When Will one Help? Understanding Audience Intervention in Online Harassment of Women Journalists

ABSTRACT

While online harassment directed towards women journalists are under wide discussion, the mechanism of audience intervention in stopping online harassment is less explored. Integrating bystander invention, ambivalent sexism, and social identity theories, we propose and test an integrative framework of audience intervention in online harassment of women journalists. Results from an online experiment in Hong Kong showed that type of harassment, ideological similarity between the audience member and the harassed journalist, and the presence of other responsive bystanders could shape the appraisal of harassment incidents and willingness to intervene. The study advances the literature by clarifying the contextual nuances and challenges of audience intervention in online harassment of women journalists. It bears practical implications on how to defend women journalists so as to protect press freedom, cultivate journalist-audience relationship, and enhance an inclusive and egalitarian online space.

KEYWORDS:

• Online harassment
• misogynism
• social identity
• bystander intervention
• journalist-audience relationship
• Hong Kong
• protests

Acknowledgements

The project was supported by the Department of Communication at North Dakota State University and Mass Communication & Society Division at The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Earlier versions of the manuscripts were presented at the Annual Conference of National Communication Association and Social Sciences Colloquium held by North Dakota State University in Fall 2022. The authors thank the colleagues from NDSU’s College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The project was supported by the Department of Communication at North Dakota State University and the Mass Communication & Society Division at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.