Poynter features UNC Hussman grad Andrea Martin's thesis: Local newsrooms and online harassment

Andrea Martin ’02, '19 (M.A.), a recent graduate of UNC Hussman's online master's degree program, has published an adapted version of her master's thesis in Poynter: “Local newsrooms deal with online harassment daily. Here are 3 things to help ahead of the 2020 elections.” Martin, the director of strategic communications for Duke University’s Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, completed her undergraduate education at UNC Chapel-Hill in 2002. After working in local news then transitioning to a career in public relations, Martin returned to UNC Hussman for the online graduate certificate program and then for her master’s degree via the school’s online M.A. in Digital Communication. Martin was interested in studying how the recent political climate online affects audience feedback, and how that feedback affects journalists in turn. For her thesis, she sought to learn more about the experiences of local newspaper journalists when engaging with audiences online. She surveyed 31 journalists from 23 local newspapers across the United States, along with eight local journalists. She found that more than 90% of journalists have encountered or experienced incivility from their newspaper’s online audiences. In the Poynter article, Martin explains her research and offers three things that local newsrooms can do to prepare for hostile commenters ahead of the 2020 election. Read the article on Poynter here and Martin's original thesis here.