detours in democratization and political reform in the Arab region over a decade later illustrate. This article tackles the exploitation of new media, and the laws and regulations governing them, by Arab authoritarian regimes to crack down on opponents, activists, and journalists, oftentimes under the mantle of fighting disinformation, using a plethora of techniques. It also illustrates how disinformation could spread rapidly through governmentally orchestrated campaigns via new communication tools, causing serious political consequences and high risks to activists and journalists, while aiding counter revolutions. The constraining implications of these complex phenomena on Arab journalism will be explored, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. | https://journalistik.online/en/paper-en/counter-digital-revolution-disinformation-and-journalistic-constraints-in-arab-media/ | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
72 | “It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you”: Navigating risk to journalists when connected devices are everywhere | 2022 | Shere, Anjuli R. K.; Nurse, Jason R. C. and Martin, Andrew | University of Oxford | Conference Paper | IAMCR 2022 conference - “Communication Research in the Era of Neo-Globalisation: Reorientations, Challenges and Changing Contexts” | IAMCR 2022 conference - “Communication Research in the Era of Neo-Globalisation: Reorientations, Challenges and Changing Contexts” | The consumer Internet of Things (IoT) is a fast-growing area of technology, increasingly embedded in the public and private spheres, including both in and on bodies. There are various security concerns and academic investigations into potential risks of this expansion, but none yet specifically addressing the implications to journalists and the democratic pillar of press freedom. Not only are risks to this community not yet assessed, but IoT threats generally are not communicated without technical jargon, making them inaccessible to non-experts. Given the importance of a free press, mapping IoT devices and, crucially, communicating associated risk in ways understandable and actionable to journalists themselves, is key. Journalists and the press are particularly at-risk from IoT devices that may feature in the environments with which they must regularly interact because of the fundamental imperative of source confidentiality. Previous research demonstrated that members of the press are largely unaware of the ways in which the IoT can threaten their work and wellbeing. The networked capabilities of IoT devices increases the ease with which well-resourced threat actors can target journalists who routinely handle confidential information and are already at risk around the world from a variety of non-IoT threats. This paper therefore presents a novel categorisation of both ambient and wearable consumer IoT devices according to the environments in which journalists are most likely to interact with them. It draws on related academic work classifying devices for technical audiences to create a system that is accessible to journalists and their sources. Its goal is to make members of the media aware of the prevalence of these technologies and which of the devices’ capabilities may increase their individual risk. Useful risk assessments cannot be undertaken without an accurate understanding of where threats may be encountered. By systematically outlining risks in numerous environments, this taxonomy can be easily incorporated into existing security training materials and risk assessments for journalists. This paper presents a novel taxonomy to codify and organise IoT present in different environments, with examples of how journalists and their work could be impacted, both passively (i.e. via surveillance) or actively (i.e. via information theft). It also discusses how different environments that may contain IoT devices are often under the control of actors whom journalists cannot easily influence, nor protect themselves against. Especially as these devices continue to proliferate, journalistic risk from IoT devices in surrounding environments are growing. It is therefore important to address the contemporary and emerging risks to journalism that are associated with connected devices. This paper enables journalists and readers to not only visualise and conceptualise how IoT devices in different environments may create risks, its user-focused language and organisation also empower journalists to begin to use this taxonomy for awareness, mitigation, and protective purposes. | https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f2c3134b-a6bc-4071-b207-ec7f7cedb118 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
73 | Resisting the Individualization of Risk: Strategies of Engagement and Caution in Journalists’ Responses to Online Mobs in the United States and Germany | 2023 | Nechushtai, Efrat | George Washington University | Article | Digital Journalism | https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2153710 | Increasing levels of toxicity, harassment, trolling, and doxxing targeting journalists are a global problem that adversely affects journalism and democratic life. This study offers a comparative analysis of journalistic responses to online violence in the United States and Germany, based on 87 interviews and multiple newsroom observations. U.S. journalists typically discussed the problem in individualized terms, with the onus largely perceived to be placed on journalists to protect themselves while maintaining visibility and accessibility. In Germany, journalists typically discussed the problem as a systemic one, with the onus largely perceived to be placed on media organizations to protect staffers. Journalists in Germany thus considered legitimate a variety of obfuscation and avoidance strategies online and offline, while U.S. journalists felt a greater personal responsibility to advocate for the profession. These findings show the contribution of comparative perspectives in studying the global challenge of anti-press violence. They also demonstrate the complexity of defining and measuring journalistic autonomy, posing theoretical questions that illuminate some of the intrinsic tensions and tradeoffs of autonomy. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2022.2153710 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
