Online harassment against journalists on various social forums is a debated topic. This study aims to research what threats and hatred can give for consequences for Swedish journalists. Sweden has democratic rights, such as the freedom of expression to be able to report freely in society. The online trolls also have freedom of expression to be allowed to express themselves freely in images and text, but how are journalists affected when the online trolls threaten and hate on the web? To research what this problem looks like, we have proceeded from a qualitative interview study, which is based on eleven interviews with journalists who have been exposed to threats, harassment or hatred online. We have started from the theories of self-censorship, gender and sex, gender role and social role theory. The purpose of these theories is to get an idea of how the gender portrayal and the different social roles diverges between the male and female journalists. Self-censorship refers to whether journalists unconsciously censor themselves out of fear and to protect themselves and their family members. The results of the study show that the respondents perceive that it is men who hatres on the web the most. Female journalists receive more sexist hate comments than male journalists. Women react more strongly to online hatred and take on various support and protection measures, which men do not do in the same way. There are also differences between the sexes in how the view of cyber hatred is perceived. Women take it more seriously and men see it as a minor problem. The harassment on the web leads to self- censorship. Female journalists self-censor more than male journalists. It is easier to silence women than it is to silence men. The journalists' perception of online hatred is that it has gotten worse since the development of digitalisation and when social media came. Respondents see threats and hatred against journalists as a democratic problem for society.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-101456 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Amanda, Sundin, Madeleine, Sandström |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ), Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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