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Managers and Employers: Best Practices for Supporting Reporters Facing Online Abuse | Otter.ai

Managers and Employers: Best Practices for Supporting Reporters Facing Online Abuse

Online News Association50min

Viktorya Vilk

01:14

Hi everybody, welcome. We're so glad you can join us for this session today. It seems like there's pretty much every day now, a story in the news about a reporter, almost always a reporter who identifies as a woman, as a person of color, as LGBTQ being bombarded by hate and harassment online. And it's not just anecdotal these stories. A very recent study out of UNESCO and the ICFJ found that of women journalists worldwide, their experiences with online abuse, one in four had experienced online abuse and one in five had actually been attacked or abused offline in the physical world as a result of the abuse incidents that were seeded online, so it's a massive problem. Our premise here today in this session is that if media organizations want staff and freelancers to have an active online presence, they need to protect and support them when they're under attack. And that is what we're going to be talking about. I'm Viktorya Vilk, I work for the free expression organization PEN America. I'm the program director for digital safety and free expression and I lead our online abuse defense program. We've reached over 250,000 people in the US and globally with resources on online abuse self defense, including trainings and workshops, and we have worked with dozens of newsrooms and professional associations across the United States and internationally to develop protocols and policies to support staff who are facing online abuse. So I'm here today with an absolutely all star panel — I'm sort of pinching myself I can't believe the folks that have joined us today. I'm going to introduce them briefly and then we're going to delve right into questions, and I'll be interspersing questions from you folks, as I go and then also saving some questions for the end from the audience. So without further ado, Kelsey McKinney, we can bring her on, is a writer and co founder of Defector.com, where she helped spearhead the outlet's recent incredibly impressive efforts to support reporters facing online abuse so we'll be talking a lot about that. And, Jareen Imam is the director of social news gathering at NBC News, where she leads a global team of journalists to find verify and report on news stories. Prior to joining NBC she was the head of social at CBS and a producer for CNN. Jami Floyd is an attorney journalist anchor, legal and political analyst and former White House fellow. She's currently the senior editor for Race and Justice and the legal editor at New York Public Radio, and before that was a legal analyst at Al Jazeera America and the host of All Things Considered. And finally, last but absolutely not least, Donna Carerra is the threat response program manager at the New York Times where she works to keep its employees safe. She began her career in intelligence and security just prior to 9/11 while enlisted in the United States Air Force, and has spent 20 years conducting intelligence analysis across the military federal government and private sectors. Thank you Donna for being here. So, without further ado I do have one quick housekeeping note, the first note is that we're talking about online abuse today which means that you know big trigger warning like we're going to be talking about behaviors and content online that is homophobic, racist, sexist and otherwise just appalling but that's really the only way we can deal with online abuse as we confront it in all its ugliness. So just a note there if people need to take breaks or step away from the computer to whatever you got to do. The second small housekeeping note is that we are going to be, ONA is recording this session. However, it's not going to be public on YouTube, it's going to be essentially only for ONA participants who have created account and registered and signed up for the conference. And as we engage with you folks in the chat, I will be very careful not to read people's names, just so that I protect your identity if you decide to engage. So those are my two housekeeping notes. So without further ado I'm going to go ahead and delve right in and ask our panelists some a bunch of questions. My first question is kind of pretty kind of big picture. I'd like to ask each of you and I'll kind of call on you, to the extent that you're comfortable to talk about your experiences with online abuse either as a target a witness or an ally. What impact has online abuse had on your ability to express yourself and do your job and have you found newsrooms responsive when you've actually faced or witnessed online abuse. And so I think I'll start with Jareen and then we'll kind of work our way through everyone.

Jareen Imam

05:31

Thank you for this. It's a pleasure to be here. So when it comes to my experience with online abuse. I've experienced all three areas of identifying, whether that's being doxxed which I can go into later on, or it's supporting my reporters who are working in some very tricky storytelling and different platforms that have a higher rate of abuse or demonstrating allyship when someone is being targeted, and then finding ways to mitigate that process so that they feel safe and secure, not just for their accounts but also holistically — their feelings, how they feel mentally, emotionally, and in terms of NBC, I think the company has been incredibly receptive towards finding new ways of supporting journalists, especially as we have pivoted in 2020 after the spike in the pandemic to working from home. We've seen a massive movement of news gathering that at one time used to be in person, translating to online and then seeing some of the onslaught of online abuse, increasing because of that.

Viktorya Vilk

06:57

Thank you so much during Jareen, Jami, do you want to weigh in? Oh, Jami, I think you're on mute. Now, I'll tell you what I'm gonna go ahead and turn to Donna.

Jami Floyd

07:15

I'm sorry I thought. I thought you were gonna do the muting and unmuting. So I wanted to say first thank you so much for inviting me and including me and most of all for your brilliant report on this critically important topic, which I disseminated as widely as I could. To answer your question, as I think everyone on this panel will say I of course been a subject, or I think the better word is victim of this kind of abuse, on, on all platforms, Facebook, Twitter, maybe even it's around I'd have to think of that more specifically, but, you know, that just sort of comes with the territory I'm afraid to say, and I can barely think back to the time when there was no social media though I certainly was a reporter before it, but it's been around so long and it's so ubiquitous that I can't really remember that time, I guess I came up with it so it's just part of the work, and sadly trying to anticipate and fend off the attacks that come with not only reporting on gender and identity and race, but but just being part of certain identities and doing our work is, is sort of part of living day to day in this field. But also, and I almost feel more invested in supporting my colleagues, both as an ally in my early days but now in my role as an editor and manager. I'm very much invested in that. And I think about that more than I think about my own individual concerns, and that comes up, almost every day, certainly every week in one capacity or another whether it's somebody laterally who is affected, or somebody who I'm mentoring or supervising. It can be in the same organization or in a different organization so it is a constant refrain. And then finally, the response of news organizations that it has varied tremendously depending on where I am working, and it also can vary within organizations depending on the individual, with whom you're dealing, the manager or the executive, people have very different responses and therefore organizations, respond differently, even between and amongst departments within an organization. So I'll leave it there and we can talk more about it going forward.

Viktorya Vilk

10:05

Thank you, Jami. Donna, do you want to jump in and talk about both your experiences as an ally witness or as a supporter of other folks.

Donna Carrera

10:13

And thank you, Victoria as well for having me here. I'm really honored to be here. This is the topic I am passionate about and while I'm thankful that I've personally never experienced this, I on a daily basis am exposed to our journalists at the Times being exposed to this. I'm a witness to it. I'm an ally I'm a supporter. I like to think of a protector. That's my goal when I go to work every day. I really want to drill in that this is real, and that very much in today's day and age, online abuse is a real threat to our journalists' physical safety, it's beyond trolling, harassment, it's morphed into something way more vicious than that, and then why priority is the physical safety of our employees. It also has a trickle effect where it's, we're also concerned about their emotional health and well-being, their mental well-being. And then also, can they do their work and can they fulfill their mission if they're going through such turmoil as a result of the work they're doing, so I am very proud to work for an organization that this is a top priority for us, and we are working. It's a constant evolution of how can we better protect our people.

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