Acoustic Academic: Sonic Stories from Social Sciences Maria Murumaa-Mengel

Several studies have established that female journalists experience (sexual) harassment and online abuse considerably more than their male colleagues. Understandably, this has resulted in a gap in research – male journalists’ experiences with abusive online communication have not yet been thoroughly studied. This paper seeks to understand how abusive communication is contextualised and defined by male journalists in the context of hegemonic masculinity, and to explore which coping strategies are employed to overcome such experiences. From qualitative in-depth interviews with male journalists (n = 15), we found that participants considered different forms of abusive online communication from readers/sources a normalised practice, “feedback” that one must just ignore or overcome. Experiences are interpreted predominantly in the frame of hegemonic (complicit) masculinity, but the results also indicate that shifts in these rigid norms are emerging and can be embraced when acknowledged and supported by surrounding structures.


The episode is based on this academic publication:
Riives, A, Murumaa-Mengel, M. & Ivask, S. (2021). Estonian Male Journalists’ Experiences with Abusive Online Communication. Sociální studia/Social Studies: Media Representations and Narratives of Masculinities Across Europe, 18(2): 31-47

In 2012, I was planning to tackle the subject of arguably the “worst” of the online nightmare audiences for my PhD project, aiming to study young people’s perceptions and experiences with online predators (Murumaa-Mengel, 2015). Knowing that face-to-face interviews could become stressful and awkward if carried out in the traditional question-answer format with rigid researcher-participant roles, I was seeking a method that would give participants editorial control, the opportunity to sort their thoughts in peace, have time for expressing themselves, and collaborate in the interpretation of the data. This short article is based on my experiences in exploring the potential of creative research methods (CRMs) in the context of sensitive topics. Visual abstract is available HERE.


The episode is based on this academic publication: Murumaa-Mengel, M. (2022). Visual creative research methods and young people’s perceptions of online risks. In: S. Kotilainen (Ed.), Methods in practice: Studying children and youth online (chapter 8). CO:RE Network.

While the excessive use of social media is associated with many difficulties in daily life (including mental health problems), the topic can be overemphasised in the media, and there is no reason to consider social media use in itself as the root cause of problems in daily life.


The episode is based on this academic publication:

Rozgonjuk, D., Täht, K., Sinivee, R. & Murumaa-Mengel, M. (2023). Social media use and mental health. In: M Sisask, K. Konstabel, K. Pärna, D. Kutsar, K. Tiidenberg, H. Sooväli-Sepping (Eds.). Estonian Human Development Report 2023. Mental Health and Well-Being. Estonian Cooperation Assembly.

As social life and communication move increasingly online, we have experienced the expansion of online shaming – different forms of (semi)public cross-platform condemnation of people and their actions by (mass) online audiences. Online shamings can be analysed as combinations of reintegrative (shame-correct-forgive) and disintegrative (shame-stigmatise-expel) social sanctioning practices, usually focusing the ‘serious’ disciplinary shaming on the behaviour of the offender. We propose that equal attention should be given to what we have termed ‘recreational shaming’ – humour-based playful collective shaming that often occurs via online platforms, seemingly just for the sake of shaming, motivated mainly by social belonging needs and entertainment gratification.

By combining the results of standardised content analysis of Facebook recreational shaming groups (n = 65) and in-depth qualitative interviews with the ‘modmins’ of the groups (n = 8) we will give an overview of what is being shamed, how groups and modministrators create and enforce rules and what is the socio-cultural perceived meaning of this practice. We distinguish three spheres of recreational shaming that ‘frame the shame’ and demonstrate how recreational online shaming is often more about the self than the other – me performing the act of shaming for entertainment value, to belong in a group. Additionally, we introduce how shaming is used as a self-reflexive tool for behaviour-correction or base knowledge for dominant tastes.

The episode is based on this academic publication:

Murumaa-Mengel, M., & Lott, K. (2023). ‘Recreational shaming groups of Facebook: Content, rules and modministrators’ perspectives’. Convergence, OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231176184