Journalism Research

Main topics: Gender bias in social media and citizen journalism.

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Power Without Proof

In our modern, digitally-driven world, anyone can go viral. Anyone can open their laptop, write down their opinions and use social media or an online blog to market those opinions to the world. 

And chances are, there will be somebody who listens. 

Yascha Mounk wrote to convey the hypothetical issues of this and said, “If he amasses enough of a following, he can quickly turn into a major purveyor of fake news.” 

This truth, that fake news and misinformation can spread this easily, can be concerning. It requires that readers become more skeptical of what Google search result they choose to trust and that news publications focus on addressing news accurately in order to set the public record straight. 

It’s also worth noting that in a society that boasts about the individual rights of its citizens, this sort of freedom that’s been given to digital speech is not expected to go away. 

As long as a user doesn’t go against Community Guidelines on social media, they are free to post whatever content they feel led to. The same goes for online content. As long as it’s legal, it can stay.

This is the double-edged sword of digital media, giving power to individual citizens who have no training, no credentials and no expertise in the topics they’re writing about. 

It’s the cost of free speech.

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In her TED talk, Dr. Rena Bivens discusses the way that gender is encoded into social technologies and cultural dynamics. While it’s a bit dated, it’s still relevant to the modern day conversation. 

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Seventy-eight percent of women in the United States use social networks, opposed to 65 percent of men, according to a Statista report published in January 2022. 

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Because if women are in position of authority, they will help stop the submission of other women. So that men can’t corner them, can’t force them into sexual acts, because women won’t need the financial stability. The economic security.

Toni Van Pelt, CNN article “How #MeToo could move from social campaign to social change”

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Break the bias to challenge gender norms on social media

Tech companies, public sector bodies, activists & individual users must together play their part to challenge gender norms online.

In order to fight gender bias on social media, Stephanie Diepeveen argues that it will require joint effort from tech companies, public sector bodies, activists and individual users.