An Intersectional Analysis of U.S. Journalists’ Experiences With Hostile Sources

Given rising hostility toward journalists in the United States, this monograph illuminates how journalists experience hostility from news sources. Drawing on 38 in-depth interviews with U.S. journalists, this project uses the theory of intersectionality to understand how journalists experienced hostility and how they changed their journalistic routines in response. Participants described four forms of hostility from news sources: general distrust of the news media, boundary crossing, safety-violating hostility, and microaggressions. Boundary crossing was primarily used toward younger women, and microaggressions were used toward White women and men and women of color. Although safety-violating hostility occurred least often, it was the most intense form of hostility and was disproportionately experienced by women, whose gender, race, age, tenure, and even their geographical location worked against them to create hostile and unsafe situations. These findings should inform how news editors think about story assignments and reporters’ safety on the job so that editors empathize more with reporters and do away with more dangerous reporting scenarios, such as person-on-the-street interviews and door knocking. Finally, as many reporters were unprepared for the hostility they experienced, journalism instructors should focus on hostility as a reality journalists will likely face in the field.