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Mean Tweets

The impact of online harassment on political journalists in Canada.

While social media has fostered an environment for journalists and the public to connect and interact in creative ways, it also makes journalists, particularly women journalists, vulnerable to online bullying and harassment. Dealing with mean tweets has become part of journalists' job description.

Key questions:

  • Are there differences based on gender in the quantity and types of negative messages journalists receive on Twitter?

  • How do journalists respond to online harassment and what is the impact on how they do their job?

Methods:

  • Manual content analysis of tweets inform a bespoke machine learning approach for automated analysis

  • In-depth interviews with journalists


Project leads:

Dr. Elizabeth Dubois, Dr. Chirs Tenove, Trevor Deley

Funding for this project was provided by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant.

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When hate and harassment are just part of the job: Journalists & health communicators online

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