## Sports Journalism, Interns and #MeToo - did anything change?

## HEIDI RØSOK-DAHL

Oslomet

## KRISTIN SKARE ORGERET

Oslomet

## Abstract

Norwegian news media were central actors in the dissemination of  information  about  the  #MeToo  movement.  Simultaneously,  the media are made up of institutions and workplaces that are at times characterized by asymmetrical power relations. The aim of this article is to understand how those considered at the bottom of such power relations:  young  (female)  interns  in  the  sports  journalism  departments, experienced the effects of the #MeToo movement. Addressing the  question  if  #MeToo  changed  anything,  this  article  emphasizes the importance of combining the position that sexual harassment is not necessarily associated with a specific gender, at the same time recognizing that such harassment has first and foremost been part of a structural suppression of women. The article illustrates how facets of  the  journalistic  culture  and  the  myth  of  the  'male  genius'  have marginalized those with unequal access to power in sports journalism, but also that the #MeToo movement has the potential to change this.

## KEYWORDS

#MeToo #sports journalism #temporality #power #sexual harassment #working conditions

## Introduction

The #MeToo movement gave attention to structural sexual harassment and assault experienced by women worldwide. The campaign started in the USA, October 2017, by actress Alyssa Milano and spread rapidly through hashtag activism, inspiring story-sharing, solidarity with survivors, and challenging a culture of pervasive sexual misconduct and harassment. #MeToo gave new life to the women's movement and especially to the understanding and rectifying of sexual harassment, abuse and assault. In doing so,  it  galvanized  activists around the globe (Clair et al. 2019). The campaign emphasized how asymmetric  power  relations  are  central  to  sexual  harassment  and quickly resulted in a huge global media coverage, also in the Nordic countries. In the USA, the #MeToo movement revealed many cases of  harassment  and  misconduct  towards  journalist  interns  swept under the rug (Gutierrez 2018). In the USA Today , Editor Jill Geisler wrote as follows:

Dear Interns: We owe you an apology. Through the years, we presumed  we  prepared  you  well  for  those  semesters  of  on-the-job training. In our 'You can do this!' pep talks, we didn't raise the possibility you'd face sexual harassment on the job. And now, as the #MeToo era has dawned, we know what a mistake that was. We've learned that workplace sexual misconduct is about abuse of power. And those with the least power are the most vulnerable. (Geisler 2018)

There is little reason to believe that young Norwegian interns are better off than their colleagues in the USA. A survey conducted by the Norwegian Union of Journalists confirms that there was an overrepresentation of #MeToo episodes among young women in the media, and especially those with temporary contracts (Idås, Orgeret & Backholm 2020). Thus, in this article we propose to put spotlight on the individuals often considered at the very bottom of the journalistic hierarchy - the interns. Taking the gendered aspects of journalism as its starting point, this article is focusing on sports journalism in particular. The background inspires the research question of this article, namely:

## Are young journalist interns experiencing different conditions in the Norwegian sports newsrooms after the #MeToo campaign?

With that question, this article is addressing the changing awareness of sexual harassment in Norwegian media houses. Did #MeToo have an effect on the sports newsrooms in terms of practical planning, information flows, policies or other initiatives in relation to the interns? And how did the interns experience these changes, if any? In  order  to  study  these  questions,  we  have  carried  out  qualitative in-depth interviews with a selection of young journalists on shortterm contracts in the sports departments of the key media houses in Norway. Before going to our findings and discussions, we will start with an overview of the methods applied and some of the existing research on the gendered nature of journalism as well as on the division of labor in media houses.

## Methodology and central concepts

In this article, we are particularly interested in the summer interns in the sports departments of the media houses, as our hypothesis is that female temporary workers may in particular be exposed to harassment in the male-dominated fields of journalism, such as sports journalism. In fact, some of the first #MeToo stories from Norwegian media  houses  came  from  sports  departments,  and  therefore,  it  is interesting to dig deeper into this specific area of journalism.

