Women and media

WIN News; Lexington; Autumn 2001; Anonymous;

Volume: 27
Issue: 4
Start Page: 49-54
ISSN: 01457985
Subject Women
Terms: Media
Magazines
Publications
Abstract:
Various articles about women and the media are presented. An article about media monitoring of women and a list of international
women's magazines and publications are mentioned.
Full Text:
Copyright Women's International Network Autumn
2001
GENDER SETTING: NEW AGENDAS FOR MEDIA MONITORING AND ADVOCACY
BY MARGARET GALLAGHER,
ZED BOOKS LTD. 7 Cynthia St. London NI 9JF, UK; or Rm 400, 175 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10010
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Margaret Gallagher is an international media consultant and researcher. Since her first book, Unequal Opportunities: The Case of Women
and the Media (Paris, UNESCO Press, 1981), she has authored numerous analyses of gender patterns in the world's media. Her
consultancy work has included projects for the United Nations Statistics Division, UNIFEM, UNESCO, the International Labour Office,
the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the European Audiovisual Observatory and the World Association for Christian
Communication.
CONTENTS:
"Part I Context: The Case for Monitoring and Advocacy // Catalysts for Monitoring and Action // Part II Experiences: Policy Development
// Fact and Fiction in Media Content // The Advertising World // Gender, Politics and the Media // Media, Violence and Women //
Diversity in Media Content // Part III Approaches: Studying Gender in the Media // Giving Women a Voice // Building Media Literacy //
Part IV Achievements: The Final Analysis // Appendix // References.
FROM: THE CASE FOR MONITORING AND ADVOCACY
Since the 1960s the women's movement has been engaged in a systematic and constant critique of media institutions and their output. In a
world in which the media increasingly provide the 'common ground' of information, symbols and ideas for most social groups, women's
representation in the media helps to keep them in a place of relative powerlessness. The term 'symbolic annihilation/coined by George
Gerbner in 1972, became a powerful and widely used metaphor to describe the ways in which media images render women invisible. This
mediated invisibility is achieved not simply through the non-representation of women's points of view or perspectives on the world. When
women are 'visible' in media content, the manner of their representation reflects the biases and assumptions of those who define the public
- and therefore the media - agenda. More than twenty-five years after the international community began formally to recognise the scale of
gender inequality in every aspect of life, and despite the adoption of many measures to redress gender imbalances, the power to define
public and media agendas is still mainly a male privilege.
At a global level the United Nations International Decade for Women (1975-85) was an early catalyst for both activism and research.
Since the late 1970s this work has revolved round two central axes: a critique of the ways in which media content projects women as
objects rather than as active subjects, and an analysis of the institutional and social structures of power through which women are
systematically marginalised within media organisations. . . The link between media content and the individuals who produce it is of course
greatly attentuated by countless factors including institutional policies, professional values and advertisers' demands. So although in most
countries more women are entering the media professions than ever before, it would be unreasonable to imagine that this will result in a
radical transformation of media content. . .
WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS
It is difficult to assess accurately the extent to which these patterns are universal, and the extent to which they might be changing. Studies
spanning more than one country are rare. In 1995 the first extensive cross-national quantitative study of women's portrayal in the media
ever carried out - spanning newspapers, radio and television, and covering seventy-one countries - found that only 17 percent of the
world's news subjects (i.e. news-makers or interviewees in news stories) were women (MediaWatch 1995). The proportion of female news
subjects was lowest in Asia (14 percent) and highest in North America (27 percent). Women were least likely to be news subjects in the
fields of politics and government (7 percent of all news subjects in this field) and economy/business (9 percent). They were most likely to
make the news in terms of health and social issues (33 percent) and were relatively well represented in arts and entertainment news (31
percent).
This Global Media Monitoring Project, as it became known, also looked at the extent to which the news stories covered ten broad issues
which have been traditionally of 'particular concern to women' (for example, violence against women, women's work or health). Overall,
just 11 percent of stories dealt with such issues, and only 6 percent in Latin America. . .(see WIN NEWS summer 2001 p.46/47)
Another review of research since 1990 - covering all media - in nineteen European countries concluded that the overall picture of gender
portrayal is no longer monolithic stereotyping of the kind described in content studies of the 1970s and 1980s (European Commission
1999). In Latin America, too, some positive changes can be detected. .
Although in the former German Democratic Republic media portrayals generally depicted women as capable of combining paid
employment and family life (Rinke 1994), data from Central and Eastern Europe suggest that the transformations of 1989, and the
adaptation of the media to market-oriented demands, have resulted in a new stereotype of women as sexual objects.
