You need a thick skin in this game: Journalists’ attitudes to resilience training as a strategy for combatting online violence

Abstract

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.

Trolling of female journalists on Twitter in Pakistan: an analysis

“…As Figure 1 shows, female journalists predominantly received negative comments ranging from abusive language to physical threats to mocking their professional ethos. These findings are pretty consistent with the large number of studies showing that female journalists are the frequent targets of online hate worldwide (Bhat and Chadha, 2022;Chen et al, 2020;Martin, 2018;Rego, 2018).…”

“…The limited but growing academic studies also support these findings that women journalists are the frequent targets of online hate worldwide (Bhat and Chadha, 2022; Chen et al, 2020; Rego, 2018). For example, according to a survey of 149 women journalists conducted by the International Women's Media Foundation, two-thirds had suffered threats or abuse online (Martin, 2018). Furthermore, studies show that trolling of women journalists has increased manifold in the recent times due to the anonymous nature of the accounts engaging in offensive comments, comparatively easy availability of gadgets, the inadequacy of regulations and direct access to the women journalists (Jamil, 2020; Rego, 2018; Waisbord, 2020).…”

Same threats, different platforms? Female journalists’ experiences of online gender-based violence in selected newsrooms in Namibia

“…These include legislative interventions, strengthening of security measures at all national and international levels and building healthy digital ecosystem. This supports Martin's (2018) argument that OGBV must be tackled at a multilevel rather than just a personal safety issue, with better support from employers, peers, and legal and political institutions.…”

An Unrepresentative Democracy: How Disinformation and Online Abuse Hinder Women of Color Political Candidates in the United States

“…Resiliency training has been used to improve the capacity of journalists to adapt to and recover from exposures to traumatic and stressful circumstances (Martin & Murrell, 2020). Resiliency training can teach tactics to shield oneself from mis-and disinformation and online GBV, as well as how to engage in self-care, including ways to reflect on abuse and to recover one's sense of self and social connectedness in doing so.…”