Hence,  the  sports  departments  of  selected  Norwegian  media houses were chosen for two main reasons: We wanted to examine specific branches of the media that hire a lot of summer (or winter) interns.  And  secondly,  as  sports  journalism,  by  tradition,  is  considered to be a male-dominated arena (Boyle 2006, Djerf-Pierre & Löfgren-Nilsson 2004), we find it of particular interest to investigate how issues related to sexual harassment are handled in these departments of the media houses. Our use of the concept 'sexual harassment' is  defined  by  four  elements  (Sletteland  &  Helseth  2018),  of which the first one is essential, and the degree of the three following elements will indicate the seriousness of the situation:

1. Lack of mutual consent
2. Unequal power relations

3. Difficult to escape the situation
4. Repetitive behavior

Most of all, this definition sees sexual harassment as a result of the abuse of power. It argues that the most powerful person is considered to have the highest degree of responsibility, and probably that those with least power are the most vulnerable. This is what we want to further examine empirically. Our focus will be on young interns, as studies find that this group has experienced the highest degree of harassment (NJ 2017, Idås, Orgeret & Backholm 2020). In order to address the research question and harvest more knowledge of how young interns are experiencing the very first working step in

their  journalistic  career,  this  study  builds  on  semi-structured, qualitative in-depth interviews with a selection of young temporarily employed journalists. One group consists of young journalists who worked in Norwegian media in the summer/winter of 2018, the second group consists of interns who held similar positions in 2016/17, the year before #MeToo. The third group consists of journalists who worked both before and after the #MeToo campaign.

Our discussion is based on the findings from these qualitative indepth interviews. We carried out a total of 18 qualitative in-depth interviews with former interns of the sports departments of some of the major media houses in Norway. 12 of the interviewees are men, 6 are women. They have all read and signed a form stating that the data will be stored safely, and that their name or workplace will not be mentioned. We present quotes from the interviews, but the origin of the quote, including the actual media house of any particular person, is anonymized. To any young journalist starting their career, this is a crucial circumstance.

The  semi-structured  interviews  followed  an  interview  guide  in order that all interviewees would answer the same questions, and at the same time, it enabled us to investigate the distinctiveness of each individual interview. The interviews were conducted over a period from May to June 2019, most of them by both authors of this article, a few by one of us alone. The 18 interviews provided us with interesting data on aspects of the young interns or freelancers' daily lives in Norwegian media institutions.

To  identify  and  approach  the  people  who  had  been  working as  summer  interns  in  the  sports  departments  of  the  major  media houses in Norway, we were assisted by professionals responsible for these departments, either editors or people working in the Human Relations departments. We also soon realized that young interns in the sports departments usually have a specific contract covering the winter period, and we chose to extend our selection to include these interns. The majority of the interns interviewed by us were working in the summer/winter of 2017 (before #MeToo) as well as after the winter of 2017, and a small number (three people) only worked as journalists  (for  the  first  time)  in  the  summer/winter  of  2018,  after #MeToo. The interviews were conducted either in person at the Oslo Metropolitan  University,  or  as  phone  interviews.  The  interviews lasted between 30 minutes and a little more than one hour and were all recorded, transcribed and safely stored.

The main research question that we want to investigate is whether young summer/winter interns did experience significantly different conditions in the sports newsrooms after the #MeToo campaign. We combined a set of questions focusing on any changed routines and how the interns did themselves experience these changes (if any). These  questions  were  combined  with  a  set  of  very  specific  questions that were part of the Norwegian Union of Journalists' survey (in appendix). Using semi-structured interviews we were able to follow up on themes that were particularly interesting during the course of the interview, and to get some rather spontaneous answers. Interview data are incorporated in the article both as paraphrases and as direct quotes.

## The gendered nature of journalism and the division of labor in media production

In  the  light  of  previous  research  on  gender  and  journalism  in the  Nordic  countries  (Djerf-Pierre  &  Löfgren-Nilsson  2004,  Eide  & Orgeret 2016, Melin-Higgins 2004), we know that journalism evolved as  a  male-dominated  field  and  remained  as  such  for  a  long  time. Monica Djerf-Pierre (2007) describes how the field of journalism is defined as  the  nexus  of  three  overarching  social  forces  -  political, economic and professional dynamics - and that the gender order of the field reflects the relative weight of these forces at any given point in time. According to Djerf-Pierre, an empirical analysis of the field is centered around four main questions: (1) what positions have men and women been given access to during different periods of time, (2) what types of capital have men and women accumulated, (3) how images  and  perceptions  of  'good'  journalism  have  become  gendered over time and what positions, media and genres of journalism that have been associated with status/prestige as well as to what extent this social status branding is gendered, and (4) to what extent the struggle in the field has been gendered and what strategies and tactics have been employed in that struggle. From this perspective, the question of who is in power is important, or as described by Liesbet van Zoonen:

the challenge is to 'theorize the multiplicity of relations of subordinations' and to analyse how in these relations of subordination individual and collective identities, such as gender and ethnicity, are being constituted. Gender and power then, although both very much  in  debate,  form  the  constituents  of  feminist  theory.  (van