74 | Threats to Journalists from the Consumer Internet of Things | 2023 | Shere, Anjuli R. K.; Nurse, Jason R. C. and Martin, Andrew | University of Oxford | Conference Paper | Proceedings of the International Conference on Cybersecurity, Situational Awareness and Social Media | Springer DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6414-5_17 | Threats associated with the consumer Internet of Things (IoT) may particularly inhibit the work and wellbeing of journalists, especially because of the danger of technological surveillance and the imperative to protect confidential sources. These issues may have knock-on effects on societal stability and democratic processes if press freedom is eroded. Still, journalists remain unaware of potential IoT threats, and so are unable to incorporate them into risk assessments or to advise their sources. This shows a clear gap in the literature, requiring immediate attention. This article therefore identifies and organises distinctive and novel threats to journalism from the consumer IoT. The article presents a novel conceptualisation of threats to the press in six categories: regulatory gaps, legal threats, profiling threats, tracking threats, data and device modification threats and networked device threats. Each of the threats in these categories includes a description and hypothetical consequences that include real-life ways in which IoT devices can be used to inhibit journalistic work, building on interdisciplinary literature analysis and expert interviews. In so doing, this article synthesises technical information about IoT device capabilities with human security and privacy requirements tailored to a specific at-risk population: journalists. It is therefore important for cyber science scholarship to address the contemporary and emerging risks associated with IoT devices to vulnerable groups such as journalists. This exploratory conceptualisation enables the evidence-based conceptual evolution of understandings of cyber security risks to journalists. | https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-19-6414-5_17#citeas | No | ||||||||||||||||||
75 | Online safety of diverse journalists: a report prepared for Media Diversity Australia | 2023 | Valencia-Forrester, Faith; Carlson, Bronwyn; Forde, Susan; Day, Madi; Pearson, Mark; O'Sullivan, Sandy; de Groot Heupner, Susan and Barnes, Dylan | Griffith University; Macquarie University; | Report | Online safety of diverse journalists: a report prepared for Media Diversity Australia | Media Diversity Australia | This Australia-first research project, initiated by not-for-profit organisation Media Diversity Australia (MDA), is a key step toward identifying, understanding and addressing online harassment and abuse of diverse journalists and media workers. Currently there is no substantial research available that documents the unique experiences of online harms experienced by diverse journalists and commentators in Australia, even though anecdotes abound. | https://www.mediadiversityaustralia.org/online-safety-of-diverse-journalists/ | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
76 | Twitter trolling of Pakistani female journalists: A patriarchal society glance | 2023 | Siddiqua, Ayesha; Gong, Jiankun and Ali Aksar, Iffat | National University of Modern Languages; University of Malaya and Xiamen University | Article | Media, Culture & Society | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231168306 | The incorporation of new media technology into journalistic practices led to online harassment, particularly of female journalists. The researchers investigated the tweets of four prominent Pakistani female journalists through the lens of post-colonial feminism and symbolic violence. The qualitative analysis of 239 tweets revealed themes that corroborated the dominance of sociocultural and political grounds in undermining the status of women and making them susceptible to online harassment. In culturally traditional communities, the position of women is “gender specific,” and socioeconomic status cannot guarantee women’s safety from cultural behaviors. The harassment themes included “you called for it,” adhering to the limits of a male-dominated society, women’s card, threats, “lifafa,” shamelessness, religious policing, moral policing, and pseudo-intellectual labeling. The study recommends expanding research in sociopolitical, religious, and cultural contexts to comprehend symbolic violence, particularly in relation to women. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01634437231168306 | |||||||||||||||||||
77 | Online Harassment of Journalists in Zimbabwe: Experiences, Coping Strategies and Implications | 2023 | Ndlovu, Mphathisi and Aubrey, Nkosini | Stellenbosch University and National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe | Book Chapter | New Journalism Ecologies in East and Southern Africa. Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South | Palgrave Macmillan | This chapter examines the safety risks faced by Zimbabwean journalists as they conduct their day-to-day professional work in online spaces. Given that journalists in Africa are increasingly utilising and adopting social media tools for news production and distribution, it is timely to examine the drawbacks of using these digital technologies. The chapter contributes to the growing scholarship that unpacks how different social actors such as government officials and the public are using digital tools to silence and discipline journalists. It analyses the nature of online harassment and the coping strategies employed by journalists as they navigate the difficult terrain. This study uses the concepts of reciprocal journalism and audience engagement to demonstrate the experiences of Zimbabwean journalists with online harassment. Data is drawn from interviews with 18 participants that include 15 journalists and 3 digital security trainers. Findings demonstrate that online harassment is a huge problem in a politically polarised context such as Zimbabwe. This has undermined the efforts of journalists to engage with audiences in online spaces. | https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-23625-9_6#citeas | No | ||||||||||||||||||
