Social Media and Female Harassment

For years women have had to overcome certain hurdles. With the growing integration of social media in the world of journalism, female journalists have a new hurdle to leap over. 

An article on Poynter  discusses the increases harassment women have seen through social media outlets. Sexual comments and sometimes worse are being thrown around. This usually occurs when a woman reports on mainly male field of interest like politics or sports. Apparently men feel the need to rudely assert their dominance. 

This issue doesn't disappear after shutting down the computer. These online posts, sometimes lead to off-line fears. 

So, basically, all women journalists must immediately get off Facebook and Twitter, lock themselves in their room and pray for safety. No. 

There are some precautionary measure that can be taken, as mentioned in the article on Poynter. 

One women keeps personal information that she puts online to a minimum. Also, she waits until  she leaves a location to check in on Foursquare, never tweets about the hotels she stays in. It is also very common to have a professional Facebook page. 

Women must take control of the situation, and let all viewers know they need and want to be taken seriously. Clearly people are going to do what they want and that may be to harass women, but hopefully this doesn't scare the world of female journalists offline. 

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