Contemporary audiences have abundant access to news anywhere, anytime and through a wide range of media. Due to the short length of news items, they do not require prolonged attentional focus. Cons...

Much has been written about the difficulty of sexual victimization survivors to disclose their experiences to others and about the crucial role social support play in their recovery process. However, the vast majority of the literature has focused on face-to-face interactions, while in recent years, more and more victims are turning to online self-disclosure, whether privately or as part of proactive network protests such as the #MeToo hashtag campaign. The few existing studies that examined online responses to disclosures of sexual victimization have focused on female survivors only and didn’t examine whether men and women elicit different responses based on gender stereotypes. The current study addresses this lacuna through a quantitative content analysis of 2,635 responses to 734 self-disclosures of male and female survivors of sexual victimization published on Facebook and Twitter during the first 3 weeks of the #MeToo and #WhyIDidntReport protests in Israel (October 2017 and October 2018, respectively). The findings indicate that social networks, despite some of their affordances, such as lack of eye contact or physical gestures, are supportive environments for survivors of sexual victimization of both sexes. However, women who self-disclose online are more likely to receive emotional support and network support, whereas men are more likely to receive retributive support—a new support type that was found in the current study. The conclusion is that users’ reactions to sexual victimization disclosures are mainly supportive but are also affected by gender stereotypes. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Various literature has examined how affordances of online media such as openness and connectivity have constituted digital counterpublics, that is, discursive arenas where members of subordinate social groups invent and circulate oppositional interpretations of their identities. At the same time, and in sharp contrast to the bilateral nature of online media, most of this literature has focused on content produced by the group members only, without addressing neither its acceptance by the hegemonic public nor the internal discursive negotiations surrounding it. Using the Facebook page “Write it down! I’m an Arab” as a case study, the current study examines the role played by reader comments in the formation of networked counterpublics. We found that reader comments expand the counterpublic sphere in two directions: vertical and horizontal. Vertically, they produce an interface between the dominant public sphere and the counterpublic sphere. Horizontally, they function as a discursive arena within the group members.

This study explores how digital humor functions as a form of critique in contexts where overt dissent is constrained. Focusing on memes shared by members of a Facebook support group for Israeli reservist soldiers’ wives during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, the study analyzes how humor helps negotiate personal and collective tensions. Using thematic and critical discourse analysis, we identify four spheres of critique—targeting spouses, social circles, institutions, and broader expectations. These memes convey frustration and resistance not through direct confrontation, but via irony and satire, allowing women to express grievances while remaining aligned with hegemonic national narratives. We conceptualize this as quasi-political expression, where personal complaints, framed humorously, subtly challenge and reinforce dominant discourses. By introducing this concept, the study highlights how individuals in ideologically constrained settings use digital culture not only to resist or reproduce power, but to navigate the blurred boundaries between personal and political life.