"This study discusses the use of TikTok during the war that began with the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022. TikTok has been the fastest growing social media channel and is known for its young user base. Although associated with lifestyle and light entertainment, it also become an importan
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t arena in the war. Young people abroad used TikTok to obtain information about the conflict and to comment on or share it. This article presents a case study of five young Ukrainian women who captured the attention and sympathy of international audiences via TikTok. The authors study how the women succeeded as influencers and the variety of roles they took on in their performances. For the latter, they suggest a classification scheme for war influencer roles. In addition, they analyse data on the reactions from their audiences, as they appeared in the comments field. In a longer discussion section, the article goes deeper into the gender dimension of war and social media, as well as the possibilities of cosmopolitanism or affective publics. Finally, the authors suggest directions for future research." (Abstract)
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"Après environ quarante ans d'existence au Cameroun, la télévision est l'objet d'un ouvrage qui la présente en faisant émerger les interrogations qu'elle suscite sur ses représentations politique, juridique, économique, culturelle et esthétique. Elle a pris une importance substantielle dans
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les vies quotidiennes au point que les citoyens, les entreprises, les pouvoirs publics, les organisations sociales et politiques ainsi que les ménages en font un usage qui, depuis 1985, s'est considérablement accru. Avec la télévision, les perceptions du temps comme de l'espace ont changé, de même que les pratiques relationnelles, politiques, culturelles et territoriales. Il en résulte des enjeux inédits qui se traduisent par de nouveaux défis pour les autorités, à tous les niveaux institutionnels : régulation du paysage audiovisuel, réorganisation de l'économie du secteur, remodelage de la citoyenneté et mutation de la vie démocratique, adaptation technologique aux normes internationales et aux TIC, encadrement esthétique en vue de la préservation du patrimoine culturel, etc. Avec cet ouvrage à la fois pédagogique et réflexif, les auteurs, par une approche pluridisciplinaire, soulignent combien la télévision s'est imposée comme un acteur social majeur et comme un objet de recherche en sciences sociales." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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"The abuse and harassment against women journalists has become increasingly frequent and more coordinated in Mexico. As demonstrated throughout this study, it aims to threaten, silence, and stigmatize women journalists, with the potential to keep them out of public spaces. Despite the importance of
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selfcare actions and collective care, State responsibility in Mexico and its institutions at national and local levels to guarantee journalistic work that is free of violence is vital for any democracy. Currently, there are no public policies based on an intersectional approach that would allow a proper and relevant response to the patterns of violence against women journalists. The shortsightedness with which institutional responses have been developed has failed to generate protections or reparation. It has not managed to change the context of violence to which women journalists are subjected, nor modify the structural inequality between men and women. Moreover, the levels of impunity in the country still lead to violence materializing into crime. The recommendations of this paper seek to share the best practices from civil society groups and networks working to enhance existing protocols while defending women journalist´s freedom of expression and freedom of the press." (Conclusions)
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"This article discusses online harassment against women journalists exploring self-reported incidents, effects, and trust in safety mechanisms. Drawing on twenty-five semi-structured interviews of women journalists in Portugal, we use a feminist and critical realist framework to explore the causal s
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tructures and generative mechanisms that explain their vulnerability to online abuse. We identify three overarching themes: increasing visibility in a context of higher hostility towards journalism and insufficient safety mechanisms; intersectional gender inequality and cultural mores that foster it; and (individual) responses to harassment. These themes show that women journalists’ actions are both constrained and enabled by existing structures and cultural attitudes. While they tend to deny harassment is caused by their gender, seeing it mainly because of their job, they admit the sexualised and gendered nature of the insults, seeing this as an added offence not experienced by their male counterparts. They also see harassment as a continuation of inequality and prevailing sexism and find the protection mechanisms insufficient and ineffective. As a result, they assume an extra burden of emotional labour to deal with online bullying, admitting self-censoring and the need to develop resilience strategies." (Abstract)
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"Criticism towards journalists has increased significantly since the internet created easy and anonymous communication and has turned more abusive and threatening in recent years, becoming a regular feature of journalists’ work environment, particularly for women. This article presents survey data
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about the amount and nature of online and offline abuse, threats and violence experienced by journalists at Aotearoa New Zealand's largest news media company, Stuff. All respondents had experienced abuse, violence and/or threats, which they widely considered to be part of the job, but women received more identity and appearance-based abuse and men experienced more in-person threats of, and actual violence. Gender plays a part in how the journalists cope with the abrasive abuse received because of their job, with many more women and particularly Maori women considering leaving the profession. In line with calls for more intersectional analysis of journalists’ workplace experiences, our study considers the complex and nuanced ways that ethnicity intersects with gender to shape Maori and Pakeha journalists’ encounters with abuse, threats and violence. For instance, our subset of Maori women journalists experienced the highest rates of offline threats and violence." (Abstract)
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"Concerns about the disproportionate levels of online gender-based abuse experienced by female journalists when compared to their male counterparts have attracted sizeable scholarly attention in the last few years. Extant studies have highlighted that female journalists experience online forms of ha
