For journalists today, online harassment is often dismissed as “just part of the job.” However, online harassment of female reporters is more explicitly gendered, vitriolic, and sustained than that leveled at male reporters—and its rate appears to be growing. While this harassment arrives via cyberspace, female reporters experience concrete harms including negative mental and physical reactions. Further, there is the potential for harassers to escalate their behavior offline. Despite this landscape, more and more news organizations expect—and often require—their reporters to develop online “presences.” This Note argues that if news organizations intend to continue requiring their journalists to engage online, they must also address the disproportionate harassment experienced by their female reporters as a result. Where news organizations fail to voluntarily do so, female reporters should be prepared to bring legal actions to force the issue.

Keep Reading ‘Delete Your Account’ or Deal With It? How News Organizations are Failing to Support Female Reporters Against Online Harassment