This project was undertaken on the initiative of Media Diversity Australia, who had expressed concern about the levels of online harassment and abuse that many of their members were reporting. While it has become almost commonplace for journalists and media workers to expect some form of harmful or derogatory online commentary on their work and/or identities, this problem appeared to be exacerbated when the journalist or producer involved was from a minority community – particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), LGBTQIA+, or people living with a disability. The purpose of this project, then, was to investigate this issue with independent research, speak to a range of journalists and media workers from diverse backgrounds, and understand their experiences and recommendations for ways that their safety might be better protected.

Overall, our study found that many journalists and media workers from minority backgrounds were experiencing online harassment and abuse from members of the public, and that often, this behaviour was considered ‘part of the job’ in the modern, digital environment. While we found some employers were making good efforts to assist their employees from diverse backgrounds, too often issues such as industry complacency and in-built (systemic, institutional) racism and discrimination were impacting on organisations’ ability to properly protect diverse media workers. Our data also demonstrates that, sometimes, journalists from diverse backgrounds were operating in what they considered to be hostile work environments. Further, we found that while many were aware of both informal and formal reporting mechanisms, they found most comfort and support from friends, family and other diverse co-workers rather than from any of the supports that existed. The research suggests that while some were familiar with formal reporting mechanisms, many were not; and many also had little faith in the ability of formal mechanisms to achieve change. There was a strong sense that people from diverse backgrounds did not want to be identified as the ‘difficult’ person in their organisation and that acceptance, adaptation and sometimes silence were used as ways to navigate the environment, rather than formal complaints mechanisms.

The normalisation of online harassment and abuse was found to lead to significant workplace health and safety issues for some of the people we spoke to. A number were interviewed after they had left the industry—usually for public relations positions—because the ongoing pressure to create high-profile social media personas, and to increase public engagement with their work was exposing them to significant abuse that they felt they could no longer tolerate. Both Facebook and Twitter were identified as the platforms that generated the most problematic abuse – through bots, trolls, racists and a lack of systematic and structured action from these platforms to move beyond addressing individual comments and to develop protocols to exclude perpetrators in a more comprehensive way.

We will explain these key issues in more detail throughout this report, and in our Conclusions. What is clear is that this is a major issue for Australia’s media organisations to address immediately – to protect their journalists and other media workers from what sounds to us like an onslaught of online abuse – and to be aware that their workers from diverse backgrounds are often the target of the harmful and discriminatory abuse. This was compounded when several diversity issues were at play – many of our research participants who were also women were particularly targeted and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were also LGBTQIA+ were disproportionately targeted. Importantly, many stated that they were not being protected by the existing mechanisms of online social media platforms and so the continued requirement for journalists and media workers in some media organisations to have a high-profile social media presence is exposing them to significant risk.

Note that our Recommendations below do not suggest that all Australian media companies are failing their diverse workers all the time – indeed, some have taken the challenge on and are doing good work to try to address the issues. There’s no doubt, however, that the research evidence suggests this is still a significant problem; and that many journalists and media workers are struggling to find ways to combat and address online harassment and abuse, either formally or informally. Additionally, many do not feel their organisations are appropriately equipped – and in some cases, do not have the organisational culture, or the will – to address the issue properly.