Estonian Male Journalists’ Experiences with Abusive Online Communication

Abstract

Several studies have established that female journalists experience (sexual) harassment and online abuse considerably more than their male colleagues. Understandably, this has resulted in a gap in research – male journalists’ experiences with abusive online communication have not yet been thoroughly studied. This paper seeks to understand how abusive communication is contextualised and defined by male journalists in the context of hegemonic masculinity, and to explore which coping strategies are employed to overcome such experiences. From qualitative in-depth interviews with male journalists (n=15), we found that participants considered different forms of abusive online communication from readers/sources a normalised practice, “feedback” that one must just ignore or overcome. Experiences are interpreted predominantly in the frame of hegemonic (complicit) masculinity, but the results also indicate that shifts in these rigid norms are emerging and can be embraced when acknowledged and supported by surrounding structures.

“You can Run, but You Cannot Hide!” Mapping Journalists’ Experiences With Hostility in Personal, Organizational, and Professional Domains

“…Female journalists report experiencing a worrisome amount of hostility, attacks, and threats (Posetti et al, 2022). Although there is a stigma surrounding men admitting to being in dangerous situations and not reporting it (Riives et al, 2021; Stahel & Schoen, 2020), evidence indicates male journalists face similar issues (Löfgren Nilsson & Örnebring, 2016). Although most journalists have received hostility via the internet (Lewis et al, 2020), a higher number of online hostility is directed at women, ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ+ community members (Chen et al, 2020; Waisbord, 2020).…”

“…Even so, research has brought out severe issues with hostility (death threats, stalking, receiving ropes for hanging oneself, etc.) among Estonian journalists (Ivask, 2020; Riives et al, 2021). Journalists are aggressively approached at protests, threatened, and forced to leave (Eesmaa & Mooste, 2022).…”

Journalists under attack: self-censorship as an unperceived method for avoiding hostility

“…Journalism studies scholars have done much-appreciated work delving into the causes that lead to self-censoring practices and analyzing the implications self-censorship brings (Fadnes et al, 2020). Intimidation and harassment have shown to have consequences on journalists' autonomy and self-censorship in authoritarian and democratic countries alike, where journalists choose silence over fulfilling the watchdog role (Ivask, 2020;Löfgren Nilsson & Örnebring, 2016;Riives et al, 2021). Additional to physical threats and violence, digital hostility has been revealed as a substantial way of pressurizing journalists (e.g., United Nations, 2021).…”

Reciprocal journalism’s double-edged sword: How journalists resolve cognitive dissonance after experiencing harassment from audiences on social media

“…This abuse can be broad such as threats, name calling and hate speech (Lofgren, et al, 2017; Egelhofer & Lecheler, 2019; Tandoc, et al, 2021), to sexist and sexual attacks (Chen et al, 2018; Chadha et al, 2020). While harassment is heightened for women and people of color, interviews with male journalists found they too considered harassment normal (Riives et al, 2021).…”