78 | Southern European Journalists’ Perceptions of Discursive Menaces in the Age of (Online) Delegitimization | 2023 | Blanco-Herrero, David; Splendore, Sergio and Oller Alonso, Martín | University of Salamanca and University of Milan | Article | Politics and Governance | 11(2) pp. 210-220 | In a new communication context, factors such as the rise of hate speech, disinformation, or a precarious financial and employment situation in the media have made discursive menaces gain increasing significance. Threats of this kind challenge the legitimacy of institutional news media and professional journalists. This article contributes to the existing literature on the legitimization of journalism and boundary work through a study that seeks to understand the perceptions of Southern European journalists of the threats that they encounter in their work and the factors that help explain them. To this end, a survey of 398 journalists in Spain, Italy, and Greece was conducted to learn what personal or professional factors influenced their views and experiences of discursive and non-discursive menaces. Results show that discursive threats, such as hateful or demeaning speech and public discrediting of one’s work, are the most frequent to the safety of journalists, while expressions of physical violence are less common. Younger and more educated journalists tended to perceive themselves as having been victims of discursive menaces more often, although not many significant differences were observed between different groups of journalists. Even though it could show a worrying trend, this finding can also indicate a growing awareness about menaces of this kind. | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6397 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
79 | Boundaries, Barriers, and Champions: Understanding Digital Security Education in US Journalism Programs | 2023 | Henrichsen, Jennifer R and Shelton, Martin | Edward R. Murrow College of Communication; Freedom of the Press Foundation, San Francisco | Article | Journalism Studies | 24(3) pp. 309-328 | Journalists are increasingly attacked in response to their work yet they often lack the necessary support and training to protect themselves, their sources, and their communications. Despite this, there has been limited scholarly attention that addresses how journalism schools approach digital security education. This paper draws from an analysis of 106 US programs and 23 semi-structured interviews with journalism students and professors to examine how the next generation of journalists learn about digital security practices. Our findings show that most programs (88.7%) don’t offer formal digital security programming and that digital security skills are often deprioritized in favor of skills seen as more significant contributors to post-graduate hiring—a key priority of journalism programs. Additional barriers include a lack of space and time in existing curricula for added digital security coursework, a perception that students are not interested, and few professors with related knowledge. When security education is introduced, it’s done so in often informal and ad-hoc ways, largely led by “security champions,” both within and outside of journalism, who advocate for its legitimacy. These findings have important implications for journalism education and journalists’ capacity to carry out their work amidst a deteriorating safety environment in the United States. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2148267 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
80 | Same threats, different platforms? Female journalists’ experiences of online gender-based violence in selected newsrooms in Namibia | 2023 | Zviyita, Itai and Mare, Admire | University of Johannesburg | Article | Journalism | https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849231183815 | Concerns about the disproportionate levels of online gender-based abuse experienced by female journalists when compared to their male counterparts have attracted sizeable scholarly attention in the last few years. Extant studies have highlighted that female journalists experience online forms of harassment such as name calling, body shaming, trolling, verbal abuse, sextortion, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, manipulation of photos, cyberstalking, doxing, hacking, receiving unwanted, offensive sexually explicit emails or messages, and inappropriate advances on social media platforms, in the line of duty. Although these findings are true in some of the newsrooms in the global North, there is a disconcerting absence of systematic studies looking at the experiences of female journalists in selected newsrooms in Africa in general and Namibia in particular. This article seeks to fill this lacuna by empirically investigating the extent to which online gender-based violence is deep-seated social problem in selected Namibian newsrooms. It deploys the intersectional approach to analyze the online gender-based violence experienced by female journalists in Namibia. Drawing our data from interviews with female journalists in selected Namibian newsrooms, overall, our findings suggest that cases of online gender-based violence against female journalists are still negligible when compared to other contexts, it is happening, nonetheless. This emerging phenomenon is largely underreported. Furthermore, it is occurring in an environment devoid of legislative, institutional, and newsroom-specific mechanisms aimed at ensuring the safety of female journalists. Namibian female journalists are facing unique online gender-based violence, which contributes immensely towards self-censorship and retreating from the public sphere. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14648849231183815 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
