Female journalists face significant hostility, pressure and threats online, according to new research by Dublin City University.
Social media and online hostility: Experiences of women in Irish journalism found that the influence of online culture and harassment have been a deterrent for women to become journalists.
In interviews with professional journalists and students, pile-ons, late-night threats and intrusive encounters were common experiences for journalists, particularly women.
Sunday Game pundit and former Wexford camogie player Ursula Jacob told Lunchtime Live her online abuse “came to a head” last July when she put out a public statement.
“I just felt that enough was enough because it was such a huge stress on me,” she said.
“I could either decide to quit or put myself out there and take myself out of my comfort zone.”
Ms Jacob said she never received harassment for her knowledge or opinions on sport, but for her “voice, accent and appearance”.
“I have no problem with someone disagreeing with my analysis or my opinion on a particular player or a team,” she said. “But it was becoming much more personal about me.”
"A men's game"
She believed she received harassment because she was a “woman speaking about a man’s game and some people can’t really get past that”.
“I'm there in The Sunday Game because I have knowledge or expertise in the area,” Ms Jacob said. “I'm not there for tokenism or just to make up the numbers.”
Ms Jacob never received harassment in person, which she found “so ironic”.
“It just seems for these kinds of people who are sitting at home behind a laptop or phone, it’s a normal everyday thing to get entertainment at the expense of someone else.”
“Consumed by trolls”
Following her public statement speaking out against harassment, Ms Jacob avoided searching for reactions online.
“If you get yourself consumed by these anonymous trolls and cowards as I like to call them, you forget about the job that you’re doing,” she explained.
“I have no doubt that some of the people will continue to abuse and troll myself and other people – but I have taken back the power by saying I'm not going to give up something I love doing.”
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