Dr. Valerie Belair-Gagnon
Associate Professor and Cowles Fellow in Media Management, Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Twitter: @journoscholar
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/val%C3%A9rie-b%C3%A9lair-gagnon-0a896a24/
Email: vbg@umn.edu
U.S. Election 2024
51. The powers that aren’t: News organizations and the 2024 election (Dr Nik Usher)
52. Newspaper presidential endorsements: Silence during consequential moment in history (Dr Kenneth Campbell)
53. Trump after news: a moral voice in an empty room? (Prof Matt Carlson, Prof Sue Robinson, Prof Seth C. Lewis)
54. Under media oligarchy: profit and power trumped democracy once again (Prof Victor Pickard)
55. The challenge of pro-democracy journalism (Prof Stephen D. Reese)
56. Grievance and animosity: Fracturing the digital news ecosystem (Dr Scott A. Eldridge II)
57. Considering the risk of attacks on journalists during the U.S. election (Dr Valerie Belair-Gagnon)
58. What can sentiment in cable news coverage tell us about the 2024 campaign? (Dr Gavin Ploger, Dr Stuart Soroka)
59. The case for happy election news: Why it matters and what stands in the way (Dr Ruth Palmer, Prof Stephanie Edgerly, Prof Emily K. Vraga)
60. Broadcast television use and the 2024 U.S. presidential election (Jessica Maki, Prof Michael W. Wagner)
61. Kamala Harris' representation in mainstream and Black media (Dr Miya Williams Fayne, Prof Danielle K. Brown)
62. Team Trump and the altercation at the Arlington military cemetery (Dr Natalie Jester)
63. Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media (Prof Michael L. Butterworth)
During the 2024 presidential election, many journalists experienced online and in-person attacks. A public example of this happened during a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists, Trump attacked an ABC News female Black journalist for being imbalanced because of her line of questioning. Also, in Spring 2024, an online campaign started as Trump demanded to defund NPR on social media.
Attacks on journalists are not new but they have increased substantially worldwide and are heightened during election cycles. These attacks have risen in the past ten years due to rising authoritarian and populist movements, increasing polarization, and expanding public access to social and digital means of production. As the examples above show, attacks on journalists also follow gendered and racialized logic meant to maintain existing structures with actors leveraging racism, misogyny, and xenophobic sentiments.
What is new is a growing sense among journalism that media organizations cannot simply push the burden of these attacks onto their employees. While efforts to support journalists systematically have been more prevalent in Europe because of legislative efforts, US news organizations still have a long way to go, with a few large organizations developing processes to support journalists, such as through risk assessments.
In preparation for the election season, professional associations and centers reinforced the need to develop a systemic approach to support journalists. PEN America in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Women Foundation, launched US Election Safety Summer, a free webinar series for journalists. The webinars taught journalists how to safely cover the elections, from how journalists can deal with aggression and situational awareness to how news organizations can implement risk assessment plans.
As journalists consider the dangers they could face on election assignments, the Committee to Protect Journalists urged journalists covering the elections to complete a risk assessment to mitigate those risks. Mitigation included an established communication infrastructure, including check-in, point of contact, and emergency call-in procedures. In doing so, they provide an editor’s checklist for physical safety and online abuse. However, US newsrooms’ efforts are still nascent. A few legacy newsrooms implemented risk assessments. Generally, research has shown that these assessments tend to be conducted without a formal closing-the-loop process or documentation. They are also largely operated through legal or human resources departments.
A major narrative has been that journalists have been left to themselves to cope with attacks and take care of their well-being. Even if well intended, with their focus on risk management, training for harassment, and social media policies, among other tools, have been there to protect media organizations, not their journalists. Besides, online abuse is identity-based, with journalists being attacked because of their race, sexual orientation, and gender identity, showing a need to go beyond tools that have been used in the past. Not much has changed on the election front but there is an opportunity for newsrooms to take these attacks seriously and develop best practices in risk management.
Research has shown that rare events and crises help news organizations innovate. In Innovation Through Crisis, Mona Kristin Solvoll from BI Norwegian Business School and Ragnhild Kristine Olsen showed how news organizations swiftly adapted to crises such as with digital tools and introducing new services. As Junai Mtchedlidze said, “The need for information in the population; initiative among the news staff; existing technological expertise in the newsrooms; and collaboration among editorial developers and journalists” constitute important factors driving innovation during crises.
Yet nefarious actors with their tactics and journalists’ countermeasures and consequences of the actors and tactics have constituted hazards or risks accepted as part of news work. A complex set of circumstances specific to journalism and political contexts among other things, are driving these risks. They do not start or end with elections. They also apply to other professionals such as female politicians or influencers. Still, with an eye on events like elections, media organizations must implement interventions such as offering safety training and creating assessment policies before engaging in risk work.
As we reflect on the US election and the rising violence against journalists, newsroom leaders, including news editors and researchers should take note of the innovation that the election has spurred to support the well-being of their journalists. As the election and protests across the US show, attacks against journalism will persist. To take care of our democracy we need to consider the institutions that support it.