81 | “I thought You Are Beautiful”: Uganda Women Journalists’ Tales of Mob Violence on Social Media | 2023 | Walulya, Gerald and Selnes, Florence Namasinga | Makerere University and Metropolitan University in Norway | Article | Digital Journalism | https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2023.2170899 | This article contributes to our understanding of the notion of mob censorship from the Ugandan context by examining the nature and consequences of harassment targeting women journalists on social media. Drawing on research about online harassment and censorship, we link mob violence in physical spaces to harassment encountered on social media from the perspectives of women journalists. We illustrate that the different forms of harassment enabled by online platforms present serious challenges for individual journalists, and the journalism profession. Our findings suggest that online attacks on reporters include comments that denigrate women’s bodies, and discredit journalists’ reportage. The harassment compels women journalists to engage in online hibernation and censorship. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2023.2170899 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
82 | How online harassment affects Korean journalists? The effects of online harassment on the journalists’ psychological problems and their intention to leave the profession | 2023 | Yeon Lee, Na and Park, Ahran | Yonsei University and Korea University | Article | Journalism | https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849231166511 | This study examined the effects of online harassment on journalists’ psychological trauma and their intention to leave work. It also investigated whether journalists’ psychological trauma mediates the effects of online harassment on their intention to leave the profession and whether gender makes a difference in that relationship. An online survey of 404 South Korean journalists provided three categories of online harassment that journalists experience: (1) aggressive and abusive expression, (2) disclosure of private information, and (3) cyberstalking and hacking. The findings of this study show that aggressive and abusive expression was the most frequent type of online harassment whereas cyberstalking and hacking was the least frequent. As expected, online harassment was found to be positively associated with journalists’ psychological trauma (PTSD symptoms) and intention to leave work. The results further indicate that journalists’ psychological trauma originating from online harassment frequently resulted in an intention to leave work. Interestingly, journalists’ psychological trauma was a significant mediator in the relationship between psychological trauma levels and intention to leave work for female journalists, but not for male journalists. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14648849231166511 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
83 | Twitter trolling of Pakistani female journalists: A patriarchal society glance | 2023 | Siddiqua, Ayesha; Gong, Jiankun and Ali Aksar, Iffat | National University of Modern Languages; University of Malaya and Xiamen University | Article | Media, Culture & Society | https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231168306 | The incorporation of new media technology into journalistic practices led to online harassment, particularly of female journalists. The researchers investigated the tweets of four prominent Pakistani female journalists through the lens of post-colonial feminism and symbolic violence. The qualitative analysis of 239 tweets revealed themes that corroborated the dominance of sociocultural and political grounds in undermining the status of women and making them susceptible to online harassment. In culturally traditional communities, the position of women is “gender specific,” and socioeconomic status cannot guarantee women’s safety from cultural behaviors. The harassment themes included “you called for it,” adhering to the limits of a male-dominated society, women’s card, threats, “lifafa,” shamelessness, religious policing, moral policing, and pseudo-intellectual labeling. The study recommends expanding research in sociopolitical, religious, and cultural contexts to comprehend symbolic violence, particularly in relation to women. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01634437231168306 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
84 | Occupational Hazards: Individual and Professional Factors of Why Journalists Become Victims of Online Hate Speech | 2023 | Obermaier, Magdalena | Article | Journalism Studies | 24: Special Issue pp. 838-856 | Journalists are regularly exposed to online hate speech their profession. Because discrimination often harms targets and can prompt self-censorship in journalistic content, undermining journalism’s public duty, it is essential to understand factors explaining why journalists become victims of online hate speech. Using Routine Activity Theory, an online survey of journalists in Germany (N = 497) revealed that conceptions of their roles as interpreters or adversaries were associated with more frequently being targets of online hate speech. Moreover, women journalists and journalists with migration background were additionally targeted by respectively sexist and racist online hate speech. Participation in active content moderation, a presumed destructive motivation, and audiences’ weak trust in media also raised journalists’ likelihood of being targets of hate speech online. Newsroom support, however, was positively related to such victimization, possibly as a result of sharing past experiences. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2023.2173955 | No | |||||||||||||||||||
