Election campaigns have historically been times for opposing politicians to sling dirt, and, in only a couple of days, we’ve seen a fair bit of this already. Yesterday for instance, we saw Morrison and his ministers capitalising gleefully on a gaffe made by Labor opposition leader Anthony Albanese about the unemployment rate in Australia, suggesting the mistake was evidence of economic ineptitude.
There will be plenty more of this expected argy bargy. Put simply? It will be a longgggggg month.
But what has become a more sinister by-product of this election is the vitriol slung at female journalists, a trend that appears to be ramping up daily across major social platforms– particularly Twitter.
Yesterday, media commentator and host of ABC’s The Drum, Julia Baird reflected on this very issue, citing that abuse levelled at women in media is always fiercer and more unrestrained than what men are subjected to.
She added that there “is a pattern of sustained criticism of some women worth monitoring, questioning”.
She’s not wrong.
Just this morning, News.com political editor Samantha Maiden is trending on Twitter with thousands of Australians posting about her perceived political bias, an alleged drinking problem, and her appearance.
ABC journalist, Patricia Karvelas posted yesterday that she’d “observed an unprecedented level of hyper partisanship and attacks on journalists”, and wouldn’t be engaging with abuse.
While veteran journalist and host of ABC’s 7:30 Leigh Sales has reportedly left Twitter in recent days due to the ferocity of trolling that she’s been up against for months.
Leigh Sales has quit twitter due to trolls. That is bloody sad and disgusting, that a female journalist can’t use twitter without constant abuse.
— Rick (@colonelhogans) April 11, 2022
Our ability to freely hold media to account is a positive aspect of democracy, but there’s no denying that social platforms have made it easier for constructive criticism to quickly spiral into something else entirely.
Here, at Women’s Agenda, we receive emails from abusive trolls about our coverage of key social issues impacting women. We have faced vile tirades including death threats. These events are thankfully occasional, but they take their toll. For any woman experiencing this kind of vitriol on a daily basis like the journalists mentioned above, the impact would be considerable.
Surely we can do better.