Time's up. Or is it? Journalists’ Perceptions of Sexual Violence and Newsroom Changes after #MeTooIndia

ABSTRACT

The #MeToo movement, which engulfed much of India's news and entertainment industry in October 2018, was projected by many as a watershed moment for Indian journalism. Driven largely through social media activism, it created significant public discourse and outcry, leading to the “outing” and resignation of many journalists. This paper explores the perception of #MeTooIndia in regional and national newsrooms. Drawing on Manuel Castells's ideas of networked social movement, we consider the origins of #MeTooIndia, including its mediation on private and social networks. We then draw on 257 semi-structured interviews with journalists working in 14 languages across India to explore the “cause” of the campaign—the prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual violence in workspaces—before turning our attention to the impact, or potential for impact, that journalists saw in it. We find most journalists felt the movement was “good”, but did not think it influenced their environment or newswork in any meaningful manner. Regional journalists expressed more pessimism about the #MeTooIndia, men more so than women.     

#MeToo,sexual harassment: an article,a forum,and a dream for the future

#MeToo has breathed new life into the women’s movement and especially into understanding and rectifying sexual harassment, abuse and assault. It has galvanized activists around the globe. And it has placed thousands of stories of the harassed in full view of the public. Sexual harassment, abuse and assault may occur within the organizational context or beyond; but sexual harassment, in particular has been legally labeled an organizational phenomenon. With this in mind, Robin Clair frames the early part of this article around the most recent organizational communication theories (see the appendix for an overview of these theories). Following the essay is a forum, in which invited scholars address questions related to the #MeToo movement.     

Celebrity-bashing or #MeToo contribution? New York Times Online readers debate the boundaries of hashtag feminism

ABSTRACT

In January 2018, a feminist blog, babe, detailed an anonymous woman’s date with comedian Aziz Ansari, ending with her accusation that he had sexually assaulted her by escalating his sexual advances despite her verbal and nonverbal objections. Online reaction to the babe article was swift and plentiful, including a New York Times editorial written by conservative provocateur Bari Weiss entitled, “Aziz Ansari is Guilty. Of Not Being a Mind Reader.” Weiss’ piece drew 2953 online responses before the comment section closed the next day, with wide-ranging views addressing the respective behaviors and motivations of Ansari, “Grace,” and Weiss. The responses provide an opportunity to explore how commenters negotiate the boundaries of the #MeToo movement in the venue that had ignited the movement’s resurgence with the story of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s longstanding sexual abuse of women working in the film industry. This study applies quantitative and qualitative analysis to comment discourse and elicits three major themes: (1) expectations for seeking or conveying consent, (2) criteria for publicizing the private, and (3) demarcations between insensitivity and abuse. Justifications frequently offered for the positions articulated were based on references to personal experience, cultural expectations, the #MeToo movement, and feminism.     

“There is a fine line between one’s personal life and professional one”: handling employee sexual harassment on facebook from the victim’s perspective

Sexual harassment is an interdisciplinary topic in organizational research that has received increased attention with the rise of the #MeToo movement. The online environment has complicated the experiences of employees who are sexually harassed by a coworker. One particular medium where online sexual harassment occurs is on social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook. This research report examined how victims of sexual harassment believe organizations should handle online sexual harassment. We qualitatively coded 153 responses to the question, “What else do you think employers could do to handle sexual harassment on Facebook?” Our findings demonstrated a clear tension between whether harassment on Facebook is a private concern of the employee or a public concern of the employer/organization. Some victims advocating keeping work friends off of Facebook, while others suggesting having open door policies, conversations, and/or trainings. The difference in these approaches illuminates how the victims grappled with the public/private tension, and whether the organization should be made aware of their situations or if victims should handle it themselves. Implications of this research suggest that the blurred boundaries between employee face-to-face and online sexual harassment should continue to be explored, including why victims report harassment and to whom they report it.     