Zoonen 1994: 4)

Van Zoonen's argument that the present definition of news in general, and sports news in particular, is in its nature closer to a general definition of masculinity, is of particular interest for this article. The gendered nature of sports journalism and how sports media have by tradition  marginalized  women  have  been  studied  by  scholars  like Marie Hardin and Erin Whiteside (2009), and the harassment and hostility endured by many women in sports departments have drawn attention in recent years (Antunovic 2017, Harrison 2018). Harrison discusses  how sports broadcasting maintains a structure in which women remain qualitatively and quantitatively marginalized, partly due to the burden of affective labor which causes women to leave or not fully commit to the industry. The psychosocial implications that women must grapple with because of the industry's (in)action are serious (Harrison 2018). Furthermore, as gender, age and position within the institution intersect, it is interesting to discuss how these intersections affect the questions of harassment and abuse of power.

In recent years, we have seen an excessive increase in the use of temporary  employees  in  Norwegian  media  houses  (Flaarønning

2018).  Many  media  houses  depend  on  the  work  of  interns,  when the regular staff go on leave or holiday. In the sports departments of  the  media houses, winter interns are also frequently hired for a few months, due to the high sports activity in the winter season. Furthermore,  journalist  students  and  others  consider  an  internship  a valuable phase in the first steps of their journalistic career. Experiences  from  internship  periods  are  an  important,  yet  under-examined component of journalism practice. However, numerous studies emphasize the difficulties for journalists who do not have permanent employment (Mathisen 2017, Edström & Ladendorf 2012, Massey & Elmore 2011). The division of labor in media production and how the number of freelance journalists has increased radically (e.g. Edström & Ladendorf 2012) have been given important academic attention. The double-edged nature of short-term work, generating contradicting experiences of autonomy and vulnerability and how temporary journalists often must adjust to the demands of their principals, has been  studied  (Gollmitzer  2014,  Graver  Knudsen  &  Røe  Mathisen 2019, Røe Mathisen 2017, Witschge & Nygren 2015). The interns in this study hold a two- to four-month contract, and after expiry they normally have to wait for the next 'season' when they can renew it.

As  Davis  Hesmondhalgh  argues,  many  temporary  workers  are 'aspirant  workers,  who  are  seeking  working  security,  recognition, autonomy and the chance to make their own talents and creative abilities central to their working lives' (2015: 11). This clearly goes for the interns we are studying. Internship is often seen as an opportunity to establish a working relationship that may lead to a job offer at a later stage. In Norway, interns are supposed to be paid according to nation-wide established fixed rates, and the challenge of economic exploitation  is  less  present  than  in  many  other  countries  (see  e.g. Hesmondhalg 2015). However, the constraints of income insecurity are as tangible as elsewhere, since short-term contracts may complicate  economic  planning  for  the  future.  Furthermore,  including a  multidimensional approach that combines both gender and age reminds us of how such structures often do not function independently, but must be understood as a whole. Findings show that young women are much more likely to be sexually harassed than their more mature colleagues: 'Being female and younger than 29 years of age were reported as factors significantly associated with workplace bullying. ' (Freischlag & Faria 2018)

## Did anything change? Information routines

In Norway, the first phase of the #MeToo campaign was considered successful in the way that the media focused first and foremost on the need for structural change and on norms, rather than pointing at and identifying individuals (Orgeret 2019). The campaign started a dialogue on how, especially women, were treated in organizations, but also how sexual harassment organizes gendered discrimination. In Norway, the control of the press is mainly a self-control, and the professional journalist identity is to a large degree associated with the ethical  norms  that  are  based  on  the  self-imposed  ethical  rules,  as described in the so-called 'Be Cautious' Poster (Vær Varsom Poster -  VVP), and the concept of the journalistic media as a social institution with public commitments. The question as to how the media undertook their role as an employer and a possible #MeToo arena is highly relevant.