Media representations in general, and of women in particular, are deeply embedded in political and economic contexts. For instance, in
Asia the media in many countries have recently seen a spectacular transformation with the arrival of new commercial cable and satellite
channels, and the privatisation of old state-run media has led to new market-oriented content. Current studies from this region highlight the
tensions and conflicts that such changes introduce into representations of women. The findings are in line with much of the European data,
indicating a greater diversity in women's roles and a move away from the subordinate housewife-mother image. Studies from India and
Singapore point to the often contradictory ways in which the media and advertising are accommodating to women's multiple identities in
contemporary society. Images of the 'new woman' as an independent consumer whose femininity remains intact, or as a hard-headed
individualist whose feminin side must be sacrificed, illustrate new stereotypes of women whose 'femaleness' is always the core issue. . .
Studies by the Media Monitoring Project in South Africa have shown that while coverage of women's issues increases dramatically in the
run-up to National Women's Day (9 August). . . most of it failed to represent women as active participants in society. . .
These findings, and those of countless other studies, illustrate clearly that despite the small shifts noted in retrospective analyses, by and
large media content still reflects a masculine vision of the world and of what is important. . . What it actually requires is a wide-scale
social and political transformation, in which women's rights - and women's right to communicate - are truly understood, respected and
implemented both in society at large and by the media.
This is the starting point for media monitoring and advocacy. Whether or not a critical mass of women working in the media can make an
imprint on media content is a secondary question to the need for wider and deeper social change. . ."
Other subjects covered in this opening chapter are: "Approaches to Media Change // From Criticism to Dialogue // Jamaica: Women's
Media Watch: Challenging Sexism and Violence in the Media // India: Centre for Advocacy and Research: A Bridge between Citizens and
Media // South Africa: Women's Media Watch: Bringing Diversity into the Mainstream // Australia: National Women's Media Centre: A
Focus and a Forum for Nation-Wide Activism // Croatia: B.a.B.e: Promoting Women's Rights in and Through the Media // Feminist
Policing or a Struggle for Human Rights."
BOOK REVIEW BY FRAN P. HOSKEN
This remarkable study by the foremost international and media expert on women, presents a huge amount of global research concerning
how the male dominated media deal with women. The data presented are from all over the world showing that the media industries are not
only global but that their presentations, prejudices and portrayals are global. Margaret Gallagher has been working on women's media
issues for many years. Her media studies for the United Nations going back to International Women's Year are groundbreaking and
revolutionary.
I remember when in preparation to International Women's Year (1975) she first presented her research about Women and the Media at the
United Nations in New York. She pointed out the power and influence of the images of women created by men which at that time were
accepted also by women without critique.
Gallaghers analysis of every aspect of the manipulation of gender images by the male dominated media should make us critically examine
what we see every day on TV, in magazines and newspapers. But what is most disturbing is that global media monitoring programs
undertaken for several years by different groups in different countries, show that nothing much has changed over the years. The same
misrepresentations and stereotypes persist and everywhere women continue to be marginalized.
It is of course the portrayal of women on TV which greatly influences the young who lack the experience to critically analyze what they
see - even if it is quite different from their own experiences. How can we create awareness of the real world when the images we are
confronted with continuously sell us quite another reality. And that is what it is all about: to sell us an image constructed for the profit of
those who pay for it from selling soap powder to religious beliefs - a world ruled by men who assign subservient roles to women, a world
where men are portrayed as decision makers and rulers of everything.
LOLAPRESS
LOLAPRESS EUROPE: Greifswalder Str. 4, 10405 Berlin, GERMANY
LOLAPRESS Latinoamerica: Salto 1265 11.200, Montevideo, Uruguay
LOLAPRESS Africa: P.O. Box 1057 Lenasia 1820, Johannesburg, South Africa
"LOLApress is an international feminist magazine, published three times a year - two printed issues and an electronic issue - supported by
Heinrich Boll Stiftunq e.V, Berlin, Germany.
CONTENTS:
Editorial // Gender and Politics // The FTA Negotiations - Secret Agenda // Questions on Gender Democracy - Perhaps Not Yet, Not Quite
Yet // The World Social Forum (WSF) - Challenges for a New Political Culture // On the Definition of What is 'Human' - The Female
Body, Negated and Sacralised // War in Afghanistan - Battered Pearls // AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean - More Female,
Younger and Poorer // AIDS in Africa - A Pandemic of Silence // AIDS in School - Opening Doors, Closing Wounds // Jhumpa Lahiris's
'Interpreter of Maladies' - Bengalis in Boston // My Life with the Songs of Soledad Bravo - Paloma Negra // Suicidal Poetry - Words and
Death // Racism and Xenophobia in South Africa - Beyond the Frontiers // World Conference - Twenty-First Century Slavery.