85 | The Digitization of Harassment: Women Journalists’ Experiences with Online Harassment in the Philippines | 2023 | Tandoc, Edson C.; Sagun, Karryl Kim and Alvarez, Katrina Paola | Nanyang Technological University | Article | Journalism Practice | 17(6) pp. 1198-1213 | Through interviews with women journalists in the Philippines, this study documents and examines their experiences with online harassment. Three main themes stand out. First, we find that online harassment against journalists follows a systematic process that starts from the top, is followed through by a network of social media personalities and an army of trolls, and then completed by ordinary social media users. Second, cases of harassment impact journalists across multiple levels: individually, interpersonally and professionally. Finally, the participants referred to different ways of coping with what they experienced and identified three sources of support: their peers, their organizations and the public. Harassment against journalists has always been gendered, with women journalists finding themselves at the receiving end more often than do their male counterparts, and this has spilled over into digital platforms. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512786.2021.1981774 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
86 | Swedish journalists' perceptions of legal protection against unlawful online harassment | 2023 | Björkenfeldt, Oscar | Lund University | Article | Front. Sociol. | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2023.1154495 | This study examined journalists' perceptions regarding the legal system's ability to protect them against online harassment. By utilizing open-ended survey responses from respondents with varying levels of trust in the legal system, the findings suggested a need for increased technical proficiency, resources, and priority within the legal system to adequately address the issue. Additionally, a reciprocal relationship between the normalization of online harassment within the journalistic profession and the legal system's commitment to providing protection was identified. However, the study also found that when the legal system's mediated approach to online harassment is positive, it affects attitudes and norms relating to legal protection. Consequently, it reveals a unique insight into how journalists respond to the message conveyed by fair treatment and respect from the legal system. Notably, this result implies that when such messages are internalized, journalists feel more empowered to take measures against online harassment. As a result of this analysis, I propose that current laws should be implemented more effectively and that policy strategies should be developed to positively influence social norms and social control to bolster journalistic autonomy and freedom of speech in the digital age. | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1154495/full?utm_source=Email_to_authors_&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=T1_11.5e1_author&utm_campaign=Email_publication&field=&journalName=Frontiers_in_Sociology&id=1154495 | |||||||||||||||||||
87 | Arab authorities use digital surveillance to control press freedom: journalists’ perceptions | 2023 | AlAshry, Miral Sabry | Future University in Egypt | Article | Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance | 25(3) pp. 250-266 | Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent of digital surveillance by Arab authorities, which face risks and threats of surveillance, and how journalists seek to press freedom by using tools and techniques to communicate securely. Design/methodology/approach – The study used focus group discussions with 14 journalists from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Yemen, Oman, Jordan and Egypt. While in Egypt, questionnaires were distributed to 199 journalists from both independent and semi-governmental outlets to investigate how Egyptian journalists interpret the new data protection law and its implications for press freedom. Findings – The study indicated that journalists from these countries revealed severe censorship by their respective governments, an element inconsistent with the Arab Constitution. The recommendation of the study encourages media organisations to play a more active role in setting policies that make it easier for journalists to adopt and use digital security tools, while Egyptian journalists see the law as a barrier to media independence because it allows the government to exercise greater information control through digital policy and imposes regulatory rules on journalists. Practical implications – The study identifies practical and theoretical issues in Arab legislation and may reveal practices of interest to scientists researching the balance between data protection, the right of access to information and media research as an example of contemporary government indirect or ‘‘soft’’ censorship methods. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first research contributions to analyse the relationships between Arab authoritarians who used surveillance to restrict freedom of the press after the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 to keep themselves in power as long as they could. In addition, Egypt’s use of surveillance under new laws allowed the regimes to install software on the journalists’ phones that enabled them to read the files and emails and track their locations; accordingly, journalists can be targeted by the cyberattack and can be arrested. | https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/DPRG-05-2021-0071/full/html | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