In  order  to  get  more  information  on  the  possible  changes  that #MeToo brought about in the sports departments that we studied, we asked the informants if they received any information from their employer  on  sexual  harassment,  and  how  it  should  be  addressed if  experienced. We asked them what kind of introduction the firsttimers received when they started in their new position, and if there was any focus on sexual harassment at all. Before the #MeToo wave, there was no - or very little - focus on sexual harassment in intern introductions.

We did receive quite a lot of various training, on writing programs, editing. There was nothing on sexual harassment. Nothing. (Interviewee, female)

One  young  woman  remembered  that  when  she  arrived  at  the sports department for an internship before #MeToo, she was introduced by a woman who told her to say, if 'anything unacceptable' should happen to her. In situations where (one or more) male colleagues were known to be a problem in terms of unwanted sexual attention, the norm seemed to be to tell the young female intern 'to watch out' . In this way, it was the responsibility of each individual female to avoid any circumstances that could lead to unpleasant sit- uations. The unacceptable was thereby accepted, indirectly. #MeToo introduced a definite change in the way the interns were met by their workplace:

The following summer, things had changed. Definitely. All the summer interns were informed in a plenary meeting. If anything happened to us or others, the smallest thing, we were to tell. (Interviewee, female)

When the interns arrived the first summer after #MeToo, there was this  big  thing  with  the  bosses  telling  about  the  zero  tolerance  of sexual harassment, and whom to report to if anything happened. That was all well, it is really good to inform the newcomers. However, I feel that some of the old men here should have received that same speech, too. (Interviewee, female)

When the summer weeks came, there was a full training in what #MeToo meant. A 'Be very cautious' poster was introduced as part of the introduction course. The editorial staff was told: - If anybody sees or hears anything. Do tell. (Interviewee, male)

'Be very cautious' refers to the standard ethical code of the Norwegian  press  -  the  'Be  cautious  poster'  mentioned  above  and focused on sexual harassment. Other informants told us that some people found the 'Be very cautious' poster on the walls of the media house somewhat ridiculous, and quite a few laughed about it. We also asked whether there were any other ways the informants had noticed a particular focus on fighting sexual harassment at the workplace after #MeToo.

Well, yes, in a way. We recently had an early summer party organized by the press club (a division of the Labour Union). They have now put a stop to the free bar, because of fear of #MeToo. (Interviewee, female)

A  central  finding  is  that  it  has  become  much  more  common  to inform the new journalist interns about sexual harassment and the routines to follow when reporting unacceptable behavior. However, the informants told us that they received little information about the procedures that followed any such reporting. This goes in line with the general tendencies in society, when how to handle sexual harassment reporting was a burning issue, also in high-profile cases on political top level (Sletteland & Orgeret 2019, 2020).

## The myth of 'the male genius' in the sports departments

The  most  severe  incidents  of  sexual  harassment  in  the  sports departments happened in settings that involved alcohol consumption in work-related situations. The informants argued that the sports departments were different than other news departments, as coverage of championships both abroad and nationwide, often far away from  the  everyday  workplace,  involved  long  working  hours  often followed by drinks among colleagues in a less formal setting. At the same time, they also found that studying the situation of the interns in  the  sports  departments could add important information about the most vulnerable individuals on the journalistic ladder, and hence about  the  journalistic  field  as  such.  Before  #MeToo,  stories  about male  colleagues  telling  dirty  jokes,  commenting  on  the  bodies  of female colleagues or even touching their breasts or other parts of the body at any such events or work-related parties were frequent in the sports departments.

It  was  seen  as  humorous.  Nobody thought about asking the one who was harassed whether she was ok with it. It was more a supporting pat on the guy's shoulder. There has been a radical change. It would never happen that openly today. (Interviewee, male)

Several informants stressed that silent acceptance of any pestering was not taken for granted anymore. In this way, #MeToo implied a radical change in terms of acceptance.

The question of who is able to speak and be heard is highly relevant here. In addition to the fact that you did not have to accept being bullied anymore, our interviewees also told us that people would listen to those who reported it in a new and different way. It was easier to be taken seriously when reporting on misbehavior, and the 'male genius' types could not take their protected status for granted anymore.

However, this did not mean that sexual harassment had completely disappeared in the sports departments. In one of the media houses where we carried out several interviews, almost all informants mentioned one particular recent case that happened at a party with the employees of the sports department when a male senior employee openly harassed a young female intern. Several of the other informants who witnessed the incident felt that the superiors did not do enough after this particular episode.

