The Digitization of Harassment: How It Affects Turkish Female Journalists?

Online harassment toward women in social networks can occur in many forms such as contempt, profanity, insult, sexual desire, pruriency, physical threat, misogyny, and so on. Particularly, women with high social status and influence over society, such as female journalists, are more frequently exposed to online harassment. In an area such as sport, where male hegemony is dominant, female sports journalists are exposed to online harassment both in social media and in their professional lives. In modern Muslim countries such as Turkey, the controversial position of women is reflected in social media networks, and female journalists can receive harassment, as well as support. As a result of the present study, which evaluated the online harassment experienced by female sports journalists in Turkey on Twitter, as well as the subdimensions of the harassment observed using the netnographic method, it was determined that female sports journalists are frequently exposed to online harassment on Twitter. Based on the findings obtained in the present study, the most frequently received comments on Twitter by female sports journalists are derogatory and sarcastic, focusing on the physical appearance of women, exclusionary from a hegemonic perspective, and involving emotional harassment, physical threat, and profanity, respectively.

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.

Representing Online Hostility against Women

Online harassment is a major societal challenge that impacts multiple communities. Some members of community, like female journalists and activists, bear significantly higher impacts since their profession requires easy accessibility, transparency about their identity, and involves highlighting stories of injustice. Through a multi-phased qualitative research study involving a focus group and interviews with 27 female journalists and activists, we mapped the journey of a target who goes through harassment. We introduce PMCR framework, as a way to focus on needs for Prevention, Monitoring, Crisis and Recovery. We focused on Crisis and Recovery, and designed a tool to satisfy a target's needs related to documenting evidence of harassment during the crisis and creating reports that could be shared with support networks for recovery. Finally, we discuss users' feedback to this tool, highlighting needs for targets as they face the burden and offer recommendations to future designers and scholars on how to develop tools that can help targets manage their harassment.

This study explores the impacts and challenges of cyber harassment on Pakistani female journalists. Although female journalists persistently experience misogynist online harassment in their jobs, this topic has yet to receive due attention in the journalism landscape. This study is closely aligned with the social feminism theory, which supports equal rights for working female journalists. The study sample comprised seven Pakistani female journalists, selected using purposive and snowball sampling. Adopting a qualitative research methodology, in-depth interviews were utilised for data collection to gain a comprehensive understanding of their experiences and perspectives. As revealed by the analysis, criticism of their work often takes the form of misogynistic attacks. These attacks include accusations of attention-seeking, discreditation of their skills, infantilisation, unsolicited images, misogynist slurs and even coercive fantasies of sexual violence and rape. As verified by the participants, the effects of this form of harassment are profoundly felt in their personal lives. It leads to mental exhaustion, self-doubt, coerced coping as well as the adoption of additional safety precautions in one’s personal life. The harassment also impacts the professional lives of female journalists as it forces them to withdraw from social media and coverage of specific topics, endure interruptions at work, take additional safety precautions at work and some, to the extent of considering to quit their jobs. As a result, all participants were unanimous in their demands for fundamental changes within the newsroom and society. The study demonstrates how Pakistani media organisations fall short of achieving UN’s SDG 5, which is gender equality, which this research closely aligns with.

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.

Research conducted by PR2Media at the end of 2022 found that 82.6% of 852 female journalists who were study respondents in 34 provinces reported having experienced sexual violence, including Central Java province. However, the research did not specifically discuss KBGO specifically for each region. In fact, digital violence targeting female journalists falls into the category of Online Gender-Based Violence (OGBV), namely acts of violence through internet technology to harass victims. The urgency of this research is to reveal Online Gender-Based Violence experienced by female journalists in Semarang as the capital of Central Java. The purpose of this study is to find out how the experience of OGBV that occurred during their profession, as well as to find out the types of OGBV that have been experienced. This research uses a qualitative method with data collection techniques through in-depth interviews, observations, surveys and literature studies, which are then described descriptively. The findings of this research show that the type of GBV experienced by female journalists in Semarang is cyber harassment (46.7), and the attitude taken by female journalists who are victims of online gender-based violence is to refuse to remain silent, an anomaly of Muted Group Theory

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.

Journalists are consistent targets of hate speech, which aims at silencing critical voices; yet female journalists encounter forms of hate speech that are unique to their gender. Hate speech against female journalists can have far-reaching implications on journalism practice and society as a whole. This study investigates the macro and micro dimensions of countering hate speech as a matter of policy and as a matter of personal resistance. Its first part analyses the legal and institutional means to counter hate speech in Austria while the second part juxtaposes the micro level of experiencing hate speech and forms of resistance through in-depth interviews with nine female journalists in Austria. The findings indicate that female journalists received more hate speech when they spoke about stereotypically male-dominated topics. They noted that receiving hate speech could have a severe impact on one’s personal life or work. As measures of countering those effects, female journalists responded by making the hate comments public, while others withdrew themselves from public altogether. Deterred from seeking support from the authorities, as they did not feel taken seriously, women turned to other women who showed solidarity. The paper concludes with suggestions of practical action deriving from both sets of information.

