Women in Journalism and Reach have joined forces to investigate the extent and impact of online harms affecting women working in the media industry in the UK. The project, led by Reach online safety editor Dr. Rebecca Whittington, aims to find out what issues are being faced, what platforms are culpable and what support is being offered as well as the impact the threat of online harms has on the way women work. No comparable research has been carried out, specifically looking at the effect of online abuse on women in media, in recent years, says the publisher.
Women in media are invited to complete this questionnaire and to share with their colleagues. Note respondents do not have to have experienced online harm themselves to complete the survey - all responses are valuable. It only takes 10 minutes and is completely anonymous, unless respondents choose to share their contact details.
The survey closes on February 10 and WIJ and Reach will be sharing findings along with recommendations in the week of March 8 - which is International Women’s Day.
Alison Phillips, WIJ chair and Mirror editor-in-chief said: "We've all seen how devastating online abuse can be on a personal level. My worry is that it is becoming a very real barrier to women's careers, or even taking talented women out of media entirely. We hope this survey can help give us some answers so we can move more quickly to begin to address it and give female journalists a fighting chance to succeed and promote themselves in an online world."
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