When such a serious case happens, it should have consequences. We were several young interns who didn't think it was ok. (Interviewee, female)

As the incident happened openly, several colleagues reported it to the managers in the sports department. Quite a few of the whistleblowers were disappointed that the incident seemed to have little actual  consequence for the harasser and that he was still working with the same topic areas or 'beats' as they are called.

It happens every six months with new interns. Even the bosses saw it. 'Oh God, him again. Will he never change?' However, he is still there. (Interviewee, male)

It turned out that if the harasser was a person with a high standing in the sports department, it was much harder to be heard when speaking  up  about  aggressive  behavior.  This  may  be  associated with  the  protection  of  the  so-called  'artistic  genius' ,  which  in  the sports departments is often linked to journalistic and/or commercial success and echoes experiences from other parts of the media field when the myth of an artistic and commercial genius was often used to excuse abusive behavior. Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is an obvious - but not unique - example. 'Genius is power' , Aditi Kini argues and continues:

It  is  unquantifiable,  uncontainable,  and  like  beauty,  exists  in  the eyes  of  the  beholder.  Genius  enhances  access-sexual,  social, economic, political. It is a collective agreement-or, in many cases, a collective lie-that grants boundless latitude to those we anoint with the title. But genius is also an indelibly gendered currency used by men-almost always men-of means and success to purchase license. The lie of genius is inextricable from the lie of meritocracy: Culture dictates that these men have risen to fame and success because of their unstoppable genius. (Kini 2018)

The interviewees told about abusive men who were admired in the sports departments because of their journalistic successes. Such veneration may both foster and excuse a 'culture of toxic masculinity' (Kini 2018, NYT 2017), and will continue as long as colleagues and surroundings believe that their professional contributions outweigh their  individual  transgressions.  The  #MeToo  campaign  introduced more awareness of how the protection of the successes of the 'male genius' may happen at the expense of the humanity and potential of the people who were silenced, erased and preyed upon. The essence of our findings is that there has been a noticeable change of mindsets  since  #MeToo  happened,  and  we  find  a  significant  difference between  the  experiences  of  the  pre  #MeToo  interns  and  the  post #MeToo interns. However, as long as the workplaces do not take their statutory responsibility as an employer seriously, it is still possible for some powerful actors to misbehave, and in such situations, the temporary employees are particularly vulnerable.

## Working as an intern

When asked whether the first meeting with the sports department lived  up  to  their  expectations,  some  of  the  interns  answered:  Yes. However, quite a few described the atmosphere in the sports department  as  'more  brutal'  than  they  expected.  For  most  of  the  interviewees, this was their very first meeting with journalism outside the school setting.

It was somewhat rougher than what I expected. The climate was harsher. This might sound naïve. I knew it would be a tough and demanding job, that people had high expectations, and still it was much tougher. (Interviewee, male)

All the informants expressed that in general, to complain or report on work-related issues, either #MeToo-related or other, is far more demanding for a temporary employee than for someone with a permanent position. One informant told us:

You quickly realize the performance culture. You have to perform very well! I was one of very few female summer interns and that involved even higher expectations of me. I had to deliver. Prove that I could learn. I felt I did not get as much help or training as the boys did. It was a pressure that made me feel a little uncomfortable, but I thought - well, this is how it is. It is a shame in fact. You don't want to complain. You shut up and do your best. (Interviewee, female)

Several informants said that rather than experiencing a culture of harassment they experienced a culture of favoritism and sexism. A 'boys' culture' , in which it was hard to be included as a woman.

It seemed like a men's club. They were sitting in big groups talking. About the nude picture of a local star. About masturbation. That kind of thing. It was very unprofessional. Inappropriate. (Interviewee, female)

Some felt that the culture was changing and argued that the typical 'sports department macho culture' dated a few years back. Others described how the macho behavior often included the abuse of power in general.

It was loud and ostentatious. Extreme. With a high temperature in the room. To some it seemed almost like a sport yelling at young interns when they made a mistake. (Interviewee, male)

Also, several of the young male interns described such harassment experiences and how difficult it was to raise their voice against it. In general, it was a problem to complain or even to present documentation of overtime work. The feeling of vulnerability was shared across genders.

