How Radio Stars Deal With The Social Media Trolls

If you’re in the spotlight, no doubt you’ll have some haters. It’s not a pleasant job seeing the trolling comments, however the way some of the big radio stars in the country deal with them differs.

While Charli Robinson and Fifi Box, both radio presenters and media personalities, speaking at the National Radio Conference on the Gold Coast last Friday, are both a fan of the ‘block’ when someone says something unnecessarily cruel, Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald, one half of NOVA’s Fitzy and Wippa radio show, believes these people need to be named and shamed.

There are plenty of examples circling the web about people who have screenshotted harsh or disgusting comments and shared them for the world to see.

Journalist Clementine Ford was recently involved in a big issue when she took some rape threats that were sent to her through Facebook messenger and shared them on her public page.

Similarly, Aussie DJ Alison Wonderland just last week named and shamed some trolls who posted rape threats on her Instagram page.

When asked what he does with trolls by moderator Sam Mac, Fitzgerald said he gives them a niggle back.

However Robinson was worried about that kind of activity.

“That’s really dangerous though,” she commented, “because those people, they’re tough on their keyboard, but not emotionally. I sometimes worry these are really vulnerable people and when we, in a power of authority by having a lot of followers, smash them, we’re kind of sending the negative message back to them.”

Cooling some of the disagreement on stage, Ben Fordham, radio and TV personality, said he goes down the passive aggressive route. If someone says something negative or horrible about him, he’ll reply with a ‘why thank you. I couldn’t do this without all your support’ type comment.

Like Robinson, Box is a blocker. However, sometimes just to get the frustration out, she’ll draft a reply. Although never sends it.

While the ways of dealing with haters differed between the radio stars, everyone was in agreement there are definitely some situations, such as the Alison Wonderland one previously mentioned where something needs to be done.

Whether that be a naming and shaming situation or even getting the police involved, situations such as Ford’s and Alison Wonderland’s are not okay.

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