Female journalists under attack? Explaining gender differences in reactions to audiences’ attacks

Abstract

The literature on public figures attacked by their audiences is unclear why female and male figures react differently to attacks. This study examines why female journalists are more likely than male journalists to use avoidance strategies as a reaction to online attacks. Avoidance includes limiting audience engagement, adapting reporting behavior, and thinking about quitting journalism. Drawing on social role theory and gender stereotypes, this study contrasts two explanatory hypotheses. The results, based on mediation analyses of online survey data of 637 journalists representative of Switzerland, show that women are more likely than men to use avoidance strategies because women are more stressed by attacks. This heightened stress is argued to result from differences in gender role socialization. In contrast, while women are somewhat more severely attacked than men, this cannot explain their greater probability of avoidance. Results contribute a theoretically and empirically rich explanation of gendered reactions to attacks.

“Who’s Going to be a Creep Today?” Understanding the Social Media Experiences of Women Broadcast Journalists

“…Stahel and Schoen confirmed this through a survey of both men and women journalists. They found that women were more likely to be sexually harassed than men, and these sexual attacks were more stressful for women than men, contributing to more women quitting the news industry all together (Stahel & Schoen, 2020). Lucy Westcott, a researcher with the Committee to Protect Journalists, conducted a multi-country survey of women journalists and found that online harassment was cited as the biggest threat by 90% of US participants, with many telling stories of sexual harassment and even threats of rape and sexual violence (Westcott, 2019).…”

Jahrbuch Qualität der Medien 2022

“…Dafür verantwortlich sind kognitive und motivationale Verzerrungen wie Attributionsfehler oder blinde Flecken, die auf die eigene Weltanschauung, Sozialisation und Aufrechterhaltung eines positiven Selbstwerts zurückführbar sind. Erst wenig ist hingegen über das tatsächliche Erleben von vielfältigen externen Einflussnahmen bekannt (Hiltunen & Suuronen, 2020;Stahel & Schoen, 2020). Daher fokussiert sich die vorliegende Studie darauf, welche Arten von externen Einflussnahmen Journalist:innen in welchem Ausmass und unter welchen Bedingungen tatsächlich erfahren.…”

Gendered (in)visibility in digital media contexts

“…Moreover, following the tra dition of gender representation studies in media and communication research (Thiele, 2015), gender differences in politi cal online participation are examined (Vo chocova, Stetka, & Mazak, 2016). Further studies that can be assigned to this line of research analyze how ideological ori entation and social characteristics induce backlash effects against women in digi tal communication contexts (Wilhelm & Jo eckel, 2019) and how women profession als deal with online harassment and abuse (Chen et al, 2020;Sobiraj, 2018;Stahel & Schoen, 2019;Veletsianos et al 2018).…”

“…Being sexually attacked online, women journalists who exhibit a more traditional gender role orientation reduce their en gagement with the audience or even con sider quitting journalism (Stahel & Schoen, 2019). Moreover, against the background of hate speech and trolling, feminist on line activism is described as "putting one self out there 'in the line of fire'" (Mendes et al, 2018, p. 240).…”

“…Being publicly visible on social media plat forms or in digital news environments not only exposes individuals and social groups to direct responses of potential target groups (e. g., peers, the scientific commu nity, politicians) but also to the public at large. Not only feminist activists, but also women journalists and scholars work ing on controversial topics experience harassment when they make themselves publicly visible on social media platforms (e. g., Stahel & Schoen, 2019;Veletsianos, Houlden, Hodson, & Gosse, 2018). By be ing agentic, i. e., speaking out in the public and defending their positions, these wom en violate prescriptive gender stereotypes.…”