How Entertainment Journalists Manage Online Hate and Harassment

While most prior literature on journalists and digital safety focuses on political journalists, entertainment journalists (who cover video games, TV, movies, etc.) also experience severe digital-safety threats in the form of persistent harassment. In the decade since the #GamerGate harassment campaign against video games journalists and developers, entertainment journalists have, by necessity, developed strategies to manage this harassment. However, the impact of harassment and the efficacy of these strategies is understudied. In this work, we interviewed nine entertainment journalists to understand their experiences with online hate and harassment and their strategies for managing it. These journalists see harassment as a difficult and inevitable part of their job; they rely primarily on external support rather than technical solutions or platform affordances. These findings suggest much more support is needed to reduce the individual burden of managing harassment.