Risk factors for involvement in cyber bullying: Victims, bullies and bully–victims

Baseline surveys on the gender distribution in Zimbabwe’s media industry indicate a male dominance in newsrooms in general, as well as in media leadership positions. This gender disparity reflects the persistence of patriarchy and heteronormative beliefs in the Zimbabwean society, despite the country’s constitution upholding gender mainstreaming and principles of equality. However, thereis a dearth of systematic academic studies exploring the experiences, aspirations and attitudes of female journalists in these macho newsrooms. The article is theoretically guided by Raewyn Connell’s hegemonic masculinity theory. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively selected female Zimbabwean journalists to discuss their experiences and struggles in such environments. Findings indicate that gender remains an unresolved question in Zimbabwe. Due to alleged unprofessional conduct by some male journalists, Zimbabwean newsrooms resemble phallocentric and misogynistic “carnivals”. Women experience and battle against various forms of sexual harassment despite the presence of mechanisms to protect victims. Despite this violence, female journalists persevere and also find ways of speaking back to power.

This research paper explored the challenges and difficulties that female journalists in Punjab experience during their news-casting profession. Previously, research has been conducted on the difficulties that female journalists face in the profession, as well as their positions in newsrooms, media students’ perceptions, and the nature of the job. Since the first female journalist entered the media, the current status of women has been a topic of discussion in a number of countries. However, the picture of women’s conditions looks the same in both earlier and later studies. In order to reveal the true picture, the goal of this study is to gain access to the perceptions and attitudes of female journalist. Through in-depth interviews of female journalists, it is found that, despite the challenges of journalism, they are enthusiastic about making it their career. Female journalists were viewed as less responsive, non-serious, unnecessarily lamenting feminism, non-competitive, reluctant, etc., by both male and female editors.

Journalism schools have being witnessing an increase in female enrollment in Nigeria, but this is not proportional to the number of women who work in media organizations. For the women who eventually get employed as journalists,they experience various safety challenges which affect their advancement and continued presence in journalism. This chapter looked at safety challenges faced by female journalists in selected media organizations in Kano state of Nigeria. The study was hinged on spiral of silence theory to show how female journalists keep mute about the challenges they experience and prefer to report the so-called soft news. The study used focus group discussion and in-depth interview as the research methodology. Four sessions were held with each group consisting of eight female journalists. Findings show that majority of the participants had experienced threats, attacks,harassments, marginalization, and discrimination. In addition, most media organizations do not have laid down safety policies except for a few safety measures when the need arises.

This paper addresses an under-researched aspect of hate speech attacks against female journalists, focusing on the Western Balkans: it juxtaposes the lived experiences of and acts countering hate speech against the backdrop of policy frameworks and their implementation. The article reveals how these factors further shape the experiences of female journalists. Gender-based discrimination not only subjects female journalists to increased personal and professional risks but also perpetuates a hostile environment that seeks to silence their voices. Although in recent years there is more information about the numbers of women affected by hate speech and other attacks, there is little about the ways in which women negotiate hate speech in relation to legal measures. The paper argues, there is a disconnect between policy frameworks and the realities they aim to address, a finding deriving from in-depth interviews with 44 women journalists from Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and the Republic of Serbia. The interviews were conducted in person or online, depending on logistical feasibility and the preferences of the participants. The article finds that women’s trust in existing laws, the legal system, and state authorities is ambivalent, noting, on the one hand, journalists’ commitment to the rule of law in principle, but on the other hand, sense of being let down and resignation when confronted with inadequate legal provisions and implementation.

Across time, in a variety of forms and spaces -from homes and workplaces to digital domains of social media- women have become victims of sexual harassment. Over the last couple of years, the world has witnessed appalling cases followed under the #MeToo campaign that has inspired an increasing number of women to share their experiences of sexual harassment in different contexts. Nevertheless, social and family pressures may discourage female journalists operating in conservative societies to express their concerns and experiences. The case of Pakistan is noteworthy. While women constitute a major proportion of the Pakistani society, the country’s men hold power in all major sectors and institutions. Sexual harassment can hinder women’s professional lives in any sector. However, female journalists’ experiences of sexual harassment are hardly documented in the academic literature about the Pakistani news media. Thus, informed by the framework of postcolonial feminist theory and intersectionality, this study aims to contribute an analysis of how sexual harassment is experienced by the Pakistani female journalists in the country’s mainstream, as well as ethnic news media. To achieve this aim, this study uses qualitative methods of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions and offers a thematic analysis of data.