FROM THE EDITORIAL:
We are living in times that confront us with new questions, provoke new ideas and move us profoundly emotionally. We live these
experiences embedded in different realities, which are also reflected in world debates and events. This edition sets out to share
contributions from feminist thought on some of these complex subjects and situations, with the insistent objective of contributing to the
construction of a more just society. Processes, practices, testimonials, struggles, news and questions - with and without answers - are all
interwoven in a way that prompts us to increase our knowledge and ask more searching questions about a series of issues: gender,
womanhood and politics; AIDS and the feminisation of the disease; life and poetry; and the different forms of discrimination that exist. .
Today, even being feminist is more complex. Women have to fight on all fronts - as ever - diversifying our work and developing new
professional practices and expertise. . . We face each battle as if it were the last and with the conviction that it will certainly be unique.
. .. We can be found in cyber space with Lol@ 2, our electronic journal which will be produced in Germany. The site is
www.lolapress.org."
AL-RAIDA
AL-RAIDA Is published quarterly by the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) of the Lebanese American
University (LAU), formerly Beirut University College, P.O. Box 13-5053/59, Beirut, LEBANON; fax: (01) 791-645. Editor: Fawwaz
Traboulsi The American address of LAU is 475 Riverside Drive, Room 1846, New York, NY 10115 USA; fax: (212) 870-2762 e-mail: al-
raida@beirut.lau.edu.lb;
CONTENTS:
"Editorial: Feminizing Politics // Opinion: And They Call This PEACE! // Research //Q uote, Unquote // Newsbriefs // IWSAW News //
File: Introduction to the File // Women and Politics in the Arab World // The Testimony of an Egyptian MP // Palestinian Women:
Political Activism Since Oslo // Jordan: Women and Politics // Round Table: Women's Role in Politics // Lebanese Women and Politics: A
Comparison of Two Field Studies // What Political Participation are They Talking About // A Twelve Year Old Municipal President //
Quota in the Field: 'My Lady Take Your Place' // Interview: Nayla Moawad // Conference Report // Maud Farajallah."
FRAUEN SOLIDARITAT - WOMEN'S SOLIDARITY (IN GERMAN)
Bergasse 7, A-1090 Vienna, AUSTRIA; fax: fsoli@magnet
CONTENTS: (translated from German)
"Theme: Women's Agriculture: The Land Belongs to Women // Grown on the Land // Agenda of Plurality // Say it with Flowers // Are We
All the Same by Peasant Women and Farm Workers // Behind Each Fear is Violence // Campesinas and City Farmers // Country Air and
City Smells // My Land // Women in Islam: What do We Say - Controversy // Space to Breathe - Women in Pakistan // Difficult Times //
How Life Changed in the South // International Form of Clothes // Voyage through Austria // International Solidarity // And much more."
GENUS - A JOURNAL FROM THE SWEDISH SECRETARIAT FOR GENDER RESEARCH - 1/2001
Editor: Lena Olson, Box 311 20, SE 400 32 Goteberg, SWEDEN
e-mail: ekonomitjanst@natverkstan.net
CONTENTS:
"Hard for Women to Reach the Top // Kids in Daycare Learn Traditional Roles // Woman in Samiland // Desiring Pants on and off Stage //
Archiving Women Pioneer Writings // Portrait // News // Centennial Gender Debates // Crisis of Masculinity // Man or Woman? // Nice
Girls Don't Smoke // Fredrika Bremer // Guest Chronicle."
HERIZONS - WOMEN'S NEWS & FEMINIST VIEWS
P.O. Box 128 STN Main, Winnipeg MB R3C 9Z9, CANADA. Published four times a year.
CONTENTS:
"News: West Coast Women Worry in Wake of Election // Sex and Motherhood Come Together // Rhymes with Scrabble // Equality May
be a Taxing Experience // Sri Lanka Bans GM Food // Features: A Laudable Life // What REALLY Happened at the Quebec Summit //
What Did Little Sisters Teach Big Brother? // Tokyo Girls // The All-Girl On-Line Revolution // Anita Rau Badami // Transcending
Borders // Arts & Lit // Columns."