Suffering in Silence: The Resilience of Pakistan’s Female Journalists to Combat Sexual Harassment,Threats and Discrimination

ABSTRACT

Pakistan’s journalists confront severe safety risks across the country and impunity to crimes against them allows the perpetrators to go unpunished. Now the country is recognized as one of the deadliest places for working journalists in the world. Given this situation, the Pakistani female journalists are more vulnerable because they are not only prone to safety risks and sexual harassment, but also they face gender discrimination when it comes to their recruitment and equal pay-scale. In the past decade, there has been an alarming increase in attacks on female journalists and incidents of their sexual harassment in Pakistan. Notwithstanding the growing plague of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the country, the resilience of female journalists to work within a threatening and prejudiced environment has not yet fully explored and analysed. Therefore, drawing on the postcolonial feminist theory, this study aims to investigate the Pakistani female journalists’ lived experiences of sexual harassment, threats and discrimination. The study also analyses the impacts of sexual harassment, threats and gender discrimination on the country’s female journalists. To achieve the aforementioned aims, this study uses the qualitative methods of in-depth interviews and focus groups discussion, and offers a thematic analysis of qualitative data.     

#MeToo as networked collective: examining consciousness-raising on wild public networks

ABSTRACT

In 2017, the #MeToo movement swept across social media, making the pervasiveness of sexual assault visible to millions. People shared hashtags and stories often only told in intimate settings on a variety of platforms, exposing this issue to the multitudes. At its core, the #MeToo movement was a consciousness-raising effort, but it was occurring in a new mediascape that dramatically altered its spread, force, and impact. This paper examines #MeToo as it unfolded across wild public networks and, in doing so, resisted contemporary image practices, transformed the rhetor into what we term a rhizomatically networked collective, and expanded audiences.     

Workplace harassment in university libraries: A qualitative study of female Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals in Pakistan

PurposeThe existence of workplace harassment in a feminized profession such as Library and Information Science (LIS) cannot be ignored. There is limited literature on workplace harassment in the profession, especially in the context of the developing world. This study investigates the status of workplace harassment and the level of awareness about the relevant legislation among working women of Pakistan.MethodologyA qualitative research approach was used and data was collected through in-depth interview. Thirty-four female LIS professionals working in the university libraries of Lahore, Pakistan, were approached. However, eight were given consented to participate in the study.FindingsMost of the working females did not agree to participate in the study due to privacy concerns and the taboo nature of the topic in Pakistani society. The findings revealed the females had witnessed workplace harassment which they perceived as both physical and psychological in nature. The study also reports the respondents' level of awareness about harassment-related legislation and policies in the country as well as strategies to enhance it. It also highlights the barriers faced by them while reporting harassment issues.ImplicationThis study presents theoretical, practical, and policy implications related to workforce harassment faced by women working in LIS.     

Breaching ethics for the sake of a “good” interview

This essay presents a series of short stories – autoethnographic tales from the field – about my experiences as a female (qualitative) researcher studying humor in male-dominated workplaces in 2014. I conducted over thirty ethnographic interviews with professional hair stylists and barbers throughout Phoenix, Arizona and Sacramento, California to better understand the discursive processes by which humor is gendered in non-corporate organizations. While in the field, however, I encountered more than I bargained for. The study participants (male and female) openly engaged in humorous dialogue including: verbal critiques of my body/sexuality, sexual harassment, suggestive innuendos, physical touch, and outright heterosexist humor. After reflecting on my experiences, I realized how institutional resources (e.g. Institutional Review Board) and protocols function to protect research participants yet do little to ensure the safety, security, and/or comfort of researchers.     

