Recorded at the April 2022 Alaska Press Club conference.
Andrew Losowsky – the founding head of Coral, a commenting platform that’s used in more than 500 newsrooms in 28 countries – guides Alaska Press Club members on how they can use their social media platforms to promote their work and engage with their audience, while also keeping them safe.
Prevention Methods
Online threats are real. Harassment, doxxing, trolling are some of the online threats journalists face. There are things you can do to protect yourself from online harm.
Password managers can keep people from hacking into your accounts or devices and/or impersonating you online. Losowsky recommends 1Password for a password manager.
Avoiding basic security questions that malicious actors could figure out the answers to via Google is another way to keep others from accessing your information.
Make sure to not click on any unknown links on both your email and through texts.
To protect against doxxing, Andrew recommends doxxing yourself, this will do an audit on what’s already out in the public so you can be aware of what information on you is available to the public.
Recommended Response
Take screenshots in case you need to report it later on. Block and report the people who are harassing you. Set your account to private if you need to. Ask for help from friends or other people you trust to help you calm down and not feel so alone.
Closing the comments on the articles can also help, especially for pieces where comments aren’t productive.
Only respond to comments if you want to, and if you’re confident there is no threat, the commenter isn’t volatile and if a response won’t escalate the situation.
Take a break and remove yourself from the situation. Perhaps play a little Tetris, Losowsky says.
Resources
Freedom of the Press Foundation guides (recommend this link instead: https://freedom.press/training/ )
Coalition Against Online Violence
PEN America Online Field Manual
Social Media Strategy
No platform is perfect, but Losowsky recommends focusing on the platforms that are most useful to your audience and community. Decide on how you want to engage with people on social media. Here are some ways you can engage:
- respond to genuine questions
- thank people for useful contributions
- highlight good discussions
- listen for new story / source ideas.
Havinga clear strategy will help journalists set boundaries and engage with their communities effectively.
Losowsky advises journalists to match their resources with their ambitions and only make promises they can keep.
To learn more, find the recorded conference event at the top of the article.
Alaska Press Club 