88 | “Journalists are Prepared for Critical Situations … but We are Not Prepared for This”: Empirical and Structural Dimensions of Gendered Online Harassment | 2023 | Susana Sampaio-Dias, Maria João Silveirinha, Bibiana Garcez, Filipa Subtil, João Miranda & Carla Cerqueira | University of Portsmouth; ICNOVA; University of Coimbra; Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon; Lusófona University/CICANT | Article | Journalism Practice | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2023.2250755 | This article discusses online harassment against women journalists exploring self-reported incidents, effects, and trust in safety mechanisms. Drawing on twenty-five semi-structured interviews of women journalists in Portugal, we use a feminist and critical realist framework to explore the causal structures and generative mechanisms that explain their vulnerability to online abuse. We identify three overarching themes: increasing visibility in a context of higher hostility towards journalism and insufficient safety mechanisms; intersectional gender inequality and cultural mores that foster it; and (individual) responses to harassment. These themes show that women journalists’ actions are both constrained and enabled by existing structures and cultural attitudes. While they tend to deny harassment is caused by their gender, seeing it mainly because of their job, they admit the sexualised and gendered nature of the insults, seeing this as an added offence not experienced by their male counterparts. They also see harassment as a continuation of inequality and prevailing sexism and find the protection mechanisms insufficient and ineffective. As a result, they assume an extra burden of emotional labour to deal with online bullying, admitting self-censoring and the need to develop resilience strategies. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512786.2023.2250755 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
89 | “It Comes With the Job”: How Journalists Navigate Experiences and Perceptions of Gendered Online Harassment | 2023 | João Miranda, Maria João Silveirinha, Susana Sampaio-Dias, Bruno Dias, Bibiana Garcez, Mateus Noronha | University of Coimbra; ICNOVA; University of Portsmouth and University of Beira Interior | Article | International Journal of Communication | 17(2023) pp. 5128-5148 | This article examines how online abuse is experienced and tackled by journalists in Portugal, and addresses the prevalence of online harassment and violence against women journalists and their perceptions of the issue. Theoretically, the article bridges the research on online harassment and gender in journalism. Empirically, it draws on a nationwide survey of journalists combined with data from semi-structured interviews conducted with 25 women journalists to explore the gendered experiences of online abuse. Journalists feel an increasing hostility aggravated by the digital environment. Half of the surveyed professionals experienced online abuse, including sexual harassment. Journalists evidenced low trust in protection mechanisms and feelings of resignation towards online abuse, seen as intrinsic to the job. The interviews further revealed a perceived connection between gender and online abuse: women recognized the sexualized nature of online abuse, which they linked to the broader cultural context of gender inequality. | https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/20984#:~:text=Half%20of%20the%20surveyed%20professionals,as%20intrinsic%20to%20the%20job. | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
90 | How Newsroom Social Media Policies Can Improve Journalists' Well-Being | 2023 | Molyneux, Logan and Nelson, Jacob L. | Klein College of Media and Communication and University of Utah | Book Chapter | Happiness in Journalism | Routledge | This chapter draws on a discourse analysis of newsroom social media policies, and in-depth interviews with journalists focused on their reactions to the social media policies within the newsrooms in which they have worked, and their recommendations for how those policies should be improved. | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003364597-11/newsroom-social-media-policies-improve-journalists-well-being-logan-molyneux-jacob-nelson?context=ubx&refId=b34f767f-ac1d-4386-b1eb-81a9559d7c14 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
91 | Online harassment of journalists in Nigeria: audience motivations and solutions | 2023 | Uwalaka, Temple; Fred Amadi, Azubuike; Nwala, Bigman and Wokoro, Peter | University of Canberra; Rivers State University; Ignatius Ajuru University of Education and | Article | Ignatius Ajuru University of Education | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X231206840 | This study investigates the motivations for the hostility towards the press by the audience and how to control online harassment of journalists in Nigeria. Data for this study are from online and face-to-face semi-structured interviews of 54 Nigerians in Nigeria. Finding shows that perceived journalistic malpractice and unethical behaviour motivate Nigerians to engage in online harassment of journalists in Nigeria. The study also uncovers what the audience in Nigeria offer as preventive measures to online harassment of journalists. These include (i) improved transparency, (ii) improved ethical conduct by journalists, and (iii) procedural and prosecutorial measures (e.g. implementation of a robust professional code of conduct and enacting safety laws for journalists) as ways of eradicating online harassment of journalists in Nigeria. Suggestions for future research areas were delineated. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X231206840 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
92 | Online Harassment and Trolling of Political Journalists in Pakistan | 2023 | Li, Mingjuan; Hussain, Shabir; Barkat, Sana and Bostan, Hajra | Linyi University; Bahria University | Article | Journalism Practice | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2023.2259381 | This study examines the online harassment faced by political journalists in Pakistan on Twitter, specifically focusing on the actions of users affiliated with various political parties. By selecting the 12 most active journalists on Twitter, we combined both content and textual analyses to examine comments posted on their tweets. Drawing upon the theoretical framework of the practice-based theoretical approach, the findings reveal that these journalists predominantly encountered negative comments encompassing personal abuses, culturally sensitive expressions, and attacks on their professional lives. Commenters associated with the populist political party, Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf, were more likely to engage in uncivil comments compared to those affiliated with traditional political parties. Interestingly, both male and female journalists received a comparable number of comments on their tweets; however, the nature of the comments differed significantly. Male journalists were primarily criticized for their perceived lack of professionalism, whereas female journalists were subjected to gender-targeted offensive comments. The study highlighted how socio-cultural conditions were exploited by political parties and netizens to suppress critical journalists. Overall, this research sheds light on the multifaceted dynamics of harassment faced by journalists in the digital age, emphasizing the need for effective measures to safeguard freedom of expression and counteract online abuse within the Pakistani media landscape. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512786.2023.2259381 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
