Navigating Online Hostility: Gendered Trolling of Indian Women Journalists, Legal Interventions, and the Role of Media Literacy

Indian women journalists have been vocalizing their encounters with gender trolls on social media and public platforms through interviews, deliberations, and continuous writing, for over a decade.They seek attention to their plight on national and international platforms like the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and the Editors Guild of India (EGI).While numerous media reports have documented the severe trolling faced by women journalists, these instances, despite gaining traction in public discourse, often go unreported and rarely result in legal action.This qualitative study seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of the perspectives of women journalists on the effectiveness of legal recourse as a potential remedy for trolling, as well as the role of media literacy training in enhancing their legal awareness and empowerment.Insights derived from interviews suggest that three key factors contribute to the underreporting of online harassment: (1) legal knowledge deficit, (2) inadequate emphasis on media literacy training, and 3) the dismissive stance of law enforcement agencies and organisations.Moreover, the anticipation of enduring physical, emotional, and financial distress serves as a deterrent.The study contends that the normalization of trolling within the realm of professional online discourse compels women journalists to downplay its impact, leading them to prefer non-legal strategies over formal legal interventions.It recommends the integration of legal education into media literacy training at the organizational, governmental, and educational levels to challenge the normalization of online incivility and foster greater confidence in the legal system as an effective mechanism to combat online harassment.