MEDIA REPORT TO WOMEN - COVERING ALL THE ISSUES CONCERNING WOMEN AND MEDIA
38091 Beach Rd., P.O. Box 180, Colton's Point, MD 20626-0180
fax: sheilagib@erols.com; website: www.mediareporttowomen.com
CONTENTS:
"New Analysis of Data on Journalists Details Women's, Men's Job Satisfaction // NOW Issues Second Primetime Report, Recommends
Action // Advertising Dangers: Racial Stereotyping, Inequality, Sexualization, Panel Says // Exposure to Sports Media May Encourage
Teen Focus on Body Image - But Positively // Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Research
Roundup on Women and Media // Briefs // For the Record // Books, etc. // People."
MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS
INTERACTION - AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR VOLUNTARY INTERNATIONAL ACTION
1717 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 701, Washington, DC 20036
fax: (202) 667-8236; e-mail: ia@interaction.org; website: www.interaction.org
CONTENTS:
"World Bank Increasingly Seeks to Engage Civil Society in Development Policy // Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: Faultlines and
Opportunities // PRSPs Framework: Has it Achieved Real Participation? // Transforming Rhetoric into Reality."
SPECIAL ISSUE EXAMINES WORLD BANK POLICIES AND PRACTICE:
"The World Bank is perhaps one of the most important development institutions in the world. Its importance is based on several factors: its
political influence, derived from its multilateral governance structure; its size, which includes over 10,000 employees in five institutions
(IBRD, IDA, IFC, MIGA, and ICSID) of the World Bank Group; its volume of lending; its research capacity; and the intellectual and
academic credentials of its staff. . . The articles in this issue are intended to provide a brief, overview of recent developments. . .
Although the Bank describes its policies and programs as designed to reduce poverty, their work can also lead to an increase in poverty, a
reduction in national and local autonomy, and the reversal or elimination of work undertaken by NGOs. . ."
WOMEN'S NEWS
109-113 Royal Ave., Belfast BT1 1FF, NORTHERN IRELAND
CONTENTS:
"Interviews // Women on Waves // Health // Downtown Gallery // International // Belfast Pride 2001 // News // Bits & Pieces // Reviews //
Letters."
KOVALEVSKAIA FUND NEWSLETTER
Contact: Dr. Ann Hibner Koblitz, Director, Kovalevskaia Fund
6547 17th Ave., NE, Seattle, WA 98115; e-mail: koblitz@asu.edu
CONTENTS:
"Kovalevskaia Prizes in Vietnam // Long-Term Consequences of U.S. Chemical Warfare in Vietnam // Get-Together of College Women
from Central Vietnam // Vietnam Women's Museum Kovalevskaia Fund Exhibit // Sadisky Prize to be Linked to Le Van Thiem Prize //
Kovalevskaia Prize Planned for Cuba // Obituary of Activist and Historian of Mathematics Dirk Struik // Letter from Mozambique."
AW ID NEWS - THE ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN DEVELOPMENT
96 Spadina Ave., Suite 401, Toronto, Ontario CANADA MSV 2J6; fax: (+1 )416.594.0330
CONTENTS:
"Reaching out to our Francophone Members // Letter from the Board President // Editorial: Is there an alternative Economic Framework //
Organizational Change with Success // A Young Woman's Appraisal of the Movement // Needs of Child Prostitutes // African Women and
23st Century Technologies // New Books/Resources // Our 'Best of' Reading List."
PRIZE FOR WOMEN'S CREATIVITY IN RURAL LIFE
'BY HONORING A WOMAN, WE HONOR A WHOLE NATION'
WOMEN'S WORLD SUMMIT FOUNDATION
P.O. Box 2001,1211 Geneva 1, SWITZERLAND; fax: (+42 22) 738 82 48
"Awarded by the Women's World Summit Foundation (WWSF) an international non-profit humanitarian NGO working for a new
development paradigm, the Prize honors annually 30 or more outstanding creative rural women and organizations exhibiting exceptional
leadership in their communities."
For more information on the Foundation and a copy of its magazine, Empowering Women and Children, please write to the above.
WOMEN'S HEALTH - PROMOTING INFORMED CHOICES
52 Featherstone St., London EC1Y 8RT, UNITED KINGDOM
e-mail: womenshealth@pop3.poptel.org.uk
website: womenshealthlondon.org.uk
CONTENTS:
NEWS from Women's Health // Views: Listen up Labour // Letters // Volunteer Voice // Sex & Gynaecological Health // News from the
Journals // A-Z of Alternative Health: Acupunture // Book Review // Project Updates // Bulletin Board // Publications List & Order Form."