93 | Media freedom and journalist safety in the UK Online Safety Act | 2024 | Gerbrandt, Ricki-Lee | University of Cambridge | Article | Journal of Media Law | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17577632.2024.2307678 | In the digital era, journalists are targeted with online abuse including serious threats of violence. These censorship tactics are a direct threat to media freedom. Although the UK Government intended to tackle online abuse of journalists in the Online Safety Act 2023, provisions fit for that purpose never materialised. This paper reveals why that was the case and what can be done about it. It finds that there is ongoing tension in the press industry about press regulation, with implications for journalist safety; that the Government carved out special privileges for the press’ online content but did not similarly protect journalist digital safety; that journalist safety was largely ignored in Parliament; and that repeated Government disintegration and shifting policies stripped away provisions that could have been improved to better protect journalists. This paper concludes with suggestions for how journalist safety can be better protected in the OSA regime. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17577632.2024.2307678?src= | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
94 | The Peril and Promise of AI for Journalism | 2024 | Gupta, Nishtha; Ibañez, Jenina and Tenove, Chris | The University of British Columbia | Report | Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) | Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) | This report draws on insights from the workshop, along with recent academic and journalistic publishing. It highlights three major issues: How generative AI can make disinformation campaigns faster, more targeted, and more persuasive. How newsrooms’ adoption of AI tools can lead to inaccuracies and other risks. How AI may threaten the viability of professional journalism, including through automation and content generation that replaces human journalists. In response, journalists are developing investigative practices to expose disinformation campaigns, experimenting with AI tools to make their own work more efficient, and developing ethical guidelines and labour protections to defend professional journalism. Likewise, the news industry, policymakers, and platforms are considering responses that range from workforce training to newsroom innovation to new professional guidelines to AI regulation. Through this report, CSDI hopes to contribute to important public conversations about the impact of new technologies on journalism and our information environments. Ultimately, the responses developed by journalists, policymakers, technologists, and citizens will shape our efforts to understand the world and act as democratic citizens. | https://democracy.ubc.ca/platforms/journalism-and-ai/ | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
95 | “People Don't Like Journalists, Especially Women!”: Comparing the Online and Offline Harassment Faced by Local Journalists | 2025 | Hart, Kaitlyn and Sharma, Neelam | Idaho State University | Article | Journalism Practice | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2024.2441279 | Journalists often have to navigate the online and offline challenges ranging from social media attacks to in-field harassment. The difference, however, lies in the severity of attacks that women have to endure in the field, which results in the actions that they undertake to safeguard themselves and their families. In this mixed-method study, we surveyed 70 journalists (43 women and 27 men) primarily working in the Intermountain West region in the USA. We found that while both men and women equally experienced social media harassment, women journalists are more likely to take precautions for their safety online. Significantly more women journalists described being pushed at political events, threatened online and in-person, intimidated by weapons, and considered leaving the profession, etc. Implications of these findings in the professional field of journalism are discussed. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512786.2024.2441279#abstract | No | ||||||||||||||||||
96 | An Intersectional Analysis of Aotearoa New Zealand Journalists’ Online and Offline Experiences of Abuse, Threats and Violence | 2023 | Fountaine, Susan and Strong, Cathy | Massey University | Article | Journalism Studies | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2023.2289913 | Criticism towards journalists has increased significantly since the internet created easy and anonymous communication and has turned more abusive and threatening in recent years, becoming a regular feature of journalists’ work environment, particularly for women. This article presents survey data about the amount and nature of online and offline abuse, threats and violence experienced by journalists at Aotearoa New Zealand's largest news media company, Stuff. All respondents had experienced abuse, violence and/or threats, which they widely considered to be part of the job, but women received more identity and appearance-based abuse and men experienced more in-person threats of, and actual violence. Gender plays a part in how the journalists cope with the abrasive abuse received because of their job, with many more women and particularly Māori women considering leaving the profession. In line with calls for more intersectional analysis of journalists’ workplace experiences, our study considers the complex and nuanced ways that ethnicity intersects with gender to shape Māori and Pākehā journalists’ encounters with abuse, threats and violence. For instance, our subset of Māori women journalists experienced the highest rates of offline threats and violence. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2023.2289913 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
