While women appear to be targeted disproportionately for harassment online (MEAA, 2019), journalists broadly report aggression appearing in their social media, news commenting, and even e-mail (Koskie, 2018; Wolfgang, 2018). While some journalists and editors have expressed a desire to engage with the audience, the hostility presents a difficult obstacle (Anderson et al., 2014). Nevertheless, news organisations’ initiatives to protect journalists – and their own reputations – have seen inconsistent results (Domingo, 2014; Løvlie et al., 2017). Meanwhile, journalists and news organisations are struggling to balance protections for their journalists, as well as their readers and sources, from hostility, while upholding their historic support for freedom of speech (Koskie, 2018).
