Disconnection: How Measured Separations From Journalistic Norms and Labor Can Help Sustain Journalism

Bélair‐Gagnon, Valérie; Bossio, Diana; Holton, Avery E.; Molyneux, Logan

doi:10.1177/20563051221077217

Cited by 18 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…What is useful about this particular strategy is that it allows the viewer to feel heard and allows for them to communicate any errors that potentially were in the story while also protecting the reporter's time and wellbeing by not submitting to the hostility. Tips like this could be easily shared in basic reporting classes, and is in line with research that positions disengaging as a core skill for journalists (Bélair-Gagnon et al, 2022;.…”

Section: Preparing Students For Hostility: Some Classroom Starting Po...supporting

confidence: 54%

“…Whenever students are asked to share their content online (for class via social media platforms, self-publishing sites such as Medium.com, or even in the case of student media), a discussion should follow about the hostility that can arise in online spaces. Students should be taught best practices for engaging with audiences online, how to lock down their personal information to protect themselves from trolls, and, modeling Bélair-Gagnon et al (2022) and Bossio and Holton (2021), advice for avoiding burnout and learn disconnection strategies. 3.…”

Section: Preparing Students For Hostility: Some Classroom Starting Po...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unprepared for Reality: Early-Career Journalists Ill-Equipped for Hostility in the Field

Mesmer

2023

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator

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Scholarly calls surrounding the need to prepare journalism students for hostile encounters and harassment are emerging. Using in-depth interviews with 28 early-career journalists from across the United States, this project underscores a need for content related to hostility within journalism courses. Findings also highlighted a tension between early-career journalists’ beliefs about how journalists are supposed to act and how they coped with hostility in practice. This created hesitancy to speak up and have discussions about hostility with editors, especially among women journalists. Therefore, I argue for a shift in how we talk about hostility toward journalists in our classrooms.

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Section: Preparing Students For Hostility: Some Classroom Starting Po...supporting

confidence: 54%

Section: Preparing Students For Hostility: Some Classroom Starting Po...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unprepared for Reality: Early-Career Journalists Ill-Equipped for Hostility in the Field

Mesmer

2023

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator

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“…When we put the user- and journalistic perspectives next to each other, we can find similarities in the causes of reluctance, such as dark participation and the risk of reputational damage (Bossio and Holton, 2021; Bélair-Gagnon et al, 2022). Journalists could take a pioneering role in creating conditions for interaction, favorable for both parties, to ensure a useful and sustainable relationship.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, according to Vos and Ryan (2023), the discourse among journalists has shifted from audience engagement as vital for their future to concerns about their wellbeing, threatened by online harassment and other forms of ‘dark participation’ (Bélair-Gagnon et al, 2022; Holton et al, 2021). Journalists are experiencing burnout and different forms of social media fatigue (Bossio and Holton, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Be cautious or be cancelled: News audience’s motivations not to participate in online journalism

2023

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News organizations try to improve the relationship with their audiences by seeking interaction with them - also known as participatory journalism. But not everyone participates; many news consumers do not surpass reading, watching, or listening to news. The explanations for lagging participation are scattered and not yet comprehensively integrated in an overarching overview. This study provides a more in-depth account of the different motivations of Dutch younger (<30) and older (<50) news users not to use the participatory tools that news websites offer. In this paper the motivations of these different groups are uncovered and compared. Our thematic analysis indicates that both groups are mostly driven by similar motivations. The main motivation both generations bring forward is their aversion towards the online community. Reluctance because of expertise (younger audience members) or career implications (older audience members) seem to be the most important difference between the two groups.

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“…This study builds off of previous work that has observed the problems inherent in journalists' use of social media (e.g., Bélair-Gagnon et al, 2022;Holton et al, 2021) to offer what many within journalism believe to be the most compelling solutions. In doing so, this piece seeks to explore the underlying tension within news organizations where those tasked with using social media to engage with the public have little in common with those overseeing their efforts.…”

mentioning

confidence: 86%

“Dark Participation” Without Representation: A Structural Approach to Journalism’s Social Media Crisis

Miller

Nelson

2022

Social Media + Society

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Social media platforms have become an integral part of journalistic work. These tools allow journalists to pursue stronger, more intimate connections with their audiences, to cultivate their own professional identities or “brands,” and to advocate for improved working conditions within their organizations. Yet, social media platforms have also created new risks and challenges for journalists, most notably in the form of dark participation, which refers to negative, selfish or even deeply sinister forms of online audience engagement. Although scholars have devoted considerable effort to exploring how this harassment unfolds and how it impacts journalists who face it, there is less research investigating the implications of this harassment for the future of journalism and its relationship with the public. To address this, this research uses interviews with a diverse group of 37 US journalists to propose larger structural changes to newsroom leadership and social media policy creation. The interview data suggest that newsroom leadership must become more diverse so that newsroom policy is assembled by a group of people that is representative of its staff—as well as the public at large. The authors conclude by observing that “dark participation” is not unique to journalism alone, and by discussing the implications of our findings for communication stakeholders invested in overcoming the current, global climate of populism that frequently results in hate, harassment, and hostility within social media.

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Disconnection: How Measured Separations From Journalistic Norms and Labor Can Help Sustain Journalism

Abstract: This commentary considers the concept of “disconnection” as a way to understand practices of contemporary digital journalism while advocating for consideration of disconnection as a necessary component of sustainable journalism.

Cited by 18 publications

References 24 publications

Unprepared for Reality: Early-Career Journalists Ill-Equipped for Hostility in the Field

Unprepared for Reality: Early-Career Journalists Ill-Equipped for Hostility in the Field

Be cautious or be cancelled: News audience’s motivations not to participate in online journalism

“Dark Participation” Without Representation: A Structural Approach to Journalism’s Social Media Crisis

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