97 | Online Harassment, Psychological Stressors, and Occupational Dysfunction among Journalists Working in a Conflict Zone | 2024 | Ali Shah, Sayyed Fawad; Cvetkovic, Ivana; Ginossar, Tamar; Ullah, Rahman; Baber, Danish and Slaughter, Autumn | Auburn University; California State Polytechnic University Pomona; University of New Mexico; Kohat University of Science and Technology | Article | Digital Journalism | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2024.2308582 | Amid increasing threats and assaults against journalists across the globe, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in northwest Pakistan remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. Whereas online harassment is increasingly affecting journalists, experiences of online harassment of KP journalists have not been previously examined. This study explored the experiences of online harassment of regional KP journalists, the psychological ramifications of their exposure, and the association between online harassment and their ability to effectively perform their jobs in digital news environments. Of the recruited 299 journalists, nearly two-thirds reported experiencing online harassment. The experiences were generally infrequent, and were associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and occupational dysfunction. This study underscores the importance of understanding online harassment of journalists in conflicts zones, and how it may impact their ability to perform their professional duties, and proposes possible solutions and directions for future research and interventions. | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2024.2308582 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
98 | Unraveling the Digital Threat: Exploring the Impact of Online Harassment on South Korean Journalists’ Professional Roles | 2024 | Lee, Na Yeon and Park, Ahran | Yonsei University and Korea University | Article | Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990231217448 | This research examines whether and to what extent journalists are harassed online and the effects of online harassment on their professional roles. The study classifies online harassment against journalists into five types: insults, threats, privacy intrusion, sexual assault, and cyber-hacking. The findings reveal a positive correlation between online harassment and various adverse outcomes for journalists, including increased self-censorship, reduced public engagement, and heightened skepticism toward journalism. With regard to a specific type of online harassment, journalists’ gender plays a role as a moderator: The relationship between insults and self-censorship, disengagement with the public, and skepticism toward journalism was found to be stronger for women journalists than men journalists. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10776990231217448 | No | ||||||||||||||||||
99 | Egyptian Journalists’ Perceptions of Digital Journalism Training Effectiveness | 2024 | Fahmy, Nagwa and Attia, Maha Abdulmajeed | Zayed University and Ajman University | Article | SAGE Open | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241232756 | This study examines the perceptions of Egyptian journalists of the effectiveness of professional training in digital journalism and determines the training-needs of journalists to adapt to innovative journalism practices. The study applies mixed descriptive methods based on The Motivation–Hygiene theory of what motivates employees. Data analysis is based on an online questionnaire with a snowball sample of 134 Egyptian journalists from different media outlets and in-depth interviews with 10 journalists and professional trainers, between June 2019 and August 2020. Findings reveal that the impact of hygiene factors is stronger than that of motivation factors. This study shows that hygiene factors negatively influence professional training and inhibit any positive impacts of motivation factors. The findings of this study are significant to media organizations and professional training providers. | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21582440241232756 | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
100 | Spurring or Blurring Professional Standards? The Role of Digital Technology in Implementing Journalistic Role Ideals in Contemporary Newsrooms | 2024 | Mothes, C., Mellado, C., Boudana, S., Himma, M., Nolan, D., McIntyre, K., Kozman, C., Hallin, D. C., Amiel, P., Brin, C., Katherine Chen, Y. N., Davydov, S., De Maio, M., Dingerkus, F., El-Ibiary, R., Frías Vázquez, M., Glück, A., Garcés-Prettel, M., Luisa Humanes, M., Lecheler, S., Lee, M., I-Hsuan Lin, C., Márquez-Ramírez, M., Maza-Córdova, J., Mazzoni, M., Mick, J., Milojevic, A., Navarro, C., Olivera Pérez, D., Pizarro, M., Quinn, F., Sarasqueta, G., Skjerdal, T., Stępińska, A., Szabó, G. and Van Leuven, S | Article | Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990241246692 | This study examines the perceived relevance and implementation of competing normative ideals in journalism in times of increasing use of digital technology in newsrooms. Based on survey and content analysis data from 37 countries, we found a small positive relationship between the use of digital research tools and “watchdog” performance. However, a stronger and negative relationship emerged between the use of digital audience analytics and the performance of “watchdog” and “civic” roles, leading to an overall increase in conception–performance gaps on both roles. Moreover, journalists’ use of digital community tools was more strongly and positively associated with “infotainment” and “interventionism.”. | https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/40174/ | Yes |