Annotated Bibliography

1. Hess, A. (2014, January 6). Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet. Pacific Standard. Retrieved from http://www.psmag.com

Policy Position. This source has been the starting point for much of the conversation around cyber harassment and stalking. Amanda Hess is a journalist and blogger, and in this groundbreaking article she discusses her experiences in reporting and managing cyber stalking and harassment. She highlights the lack of education and seriousness with which law officials handle most cyber crimes, and shows examples of the regularity with which most female bloggers and journalists face threatening online feedback. This article was useful in my research as it easily summarized a broad and complicated issue. Hess also provided links to other resources and statistics on the subject matter. This article reached limitations because, due to lack of statistics on the subject, it remained mostly anecdotal and although it provided some interesting statistics, there is still a great deal of research to be done. Also Hess’ article falls short in providing any groundbreaking policy change to eradicate or combat cyber harassment and stalking. Her basic appeal is for the masses to continue to speak out and raise awareness on the subject, but she does not provide concrete suggestions for what Internet content providers should change. I believe others could find this article useful for its importance as a starting point for the conversation and awareness of cyber-harassment and stalking.

2. Santana, A. (2014). Virtuous or Vitriolic: The effect of anonymity on civility in online newspaper reader comment boards. Journalism Practice,8,1. doi:10.1080/17512786.2013.813194

Academic Research. This source is an academic report on the effects of anonymity on online newspaper comment boards. This article briefly introduces how and why commenting on newspaper stories began, as well as the direction, benefits and problems this practice entails. The negative effects of commentating anonymously online have been assumed by many newspapers and journals, but little research has been done to provide evidence of this. I found this article useful for its in depth and quantitative reporting on the affects anonymity has on the respect given in online conversation. This article is one of the few, if not the only in depth study, on this subject. It’s ability to provide staggering statistics rather than anecdotal evidence was extremely helpful in making a case against allowing anonymous comments online. Others may find this source useful for the same reason: its ability to provide much needed academic proof of a widely accepted truth. This article fell short only in that there is not much other research done on this subject, so that comparing it to other similar studies is not possible. Also Santana focused his research only on newspaper comment boards, so while one can assume that anonymity would have similar effects in other areas of online conversation, this article does not cover those areas. 3. Working to Halt Online Abuse: Online Harassment /Cyberstalking Statistics. (2014). Working to Halt Online Abuse. Retrieved from http://www.haltabuse.org/resources/stats/index.shtml

Facts and Figures Resource. This website is dedicated to disseminating information about online harassment and cyber stalking. This particular page provided statistics on cyberstalking and harassment for the last 13 years. This information is extremely useful when making a case about how cyber harassment and stalking targets specific genders, and is carried out through certain mediums more than others. As there is very little academic research done on this subject, this source was useful for its ability to provide raw figures. I found this source useful for its ability by the page to categorize the number of reported cases by location, affect, gender and other categories. Working to Halt Online Abuse is a useful website as it is one of the few dedicated to raising awareness and providing support of online abuse. Others would find this source useful for its ability to provide data on a little documented issue. This source reaches limitations as it can only account for the number of cases that are reported through the organization itself. This skews the data to reflect more frequently cases by individuals who reported the crime, and cases that escalated. This source can be useful when collecting data on how often cyber stalking and harassment are reported, but is unable to provide data outside of what is processed through Working to Halt Online Abuse.

4. Fallows, D. (2005, December, 28). How Women and Men Use the Internet. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org

Facts and Figures Resource. This source was useful in that it provided in depth figures and analysis about the changing nature of how women and men use the Internet. This article reported on the differences in patterns of behavior, frequency and comfort of use between men and women online. Fallows broke down these answers into demographic information beyond gender, such as by race, age and income. I found this source useful not only for the vast amount of information it was able to provide on the subject matter, but because I knew that the source was reputable, and the research was conducted whilst acknowledging the limitations of the study. Additionally, this article was based on years of study and research previously conducted at the Pew Research Center. Others would find this source useful if they are interested, from a cultural or sociological standpoint, in the different ways males and females use the Internet. This article, without explicitly stating, is able to guide the reader into forecasting how these differences would continually grow with time, as well as how the different uses between the gender is a reflection of basic genetic hard wired differences. This source was limited in that it was published in 2005 and the behaviors and trends between the sexes have evolved and changed in the past, nearly, ten years.

5. Jennifer Siebel Newsom (Producer). (2011). Miss Representation. Retrieved from http://film.missrepresentation.org Miscellaneous. This documentary is a great source of learning about how the media, in all its aspects affects women, especially young girls. Newsom interviews many high profile actresses, female newscasters, politicians and CEO’s and collects their voices to echo the overwhelming latent sexism that exists in the media. Newsom reports on the historical changes that led women to their achievements today, but brings to light the effects the medias portrayal of women and girls has real life affects on women’s confidence, satisfaction and societal upward mobility. I found this source useful in its ability to emotionally engage me in the statistics and political aspects of feminism. It was also useful to gain a historical understanding of the struggles and achievements that women have accomplished in the recent past. Newsom also provided some suggestions as to how women could combat these stereotypes, organizations where one could become involved in making a difference, and political opportunities for taking a stand. Others would find this source useful in learning about one viewpoint of modern media, and its affects on women. It also brings the achievements and struggles into a broader context to show the relative newness of any progress. This source was limited in that it was focused on getting a particular message across, and was able to choose what information was reported in addition to coloring that information, through sound clips and dramatizations, to reflect its own opinion.