Gosse, C., Veletsianos, G., Hodson, J., Houlden, S., Dousay, T., Lowenthal, P., & Hall, N. (2021). The Hidden Costs of Connectivity: Nature and Effects of Scholars’ Online Harassment. Learning, Media, Technology. DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2021.1878218
Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439884.2021.1878218?journalCode=cjem20
A growing body of research reveals that some scholars face online harassment and that such harassment leads to a wide variety of adverse impacts. Drawing on data collected from an online survey of 182 scholars, we report on the factors and triggers involved in scholars’ experiences of online harassment; the environments where said experiences take place, and; the consequences it has for personal and professional relationships. We find that online harassment is heavily entwined with the work, identity, and in some cases, the requirements of being a scholar. The online harassment scholars experience is often compounded by other factors, such as gender and physical appearance. We build on prior research in this area to further argue that universities ought to widen their scope of what constitutes workplace harassment and workplace safety to include online spaces.
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Houlden, S., Hodson, J., Veletsianos, G., Gosse, C., Lowenthal, P., Dousay, T., and Hall, N. (2021). Support for Scholars Coping with Online Harassment: An Ecological Framework. Feminist Media Studies. DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2021.1883086
Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2021.1883086
This article contributes to understanding the phenomenon of online harassment of scholars with a focus on examining the effectiveness of support for coping with online harassment. We collected data from 182 participants of an online survey examining scholars’ experiences with online harassment. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model was used to examine the relationship between coping and support. We found that scholars used numerous engagement and disengagement coping strategies, and that the effectiveness of support for such strategies varied across genders. These findings have implications for practice and research, especially as they relate to equity and safety for scholars operating in online spaces.
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Veletsianos, G., Houlden, S., Hodson, J., & Gosse, C. (2018). Women scholars’ experiences with online harassment and abuse: Self-protection, resistance, acceptance, and self-blame. New Media & Society, 20(12), 4689–4708. DOI: 10.1177/1461444818781324
Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444818781324
Abstract: Although scholars increasingly use online platforms for public, digital, and networked scholarship, the research examining their experiences of harassment and abuse online is scant. In this study, we interviewed 14 women scholars who experienced online harassment in order to understand how they coped with this phenomenon. We found that scholars engaged in reactive, anticipatory, preventive, and proactive coping strategies. In particular, scholars engaged in strategies aimed at self-protection and resistance, while often responding to harassment by acceptance and self-blame. These findings have important implications for practice and research, including practical recommendations for personal, institutional, and platform responses to harassment, as well as scholarly recommendations for future research into scholars’ experiences of harassment.
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Hodson, J., Gosse, C., Veletsianos, G., & Houlden, S. (2018). I get by with a little help from my friends: The ecological model and support for women scholars experiencing online harassment. First Monday. DOI: 10.5210/fm.v23i8.9136.
Available at: https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9136
Abstract: This article contributes to understanding the phenomenon of online abuse and harassment toward women scholars. We draw on data collected from 14 interviews with women scholars from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and report on the types of supports they sought during and after their experience with online abuse and harassment. We found that women scholars rely on three levels of support: the first level includes personal and social support (such as encouragement from friends and family and outsourcing comment reading to others); the second includes organizational (such as university or institutional policy), technological (such as reporting tools on Twitter or Facebook), and sectoral (such as law enforcement) support; and, the third includes larger cultural and social attitudes and discourses (such as attitudes around gendered harassment and perceptions of the online/offline divide). While participants relied on social and personal support most frequently, they commonly reported relying on multiple supports across all three levels. We use an ecological model as our framework to demonstrate how different types of support are interconnected, and recommend that support for targets of online abuse must integrate aspects of all three levels.