Rappler Talk: Evidence of online violence vs Maria Ressa, women journalists

In time for Women’s Month, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) released pivotal research on online violence against women journalists, focusing and generating evidence on the case of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa.

The first-of-its-kind case study – done through the collaboration of ICFJ, the University of Sheffield, and Rappler – utilized deep-dive interviews and analyzed hundreds of thousands of Twitter and Facebook posts directed at Ressa from 2016, when President Rodrigo Duterte took power, to 2021.

Findings showed that almost 60% of the attacks extracted from Facebook and Twitter were designed to undermine Ressa’s professional credibility and public trust in her journalism – mostly done by associating Ressa and her work with “lies” and “fake news.”

Over 40% of the attacks collected from both platforms targeted Ressa at a personal level.

While Ressa was the focus of the study, the findings show what hundreds of women journalists globally face each day.

Rappler’s media and disinformation reporter Camille Elemia discusses the key findings and recommendations with Dr Julie Posetti, the global director of research at ICFJ and one of the study’s co-authors.

Watch the interview on Rappler on Friday, March 12. – Rappler.com