Digital Threats

The Peril and Promise of AI for Journalism

Nishtha Gupta, Jenina Ibañez, Chris Tenove

Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) (2024), 13 pp.

"This report draws on insights from the workshop, along with recent academic and journalistic publishing. It highlights three major issues: How generative AI can make disinformation campaigns faster, more targeted, and more persuasive. How newsrooms’ adoption of AI tools can lead to inaccuracies a ... more

Egyptian Journalists’ Perceptions of Digital Journalism Training Effectiveness

Nagwa Fahmy, Maha Abdulmajeed Attia

Sage Open, issue January-March (2024), 20 pp.

"This study examines the perceptions of Egyptian journalists of the effectiveness of professional training in digital journalism and determines the training-needs of journalists to adapt to innovative journalism practices. The study applies mixed descriptive methods based on The Motivation–Hygiene ... more

“Journalists are Prepared for Critical Situations … but We are Not Prepared for This”: Empirical and Structural Dimensions of Gendered Online Harassment

Susana Sampaio-Dias, Maria João Silveirinha, Bibiana Garcez, Filipa Subtil, João Miranda, Carla Cerqueira

Journalism Practice, volume 18, issue 2 (2024), pp. 301-318

"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 ... more

Media freedom and journalist safety in the UK Online Safety Act

Ricki-Lee Gerbrandt

Journal of Media Law, volume 15, issue 2 (2024), pp. 179-212

"In the digital era, journalists are targeted with online abuse including serious threats of violence. These censorship tactics are a direct threat to media freedom. Although the UK Government intended to tackle online abuse of journalists in the Online Safety Act 2023, provisions fit for that purpo ... more

An Intersectional Analysis of Aotearoa New Zealand Journalists’ Online and Offline Experiences of Abuse, Threats and Violence

Susan Fountaine, Cathy Strong

Journalism Studies, volume 25, issue 2 (2024), pp. 160-180

"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 ... more

Comparing Risks to Journalism: Media Criticism in the Digital Hate

David Cheruiyot

Digital Journalism, volume 12, issue 3 (2024), pp. 294-313

"This study examines digital media criticism—publicly shared evaluations and judgements of journalistic text and actors on various digital platforms—as a risk to journalism. It specifically interrogates how journalists negotiate the diverse nature of criticism in digital spaces and in a comparat ... more

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

Itai Zviyita, Admire Mare

Journalism, volume 25, issue 4 (2024), pp. 779-799

"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 ... more

Dealing with the Black Box: European Journalists and the Threats of Spyware

Philip Di Salvo

Digital Journalism (2024), 20 pp.

"Revelations from the 2021 “Pegasus Project” investigation into the use of spyware have confirmed long-held concerns about the proliferation of the technology as a surveillance solution to monitor the activities of journalists around the world. Spyware is a particularly malicious form of malware ... more

The Ethical Revolution: Challenges and Reflections in the Face of the Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Digital Journalism

Tania Forja-Pena, Berta García-Orosa, Xosé López-García

Communication & Society, volume 37, issue 3 (2024), pp. 237-254

"The artificial intelligence (AI) tools in editorial departments have become common practice within news organisations, which poses challenges for digital journalism. It treads new terrain for both media professionals and their audiences, and it is safe to assume there is no going back to the way th ... more

Infrastructural platform violence: How women and queer journalists and activists in Lebanon experience abuse on WhatsApp

Martin J. Riedl, Azza El-Masri, Inga K. Trauthig, Samuel C. Woolley

New Media & Society (2024), 20 pp.

"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 ... more

Mapping Actions to Combat Online Violence against Female Journalists across the OSCE Participating States

Carla Agha Ebrahim, Annemarijn Johanna Cozijnsen

Regional Academy on the United Nations (RAUN) (2024), 56 pp.

"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 ... more

“When One Finger Picks Oil, It Reaches Others”: An Examination of Nigerian Journalists’ Perspective on Motivations for Online Harassment

Temple Uwalaka, A. Fred Amadi

African Journalism Studies, volume 44, issue 4 (2024), pp. 289-309

"Online harassment of journalists is increasingly becoming a global phenomenon. Many attempts have been made to investigate the prevalence of the phenomenon. Unfortunately, findings prove that online harassment of journalists is indeed on the rise. What is lacking, so far, in the literature is an in ... more

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Independent Online Journalists' Harassment and the Emotional Repercussions

Nyasha Cefas Zimuto, Tinashe Murape

In: Patterns of Harassment in African Journalism

Lungile Augustine Tshuma, Trust Matsilele, Mbongeni Jonny Msimanga, Sadia Jamil (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2024), pp. 109-123

"Communication the world over is a vital cog in communities. The sender and the receiver play different and complementary roles in information dissemination. Be that as it may, many contemporary information senders are faced with different forms of harassment. The advent of social media has seen a r ... more

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Digital Surveillance, Online and Offline Harassment, and Feminist Media Politics

Millie Phiri

In: Patterns of Harassment in African Journalism

Lungile Augustine Tshuma, Trust Matsilele, Mbongeni Jonny Msimanga, Sadia Jamil (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2024), pp. 88-106

"This chapter examines the digital surveillance and harassment experiences faced by female journalists in Zimbabwe in the 2023 pre-election period covering the year 2022 up to August 2023. The examination is based on interviews conducted with seven purposefully selected female reporters and editors ... more

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Online Harassment, Psychological Stressors, and Occupational Dysfunction among Journalists Working in a Conflict Zone

Sayyed Fawad Ali Shah, Ivana Cvetkovic, Tamar Ginossar, Rahman Ullah, Danish Baber, Autumn Slaughter

Digital Journalism, volume 12, issue 6 (2024), pp. 735-752

"Amid increasing threats and assaults against journalists across the globe, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in northwest Pakistan remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. Whereas online harassment is increasingly affecting journalists, experiences of online harassment ... more

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Spurring or Blurring Professional Standards? The Role of Digital Technology in Implementing Journalistic Role Ideals in Contemporary Newsrooms

Cornelia Mothes, Claudia Mellado, Sarah Van Leuven et al.

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (2024), [no pag.]

"This study examines the perceived relevance and implementation of competing normative ideals in journalism in times of increasing use of digital technology in newsrooms. Based on survey and content analysis data from 37 countries, we found a small positive relationship between the use of digital re ... more

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Coping with Hate: Exploring Indian Journalists’ Responses to Online Harassment

Prashanth Bhat

Journalism Practice, volume 18, issue 2 (2024), pp. 337-355

"In India, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) employs a digital army of right-wing supporters to harass journalists who are critical of the party's Hindu-nationalist ideology. As a result, the country's press freedom rankings have significantly declined over the past decade. While scholars have ... more

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Unraveling the Digital Threat: Exploring the Impact of Online Harassment on South Korean Journalists’ Professional Roles

Na Yeon Lee, Ahran Park

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, volume 101, issue 2 (2024), pp. 529-551

"This research examines whether and to what extent journalists are harassed online and the effects of online harassment on their professional roles. The study classifies online harassment against journalists into five types: insults, threats, privacy intrusion, sexual assault, and cyber-hacking. The ... more

Southern European Journalists’ Perceptions of Discursive Menaces in the Age of (Online) Delegitimization

David Blanco-Herrero, Sergio Splendore, Martín Oller Alonso

Politics and Governance, volume 11, issue 2 (2023), pp. 210-220

"In a new communication context, factors such as the rise of hate speech, disinformation, or a precarious financial and employment situation in the media have made discursive menaces gain increasing significance. Threats of this kind challenge the legitimacy of institutional news media and professio ... more