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

Abstract

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.

Keywords

hostility early-career journalists journalism education mental health

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bélair-Gagnon

Bossio

Holton

A. E.

Molyneux

(2022). Disconnection: How measured separations from journalistic norms and labor can help sustain journalism. Social Media + Society, 8(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/20563051221077217

Bossio

Holton

A. E.

(2021). Burning out and turning off: Journalists’ disconnection strategies on social media. Journalism, 22(10), 2475–2492. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884919872076

Buchanan

Keats

(2011). Coping with traumatic stress in journalism: A critical ethnographic study. International Journal of Psychology, 46, 127–135.

Bugeja

M. J.

(2023). Journalists are routinely vilified on social media and the beat, with women enduring the brunt of the abuse. Editor & Publisher, 156(2), 80–81.

Carlson

Robinson

Lewis

S. C.

(2021). Digital press criticism: The symbolic dimensions of Donald Trump’s assault on U.S. journalists as the “enemy of the people.” Digital Journalism, 9(6), 737–754. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2020.1836981

Chen

G. M.

Pain

Chen

V. Y.

Mekelburg

Springer

Troger

(2020). ‘You really have to have a thick skin’: A cross-cultural perspective on how online harassment influences female journalists. Journalism, 21(7), 263–267.

Committee to Protect Journalists. (2020, April 16). The Trump administration and the media. https://cpj.org/reports/2020/04/trump-media-attacks-credibility-leaks/

Corbin

J. M.

Strauss

(2008). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (3rd ed.). Sage.

Deavours

Heath

Miller

Viehouser

Palacios-Plugge

Broussard

(2022). Reciprocal journalism’s double-edged sword: How journalists resolve cognitive dissonance after experiencing harassment from audiences on social media. Journalism. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849221109654

10.

Dworznik

Garvey

(2019). Are we teaching trauma? A survey of accredited journalism schools in the United States. Journalism Practice, 13(3), 367–382. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2018.1423630

11.

Dworznik

Grubb

(2007). Preparing for the worst: Making a case for trauma training in the journalism classroom. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 62(2), 190–210.

12.

Eckert

Steiner

(2018). Sexual harassment in media education. Communication Culture & Critique, 11, 484–488.

13.

Everbach

(2018). “I realized it was about them . . . not me”: Women sports journalists and harassment. In Vickery

J. R.

Everbach

(Eds.), Mediating misogyny: Gender, technology, and harassment (pp. 131–149). Palgrave Macmillan.

14.

Feinstein

Owen

Blair

(2002). A hazardous profession: War, journalists, and psychopathy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 1570–1575.

15.

Ferrier

(2018). Attacks and harassment: The impact on women journalists and their reporting. The International Women’s Media Foundation/Troll-Busters.com. https://www.iwmf.org/attacks-and-harassment

16.

Folkenflik

(2018, August 16). Journalists nationwide push back against President Trump’s anti-media rhetoric. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/639371743/journalists-nationwide-push-back-against-president-trumps-anti-media-rhetoric

17.

Gardiner

(2018). “It’s a terrible way to go to work”: What 70 million readers’ comments on the Guardian revealed about hostility to women and minorities online. Feminist Media Studies, 18(4), 592–608.

18.

Greenberg

Thomas

Murphy

Dandekar

(2007). Occupational stress and job satisfaction in media personnel assigned to the Iraq War (2003). Journalism Practice, 1(3), 356–371. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512780701552160

19.

Heckman

Chung

Santos

(2022, September 14). We need to teach student journalists about on-the-job harassment. Poynter. https://www.poynter.org/educators-students/2022/student-journalism-harassment-threats-intimidation-violence/

20.

Henrichsen

J. R.

Shelton

(2022). Expanding the analytical boundaries of mob censorship: How technology and infrastructure enable novel threats to journalists and strategies for mitigation. Digital Journalism. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2112520

21.

Holton

Bélair-Gagnon

Bossio

Molyneux

(2021). “Not their fault, but their problem”: Organizational responses to the online harassment of journalists. Journalism Practice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.1946417

22.

Ipsos. (2018). American’s view on the media. https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/americans-views-media-2018-08-07

23.

Ivask

Lon

(2023). “You can run, but you cannot hide!” Mapping journalists’ experiences with hostility in personal, organizational, and professional domains. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 78(2), 199–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958231151302

24.

