September, 2021
Online abuse, including trolling, is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue in modern day society. Women, in particular, face a higher threat of becoming the recipient of online harassment, with examples widely reported in recent literature across blogging [1], politics [2], journalism [3] and multiple other fields. This study, conducted through the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, will involve remotely interviewing 5 self-identifying women with the goal of understanding their experiences of online abuse.
Format
Interviews will be help under the following conditions:
30 minute Zoom interview with 3 sections
Sessions will be recorded for research purposes but not shared
Participants will have the option to be included in a social media promotional material, or participate anonymously if preferred
Eligibility
Participants must meet the following eligibility criteria:
Self-identifying female
Active on at least one social media platform (as either a consumer or a creator or both)
Ability to provide or recall in detail 1-3 specific examples of online abuse they have either experienced personally or witnessed
The call for participation has now closed.
Footnotes
[1] Eckert, Stine. (2017). Fighting for recognition: Online abuse of women bloggers in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. New Media & Society. 20. 146144481668845. 10.1177/1461444816688457.
[2] Greenwood, Mark & Bakir, Mehmet & Gorrell, Genevieve & Song, Xingyi & Roberts, Ian & Bontcheva, Kalina. (2019). Online Abuse of UK MPs from 2015 to 2019: Working Paper.
[3] Adams, Catherine. (2017). “They Go for Gender First”: The nature and effect of sexist abuse of female technology journalists. Journalism Practice. 12. 1-20. 10.1080/17512786.2017.1350115.