WOMEN'S NEWS DIGEST
PUBLISHED BY ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF FEMINISM - HONG KONG - ISSUE 50/51
CONTENTS:
"Newsbits // A Proposal on the Objectives and Structure of the Women's Commission // A Woman's Perspective on the 2000 Policy
Address // Our Views on Protection of Youth from Obscene and Indecent Materials // Married Women and the Internet // The Changing
Direction of Women's Movement in Hong Kong since the 1980's // Newclippings: Hong Kong - Women's Commission // Anti-
discrimination // Sex Work // Migrant Workers // Marriage and Family // Reproduction // Health // China - National Survey on Women //
Legal Aid // Marriage // Sexuality // Sex Work // AIDS."
FEMINIST COLLECTIONS
A QUARTERLY OF WOMEN'S STUDIES RESOURCES - SPECIAL ISSUE ON ACADEMY/ COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
PUBLISHED BY PHYLLIS HOLMAN WEISBARD, WOMEN'S STUDIES LIBRARIAN, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM,
430 Memorial Library, 728 State St., Madison, WI 53706
FRIENDS OF WOMEN NEWSLETTER
FRIENDS OF WOMEN FOUNDATION 386/61-62 Ratchadaphisek 42, (Sol Chalermsuk), Ratchadaphisek Rd., Chatuchak, Bangkok
1900, THAILAND
CONTENTS:
"Editorial // Thai Female Labour Crisis under Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatara's Government // Efforts Toward Stopping Violence
Against Women: A Reflection from the Work of Friends of Women Foundation // Sexual Offence Situation in 2000.
FROM THE EDITORIAL:
Thailand has one of the highest rates of women's participation in the labor force. This is a result of 40 years of national development
policy that focused on developing export industries based on low-- level technology that requires workers who are not very skilled but
prepared to do menial, repetitive tasks for low wages. . . When the economic crisis in Thailand began in 1997, women were the very first
group to be put out of work.
The Women Workers Section of Friends of Women Foundation has revealed that for some women, being laid off led to domestic
problems such as husbands who refuse to take on family or child-support responsibilities or who leave them for another woman. . . Most
of the women who contacted the Women's Rights Protection Center of Friends of Women to ask for assistance, both in person and by
phone, wanted help with domestic problems. . .
This issue of the Friends of Women Newsletter deals with these issues and gives a picture of the problem of sexual abuse and harassment
of women. It also tells about the campaigns the foundation has undertaken to address these problems. These campaigns aim to strengthen
the capacity and understanding of governmental mechanisms directly involved in working with women in crisis. . . Because violence
against women is not a private matter for any woman but a societal problem that all people must cooperate to solve in order to have a
peaceful society."
WINFO TONGA NEWSLETTER
P.O. Box 62, Nuku'alofa, KINGDOM OF TONGA; fax: (676) 23 888; e-mail: pmol@kalianet.com
"WINFO-TONGA is a quarterly newsletter of the Women and Development Centre,
Most of all is the progress with regards to the draft Gender and Development Policy. As the Secretariat, the Centre has now completed
submitting all the 10 areas of the Policy to the National Advisory Committee on Gender and Development. Next will be the collation of all
the amendments and contributions made by the Committee prior to its submission to the Cabinet.
CONTENTS:
Draft Gender & Development Policy // 21st International Conference of the Pon fPcific South East Asia Women's Association, 11th-18th
November 2000 in the Cook Islands // First Meeting to Establish Pacific Foundation for the Advancement of Women (PACFAW) // Five
Women completed 7 Months Course, in Community Development from CETC 2000 Program at Nalele Center Suva Fiji // 4 Days
Seminar for the Women of Ma'Ufanga District // Annual Display of the Home Improvement Items."
WOMEN TODAY - PACIFIC WOMEN'S RESOURCE BUREAU
SECRETARIAT OF THE PACIFIC COMMUNITY
BP 05-98848, Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia, AUSTRALIA
"The Overseas Development Assistance arm of the New Zealand government, NZODA, has given the thumbs up to a proposal from the
SPC/PWRB to fund two participants from each SPC member country to attend the Eighth Triennial Conference of Pacific Women. . .
Tentatively scheduled for the week of 18 to 22 June 2001, the triennial meeting will be a bilingual event bringing together the French and
English-speaking Pacific. The Platform for Action remains the blueprint for women's development in the region. . .
CONTENTS:
Violence: The Samoa Project // Spotlight on the Cooks: Culture // After New York // CEDAW: October Meeting Coming // Media:
Reporting to the Pacific // VANUATU: After UNGASS // PPA: Review in 2001 // Samoa: Update on Violence Study // Violence Against
Women: The Sadness Behind the Statistics // Women to Watch: Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling // Spotlight Cook Islands //
Micronesia and Melanesia Updates and much more."