We do not  dare  to  tell  things  the  same  way  as  people  who  are securely employed would. I'm just a substitute. Will I be seen as 'trouble' if I tell this? As a result, you become very insecure. (Interviewee, female)

As long as you know it is so easy for them to get rid of you, I guess many are reluctant to speak out. We live a little on the edge. You have to be careful. (Interviewee, male)

In  recent  years,  the  use  of  temporary  employees  in  sports  journalism has exploded (Flaarønning 2018), and several of our informants felt that the media houses tend to take advantage of the system to  exploit  staff  without  a  permanent  position.  Some  described the situation of not being a full-fledged member of the department as 'exhausting' and 'disconcerting' .

## From the individual to the structural?

Most of our informants worked as interns both before and after the introduction of #MeToo. All of them agreed that some things have indeed changed after the #MeToo campaign.

My experience is that there is more awareness of sexual harassment. Maybe the sports department is special, there are a lot of men, making a bit fun of the #MeToo campaign, but these things are, as I see it, clearly on the 'ok' side of it. (Interviewee, male)

Several of the informants spoke about what they referred to as a 'shift in generations' , and many expressed that they felt real change was happening. Some also described how the campaign had served as a 'wake-up call' .

It was very good that the #MeToo campaign came about. I feel like I hadn't thought that way before. It led to a kind of change in how I saw things. (Interviewee, female)

From the interviews, we observe a clear change from a phase pre #MeToo when it was more common to make the individual (young) woman responsible for not being harassed. In particular when travelling to cover sports events, young women reporters could be taken aside by an elderly colleague and told to watch out for a specific sen- ior male colleague. One example shows how these experiences were routine and normalized - here shared with us by an informant:

- I just want to warn you about him. He is a little pushy. You know. We all know that he is a bad guy who chases young interns. That's just the way he is. (Interviewee, female)

Several  young  women  informed  how  they  were  nervous  about travelling  with  one  or  two  particular  male  colleagues.  However, they did not dare to turn down the chance to travel, because they felt that it would then seem like they were not really interested in the job. Vohlídalová (2015) links the lack of awareness of and reactions to sexual harassment to a gender ideology that actively legitimates sexual harassment. She argues that an example of legitimation may be  the  tendency  to  trivialize  and  belittle  sexual  harassment  and its  impact  on  targets,  to  prevent  forms  of  behavior  that  are  legally defined as being sexual harassment being defined as such. This is further reflected in the tendency to shift the solution of sexual harassment from the institutional (i.e. organization action) to the individual level. After the influx of #MeToo, it is to a much larger degree seen as the duty of the media institution as an employer to prevent sexual  harassment  instead  of  the  burden  of  each  individual.  The campaign has, at  least  partly,  brought  sexual  harassment  from  an individual to a structural level, and this is crucial if institutions and societies are to fight against it in an efficient manner that does not suppress those who are harassed. Although the general impression is that the situation has improved when it comes to routines within the media houses, there are still a lot of interns that do not feel comfortable with whistleblowing/reporting episodes to their superiors.

## Who left?

In addition to the emotional toll it takes on individuals, abuse of power and sexual harassment also limits women's participation in the media industry or imbues this participation with a sense of fear and intimidation, as editor Moira Wyton reminds us (in Cohen 2018). Abuse of power and sexual harassment are costly affairs, also to the media institutions, and even detrimental to societies in general, as the result may be that some important voices and perspectives are lost. This is the perspective of Reut Cohen:

While  an  individual  incident  might  not  have  lasting  repercussions,  experiencing  a  pattern  of  harassment  over  years  has  likely prompted many women to reconsider their careers, if not abandon the  industry  entirely.  Was  a  life  in  media  worth  it?  I  wondered  if there were other aspiring journalists who shared my anxieties. Had these scandals made them reconsider their career plans? (Cohen 2018)

Often, it is difficult to study 'what is not there' , and challenging to get the views and stories of those who decided to leave, or decided not to continue a career that was just starting. In our material, one young woman did in fact leave the sports department:

I left the sports department. That was nothing for me, regarding the atmosphere that ruled. I am not a typical tomboy. I did not like it at all. Sports journalism is just not very tempting anymore. (Interviewee, female)

Karianne Solbrække, chief editor of TV 2, the biggest commercial broadcaster in Norway, was very outspoken when confronted with the fact that several employees were fired in the sports department of TV 2 in 2017:

- I realize that I become so furious about the fact that pitiful men have kept going for so many years without anyone reacting. That is the problem, that a few idiots have been able to ravage without anyone interfering. They have taken advantage of their power and position to destroy young female interns. (VG 2017).

