Southern European Journalists’ Perceptions of Discursive Menaces in the Age of (Online) Delegitimization

[EN]In a new communication context, factors such as the rise of hate speech, disinformation, or a precarious financial and employment situation in the media have made discursive menaces gain increasing significance. Threats of this kind challenge the legitimacy of institutional news media and profes...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Blanco Herrero, David, Splendore, Sergio, Oller Alonso, Martín
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Salamanca (USAL)
Repositorio:GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca
OAI Identifier:oai:gredos.usal.es:10366/152642
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10366/152642
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Discursive menace
Greece
Hate speech
Italy
Journalists
Legitimacy of journalism
Southern Europe
Spain
6306.07 Sociología de Los Medios de Comunicación de Masas
6301 Sociología Cultural
Descrição
Resumo:[EN]In a new communication context, factors such as the rise of hate speech, disinformation, or a precarious financial and employment situation in the media have made discursive menaces gain increasing significance. Threats of this kind challenge the legitimacy of institutional news media and professional journalists. This article contributes to the existing literature on the legitimization of journalism and boundary work through a study that seeks to understand the perceptions of Southern European journalists of the threats that they encounter in their work and the factors that help explain them. To this end, a survey of 398 journalists in Spain, Italy, and Greece was conducted to learn what personal or professional factors influenced their views and experiences of discursive and non‐discursive menaces. Results show that discursive threats, such as hateful or demeaning speech and public discrediting of one’s work, are the most frequent to the safety of journalists, while expressions of physical violence are less common. Younger and more educated journalists tended to perceive themselves as having been victims of discursive menaces more often, although not many significant differences were observed between different groups of journalists. Even though it could show a worrying trend, this finding can also indicate a growing awareness about menaces of this kind.