Kim

Shin

(2022). Harassment of journalists and its aftermath: Anti-press violence, psychological suffering, and an internal chilling effect. Digital Journalism. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2034027

25.

Kuhnhenn

(2020). “A feature, not a bug”: Hostility against journalists is a function of the time. Journalism Institute National Press Club. https://www.pressclubinstitute.org/a-feature-not-a-bug-hostility-against-journalists-is-a-function-of-the-time/

26.

McCaffrey

(2019). Stoicism and courage as journalistic values: What early journalism textbooks taught about newsroom ethos. American Journalism, 36(2), 220–241. https://doi.org10.1080/08821127.2019.1602443

27.

The Media Insight Project. (2018, June 11). Americans and the news media: What they do—and don’t—understand about each other. https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/americans-and-the-news-media/

28.

Mesmer

(2022a). An “assumption of bad faith”: Using fake news rhetoric to create journalistic teaching moments. Journalism Practice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2022.2086158

29.

Mesmer

(2022b). An intersectional analysis of U.S. journalists’ experiences with hostile sources. Journalism & Communication Monographs, 24(3), 156–216. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F15226379221116640

30.

Mesmer

Jahng

M. R.

(2021). Using Facebook to discuss aspects of industry safety: How women journalists enact ethics of care in online professional space. Journalism Studies, 22(8), 1083–1102. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2021.1920452

31.

Miller

K. C.

(2021). Harassment’s toll on democracy: The effects of harassment towards U.S. journalists. Journalism Practice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.2008809

32.

Miller

K. C.

(2022). The “price you pay” and the “badge of honor”: Journalists, gender, and harassment. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 100(1), 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990221088761

33.

Miller

K. C.

Lewis

S. C.

(2022). Journalists, harassment, and emotional labor: The case of women in on-air roles at U.S. local television stations. Journalism, 23(1), 79–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884919899016

34.

Miller

K. C.

Nelson

J. L

. (2022). “Dark participation” without structural representation: A structural approach to journalism’s social media crisis. Social Media + Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221129156

35.

Molyneux

(2015). What journalists retweet: Opinion, humor, and brand development on Twitter. Journalism, 16(7), 920–935.

36.

Nerone

. (1994). Violence against the press: Policing the public sphere in US history. Oxford University Press.

37.

Perreault

Miller

(2022). When journalists are voiceless: How lifestyle journalists cover hate and mitigate harassment. Journalism Studies, 23, 1977–1993. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2135583

38.

Posetti

Shabbir

Maynard

Bontcheva

Aboulez

(2021). The chilling: Global trends in online violence against women journalists. UNESCO.

39.

Post

Kepplinger

H. M.

(2019). Coping with audience hostility: How journalists’ experiences of audience hostility influence their editorial decisions. Journalism Studies, 20, 2422–2442. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2019.1599725

40.

Reed

(2018, August 16). Commentary: Student journalist experiences the ‘trickle down’ of hostility toward the press. Columbia Missourian. https://www.columbiamissourian.com/opinion/guest_commentaries/commentary-student-journalist-experiences-the-trickle-down-of-hostility-toward-the-press/article_50877b74-a008-11e8-86db-7b440a13dd94.html

41.

Reporters Without Borders. (2021). 2021 world press freedom index. https://rsf.org/en

42.

Seely

(2020). Fostering trauma literacy: From the classroom to newsroom. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 75(1), 116–130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077695819859966

43.

Siddiqui

Smith

(2018, August 2). Trump’s attacks on media raise threat of violence against reporters, UN experts warn. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/02/donald-trump-un-media-press-freedom-journalist-danger

44.

Smith

R. J.

Drevo

Newman

(2018). Covering traumatic news stories: Factors associated with post-traumatic stress disorder among journalists. Stress and Health, 34, 218–226.

45.

Steiner

(2019). Addressing sexual harassment in journalism education. Journalism, 20(1), 118–121. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1464884918809272

46.

Tracy

S. J.

(2013). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact. Wiley.

47.

Waisbord

(2020). Mob censorship: Online harassment of U.S. journalists in times of digital hate and populism. Digital Journalism, 8(8), 1030–1046. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2020.1818111

48.

Walsh-Childers

Chance

Herzog

(1996). Sexual harassment of women journalists. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 73(3), 559–581.