## Men being harassed - still a taboo?

After years of increasing awareness of the importance of moving away from narrow, stereotyped gender categories (van Zoonen 1994, Eide & Orgeret 2016), some have expressed a fear that media's #MeToo coverage would return to an essentialist type of coverage in which men are represented as active and violent agents, whereas women are passive, vulnerable victims. The vast majority of the #MeToo cases support this statement, as they are about women being harassed by men. However, it is important to bear in mind that the definition of sexual harassment we make use of here is gender neutral and does not exclude the possibility of women harassing men or of same-sex harassment. In interviews, some young male interns also informed that they experienced episodes that were 'unpleasant' . Interestingly, they were often reluctant to categorize it as a '#MeToo case' on the spot. Looking back, several of our male interviewees realized that the unpleasant experiences were in fact related  to  sexual  harassment. Here the questions from the Norwegian Union of Journalists' survey (NJ  2017  and  appendix)  were  very  useful.  Taking  the  interviewees through the list of questions, some of them realized that they were exposed to behavior they experienced as annoying and unasked for.

There  was  this  get-together  with  another  division  and  a  woman who used to work with me introduced me jokingly to some of her colleagues: 'He is a real #MeToo man, watch out for him!' I hardly knew her. And then she left the room. I should have said No! I did not. It was not ok. (Interviewee, male)

There  are  complex  reasons  why  women  and  men  relate  differently to sexual harassment. Traditionally, the fear of rape is always ruminating in the back of a woman's head; in many cultures she is taught at a very young age to take precautions in order to avoid acts of  violence  or  harassment  (Sletteland  &  Helseth  2018).  The  young male interns made it clear during the interviews that there is little general awareness of the possibility that men may feel harassed in our society, and some expressed the lack of language or of possible patterns of reaction when men are sexually harassed. As one young male intern put it: 'Being a man you have very little choice, but to laugh at it' .

I had an experience at a party with colleagues from several media houses. I was dancing with a woman who worked at another place. She put her hands in my crotch. There was a lot of alcohol involved. I might have been a part of it, too. (...) I got a kind of acceptance, however, for the fact that what she had done was not ok (...) I did not exactly feel harassed. But if this would have happened every time  I  went  to  a  party  with  this  person,  well,  maybe  something should have been done about it. And I would definitely have seen this differently if the person was my superior. (Interviewee, male)

Our informants revealed a few examples of incidents when young male interns had experienced 'unpleasant episodes' that, looking back, may have been in the category of sexual harassment. However, while young female interns had been given a tool to address issues of  sexual  harassment  through  the  #MeToo  campaign,  young  men seemed to be in a very early phase of discovering the language and words used to address it, what they described as 'unpleasant' or just 'not ok' .

In the discussions about the impact of #MeToo, some expressed fear that putting spotlight on the few incidents when men are harassed or pressured, it could take the attention away from the importance of  the  entire  #MeToo  campaign.  This  echoes  what  has  been described  as  the  #MeToo  movement's  absolute  aim:  'making  the world safer for women by ensuring women are free from sexual harassment,  abuse,  assault  and  rape'  (Burnett  2018).  Many  feminists were strong supporters of the #MeToo movement, precisely because it  seemed to provide a strong antidote to centuries of dismissal of women's voicing of existing discrimination, inequality, sexual harassment,  and  even  sexual  violence  towards  women.  At  the  same time, many of them also objected to viewing women 'as so fragile and  vulnerable  in  their  professional  identity  that  they  need  to  be protected from simple compliments for their appearance' (Monroe 2019). It makes sense to see the #MeToo movement as a complex and multifaceted entity including points of tension. Arguments associated with how the experiences of LGBTQIA communities have been largely obscured by the #MeToo campaign (see e.g. Ison 2019) are relevant here. To move forward in these discussions we find the powerful statement of Wencke Mühleisen fruiful:

It is true that harassment and sexual assault have no race, no class, no religion or nationality, but it has in fact a gender that is strongly overrepresented. (Mühleisen 2018)

Furthermore  an  important  point  to  take  further  is  the  fact  that sexual harassment is first of all a type of power abuse that may hit anybody independently of gender.