“The internet is not pleased”: twitter and the 2017 Equifax data breach

ABSTRACT

The 2017 Equifax data breach left 144.5 million users digitally vulnerable to identity theft and future hacks. The organization’s failure to provide ongoing communication and information regarding the attack, motivated users to form crisis communities within the Twitter platform. This study examines the discourses present within the platform as users discussed the data breach. Digital crisis communities provide researchers opportunities to study how public users respond and react to a digital threat, particularly one that impacts online security and privacy. Through a qualitative analysis of tweets from the 3 weeks after the breach was announced, three discourses emerged that represented user frustrations and reactions to the security violation. These include breaking news, anger and outrage, and blame attribution. The findings of this study are relevant for those studying crisis communication, the Twitter platform, and online communities.     

Sexual Harassment in the News: The United States and France

This article documents and accounts for important differences in press coverage of sexual harassment in the United States and France. Compared to French press coverage, American reporting on sexual harassment has been much more extensive and more likely to focus on domestic sexual harassment scandals involving political individuals or institutions. This is attributed largely to the American press greater reliance on business, greater journalistic freedom, stronger traditions of investigative journalism, as well as more inclusive legal definitions of sexual harassment. While silent on French scandals, due to global political realities, the French press has reported extensively on American sexual harassment scandals and has been more dismissive of the problems of sexual harassment and (American) feminist activists when reporting on the United States. This article further analyzes how each press has framed the problem of sexual harassment and how such framing varies by story and over time.     

Addressing sexual harassment in a sexually charged national culture: a Journal of Applied Communication Research forum

Sexual harassment remains a persistent workplace problem. The 2017 #Metoo movement and what-have-come-to-be routine news stories about sexual hostility, sexual assault, and sexual harassment in American organizations have opened wounds and reinvigorated public commentary. Although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sets forth guidelines for organizations to follow, questions remain about what counts as sexual harassment, and what is an organization’s responsibility in maintaining a harassment-free workplace for its employees. At the invitation of the editor, seven organizational communication scholars responded to a series of questions addressing seven issues related to sexual harassment. These are: sexual harassment policy and training; the responsibilities of bystanders of sexual harassment; organizational culture that provides more support to the harasser than the harassed; the intersection of race with sexual harassment; same-sex harassment and female-to-male harassment; and what can be learned from public movements (e.g. #Metoo). The co-authors’ responses describe sexually harassing situation with which they are familiar.     

What the Twenty-First Century Engaged Journalism can Learn from the Twentieth Century Public Journalism

ABSTRACT

Engaged journalism emerging today bears a striking resemblance to the public journalism movement of the twentieth century in the United States. They have similar values and spirits, believing that journalists should connect more with local communities and help create public conversation. They also share similar techniques. While generally considered a failed movement, public journalism may provide important lessons for the future of engaged journalism. Analyzing public journalism in the three major domains of journalism studies – normative, democratic, and commercial – this essay discusses how engaged journalism can learn from the missteps of its predecessor.     

Check That Body! The Effects of Sexually Objectifying Music Videos on College Men's Sexual Beliefs

The present study examined the effects of sexual objectification of female artists in music videos on male undergraduates' sexual beliefs. Findings showed that participants who viewed music videos of highly objectified female artists reported more adversarial sexual beliefs, more acceptance of interpersonal violence, and, at a level of marginal significance, more negative attitudes about sexual harassment than participants assigned to low-sexual objectifying music videos by the same female artists. Path models indicated that adversarial sexual beliefs mediated the relationship between condition, and (1) acceptance of interpersonal violence and (2) negative attitudes regarding sexual harassment.     

Consumer Use and Business Potential of Virtual Worlds: The Case of “Second Life”

Abstract

Several months ago, the virtual social world “Second Life” (SL) received considerable interest in both the popular and business press. Based on a series of 29 qualitative, in-depth interviews, this article investigates what types of behaviors consumers show within this environment and what business opportunities it offers for companies. The results indicate that users do not consider SL as a mere computer game but as an extension of their real lives. This has implications for how marketing managers can use this online application that go beyond those known from traditional computer or online games.     