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rassment such as name calling, body shaming, trolling, verbal abuse, sextortion, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, manipulation of photos, cyberstalking, doxing, hacking, receiving unwanted, offensive sexually explicit emails or messages, and inappropriate advances on social media platforms, in the line of duty. Although these findings are true in some of the newsrooms in the global North, there is a disconcerting absence of systematic studies looking at the experiences of female journalists in selected newsrooms in Africa in general and Namibia in particular. This article seeks to fill this lacuna by empirically investigating the extent to which online gender-based violence is deep-seated social problem in selected Namibian newsrooms. It deploys the intersectional approach to analyze the online gender-based violence experienced by female journalists in Namibia. Drawing our data from interviews with female journalists in selected Namibian newsrooms, overall, our findings suggest that cases of online gender-based violence against female journalists are still negligible when compared to other contexts, it is happening, nonetheless. This emerging phenomenon is largely underreported. Furthermore, it is occurring in an environment devoid of legislative, institutional, and newsroom-specific mechanisms aimed at ensuring the safety of female journalists. Namibian female journalists are facing unique online gender-based violence, which contributes immensely towards self-censorship and retreating from the public sphere." (Abstract)
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"The topic of violence against women in journalism has received growing attention in scholarship, especially in terms of digital forms of harassment. At the same time, many women journalists continue to experience direct forms of harassment in the pursuit of their work. Focusing on the Pacific Islan
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d nation of Fiji, this study contributes to scholarship on sexual harassment in journalism by examining the experiences of more than 40 journalists, employing both a standardized survey and in-depth interviews. Our findings demonstrate how widespread sexual harassment is, with colleagues and superiors, as well as politicians and businesspeople the most frequent culprits. Women journalists report a harrowing range of cases, and the results show that inadequate safeguards contribute to sexual harassment’s wide-ranging effect on their personal and professional lives." (Abstract)
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"Technology-facilitated abuse and violence disproportionately affect marginalized people. While researchers have explored this issue in the context of public-facing social media platforms, less is known about how it plays out on more private messaging apps. This study draws on in-depth interviews wi
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th women and queer journalists and activists in Lebanon to illustrate their experiences of infrastructural platform violence on WhatsApp. Specifically, we distinguish between identity-based violence propagated on platforms, and violence propagated by platforms due to infrastructural neglect of vulnerable populations. Our results document how perpetrators employ the affordances of WhatsApp in harmful ways. We highlight the individual emotional and reputational toll of doxxing and harassment campaigns. The study also showcases the societal ramifications of silencing and self-censorship, as well as infrastructural platform failures. Findings underscore the need to shift attention in platform studies toward populations and geographies whose safety has systemically been neglected by technology companies." (Abstract)
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"This paper presents an exploratory study aimed at systematically mapping the public actions taken by OSCE participating States to combat online violence against female journalists. Adopting a qualitative large N research design, the study examines national policies and initiatives across all 57 OSC
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E participating States. Through extensive desk research of official government documents and gray literature qualitative data is collected. The analysis thereof is guided by three research aims: (a) identifying actions implemented by participating states, (b) examining the roles of public sphere actors, and (c) assessing the approaches adopted to combat online violence. The paper discusses best practices identified in eleven OSCE participating States, shedding light on strategies for addressing online violence against female journalists. However, the findings highlight significant disparities in policy implementation and acknowledgment of the issue, with only a minority of states demonstrating proactive measures on the safety of journalists (11 states; 19.3%). Of these 11 States, only 7 participating States (12.28%) were found to have a gendered approach. 47 (80.7%) participating States lack information and/or targeted action on violence against journalists. Challenges including the legal gray area surrounding online violence, limited response from tech platforms, and the complexities of transnational collaboration are discussed. Finally, based on these insights, policy recommendations are proposed to enhance to address the multifaceted challenges more effectively. These include working towards multinational definitions and approaches on online gender-based violence against journalists, and developing international multi stakeholder cooperation and peer education." (Abstract)
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"The chapter explores the challenges associated with harassment for entry-level to mid-career journalists across South Africa’s hybrid media platforms. The study employed a qualitative methodology consisting of semi-structured interviews with 12 entry-level and mid-career journalists with industry
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experience ranging from one to six years. Our findings confirm previous studies from the Global South confirming the pervasiveness of sexual harassment in newsrooms. This study established that there is generally an unwillingness of mostly male-dominated management structures in dealing with reports of sexual harassment. Second, we found that journalists, who are sexually harassed by sources and or even by their managers, end up censoring themselves, delivering compromised work and ultimately stunting the democratic project in society. We also found that experiences of female journalists in South Africa specifically, and the Global South more broadly, are not distinct from experiences of harassment in the Global North. We argue that patriarchy seems to be the mainstay in the negative experiences of sexual harassment of women journalists across the globe, which ultimately often renders their voices mute. These findings suggest the need for policies to mitigate the harassment of journalists if their democratic role is to be sustained in South Africa." (Abstract)
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