## Conclusion: #MeToo - a turning point?

#MeToo  has  been  called  the  most  important  thing  for  gender equality since the women's right to vote. In Norway, the movement has  breathed  new  life  into  the  22  year-old  ban  on  sexual  harassment and has driven the support for those experiencing such abuse of power at their workplace. Intense discussions on what the reactions of an employer or organization to abuse of power should be, and whether the changes that #MeToo introduced are viable, are still going on in the Nordic countries. A central objective of the #MeToo campaign was to achieve social change by highlighting the fact that sexual harassment and assault are still well-known phenomena to be addressed. Two and a half years after the introduction of #MeToo in Norway, we find that certain changes have occurred in the sports departments of Norwegian media houses. Given the relatively early stage of the movement, it is difficult at this point to draw any definitive conclusions on its 'success' . However, it is clear that the introduction of #MeToo in Norway has started a change in the mindset of the sports departments and other newsrooms and led to a situation that sexual harassment is now more and more seen as abuse of power, as it truly is. Furthermore, #MeToo initiated changes within the sports newsrooms  in  terms  of  practical  planning  and  information  flows. We found that it has become much more common to inform young journalist interns about sexual harassment and the routines to follow when reporting unacceptable behavior, increased control over the alcohol consumption in work-related settings as well as an increased awareness of not just silently accept or approve of a distressing situation. After the introduction of #MeToo, there is a wider tendency to see it as the duty of the media institution as an employer to prevent sexual harassment. Our findings support that the campaign has helped to see sexual harassment as a structural problem rather than the responsibility of each individual.

According  to  Djerf-Pierre's  (2007)  view  of  the  gender  order  of the journalistic field as a reflection of the relative weight of various forces, we saw how #MeToo brought forward questions of who is able to speak and be heard. Our analysis of the most vulnerable individuals in a news organization points at a continuous need to consider unwanted sexual attention and sexual harassment as a problem of the entire workplace culture, and not just of each individual. Our empirical  findings  show  the  constraints  that  young  women  in  the  sports media were forced to  endure,  as  well  as  structural  underpinnings that gain from asymmetrical power relations. Even in Norway, one of the most gender egalitarian countries in the world (UNDP 2020), temporary workers in news departments needed to develop 'thick skin' in order to survive. On the face of it, our overview suggests that the #MeToo campaign has introduced a change in our awareness of sexual harassment. Yet, the interviews pay testimony to how revolutionary it still is in our society to take care of the vulnerable part first, and also that being vulnerable is not necessarily associated with gender. If the signs of a changing mindset in the news departments really mean that norms are changing, and that what was silently accepted before is no longer accepted, it can be seen as a bona fide improvement of the journalistic culture. Paraphrasing Mahatma Gandhi who said that a society's greatness is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable members, we argue that the reactions to the situation of interns in the sports departments may be seen as a pointer to the present circumstances of equal rights, also in more general terms in Norwegian news rooms.

## NOTES

- 1 The #MeToo campaign started as early as 2006 when US citizen Tarana Burke introduced the slogan 'me too' to raise awareness of sexual abuse and solidarity among vulnerable women in poor neighborhoods. However, not many people heard of the campaign in the rest of the world, until the fall of 2017.
- 2 In  fact,  some  of  the  interns  worked  during  winter  as  well,  however  the majority were hired during the summer.

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## APPENDIX

## Questions from the Norwegian Union of Journalists' survey (somewhat modified to fit our purpose):

Have you been subjected to sexual harassment or abuse at work or in the course of your work or in other contexts where colleagues were gathered? Did you witness other temps being subjected to sexual harassment or abuse? Who was the harasser?

Have you been exposed to any of the following? Yes/Yes, more than once/No Unwanted comments about your body, clothes, style?

Unwanted comments with sexual content?

Pictures or films of a sexual nature, that you did not want to see?

The spread of sexual rumors about you?

Sexually charged staring or other unwanted eye contact?

Unwanted phone calls or messages with sexual content?

Unwanted sexually charged physical contact?

Unwanted sexual approaches?

Requests for sexual services with promise of reward?

Requests for sexual services with threats of punishment?

Sexual assault, attempted rape or rape?

## HEIDI RØSOK-DAHL

Assistant Professor

Department of Journalism and Media Studies

OsloMet

Postboks 4, St. Olavs plass, 0130 Oslo, Norway heidro@oslomet.no

## KRISTIN SKARE ORGERET

Professor, Dr. Art.

Department of Journalism and Media Studies

OsloMet

Postboks 4, St. Olavs plass, 0130 Oslo, Norway kristin.orgeret@oslomet.no