Cybercrimes

Open Access: Yes.

Abstract

A growing body of research documents that female journalists often face extreme obstacles in their work. The rapidly growing international debate around press freedom, especially after the onset of the pandemic and the technological developments in recent years, has brought to the fore another crucial issue: do female journalists enjoy the same level of press freedom as their male colleagues in the digital age? Although gender has been a longstanding barrier for media professionals, in recent years digital technology has offered additional “weapons” to anyone with a smart phone: from smear campaigns to online attacks and AI-generated forms of assault. This work seeks to systematically identify and document the dimensions of threats to female journalists in western media systems and to detect and assess new manifestations of gendered threats in the digital age. In the course of the study, several types of threats emerged affecting not only female journalists but also those of any other gender beyond male. The study aims to offer an analytical categorization of these threats, focusing on western media systems, where overall press freedom has been acutely affected in recent years.

Relevance

“In the UK, a renowned investigative journalist and advocate for women’s rights was subjected to a malicious online attack through the creation of false pornographic profiles and the potential use of deepfake technology to undermine her credibility and silence her voice. She had to reach out to several adult websites, requesting the removal of accounts falsely created under her name by far-right trolls leveraging AI.”

“The most important findings concerned the new manifestations of gendered threats in the digital age. As underscored by this study, technological infrastructures are systematically exploited to harass, intimidate, and discredit female journalists. The rise of AI and deepfake technologies has significantly intensified these attacks, enabling new, insidious forms of gender-based violence that extend far beyond traditional online abuse. These tools are increasingly used to create hyper-realistic, manipulated content – often sexualized or pornographic in nature – designed to silence women journalists by damaging their credibility, instilling fear, and eroding public trust in their work. This new form of digital violence has profound psychological, reputational, and career-related consequences, reinforcing existing gender inequalities in the media industry and contributing to a climate of fear and self-censorship.”

Citation

Maniou, T. A., & Papadopoulou, L. (2026). The “gendered price” of press freedom in the digital age: Documenting threats and challenges for female journalists in western media systems. Media, Culture & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437261424766