Surviving organizational tolerance of sexual harassment: an exploration of resilience,vulnerability, and harassment fatigue

ABSTRACT

Although reports of workplace sexual harassment share various similarities, victims uniquely react and assign meaning to these events. Using Weick’s sensemaking theory coupled with Lazarus and Folkman’s model of coping, this study examines the role of organizational tolerance toward sexual harassment and its influence on victim resilience, coping, harassment fatigue, and perceived vulnerability to future sexual harassment. Survey results from 187 victims of workplace sexual harassment indicate that organizational tolerance of sexual harassment is a significant predictor of victim vulnerability, resilience, and harassment fatigue. Specifically, organizations that are more tolerant of sexual harassment are associated with higher victim vulnerability to future harassment and harassment fatigue, as well as lower resilience. Additionally, victims who responded to harassment using problem-focused coping were significantly more resilient, while formally reporting sexual harassment was associated with lower victim resilience. Overall, results illustrate the complexity of addressing sexual harassment from both an organizational and individual perspective.     

Everyday Encounters with Art: Comparing Expert and Novice Experiences

The study reported here looked at how two groups of people – one with art expertise and one without – made sense of their encounters with an exhibition of a single artist, the late Paul‐Henri Bourguignon. The study builds on previous research using Dervin's Sense‐Making Methodology to study how people interpret their arts experiences within the contexts of their everyday lives. Informants were asked to rank‐order their selections among the pieces on display according to which had the most impact for them (however they defined impact). Each informant then did a structured qualitative interview focusing on the work he or she chose as most impactful. The researchers looked at thematic elements and other patterns of similarity and difference that arose in the interviews and offer thoughts on how the results of this study may provide insight to those who work in museums.     

Not all undecided voters are alike: Evidence from an Israeli election

The literature dealing with undecided voters – a growing group of citizens in many democracies that can determine who wins in election campaigns – suggests two very different profiles. The first approach describes undecided voters as being generally uninformed about politics, while the second sees undecideds as sophisticated citizens who follow a campaign closely before making their final voting decision. The current study tries to make sense of this contrast, while examining differences between sophisticated and less sophisticated undecideds (their level of sophistication was based on their political interest and knowledge). Using two panel surveys, conducted before and after the April 2019 elections in Israel (N = 1427; N = 912), we examine a number of hypotheses about differences in terms of the undecided citizens' demographic backgrounds, how they search for political information during the election campaign, how they come to make their final decisions, and whether they ended up voting. The findings indicate that the typical sophisticated undecided voter is a citizen from a more privileged social background, exhibits greater trust in traditional media, consumes more news to follow the campaign (from various traditional news outlets and social media), is more likely to carry out online discussions about the elections, is more likely to base his or her decision on policy issues, is more likely to debate between parties within the same ideological camp (internal floater), and more likely to vote than less sophisticated undecided voters. Our typology, which makes a distinction between sophisticated and less sophisticated undecided voters, as well as these findings (and the comparison to the committed voters), can help political scientists and practitioners widen their understanding regarding this important group of voters in todays' complex political reality.     

Promoting Discovery: Creating an In-Depth Library Marketing Campaign

ABSTRACT

This case study aims to describe how librarians at Indiana University Kokomo designed a marketing campaign to promote its discovery tool to undergraduate students during the fall 2012 semester. The authors illustrate how, through the use of a coordinated marketing plan, librarians applied marketing principles to select a target audience, create promotional designs, organize events, and assess campaign effectiveness. The authors express how libraries can construct cost-effective yet comprehensive marketing campaigns, as well as learn from both unexpected successes and shortcomings of such projects. Ultimately, these takeaways can inform a library's future marketing endeavors.     

Working to Alleviate Gendered Violence on College Campuses by Designing Public Service Announcement Storyboards

Courses: Gender and Communication; Health Communication

Objectives: Upon completing this activity, students will be able to demonstrate the ways in which their voices and actions can be used to reduce gendered violence on their college or university campus