9 Mayıs 2007 Çarşamba

Media Project

Media and stereotypes

Welcome to our website. Our purpose for creating this website is to show the influence of media on people and the stereotypes in media. As we know there are several types of stereotyping that take place in media; gender stereotypes, ethnic stereotypes, gay and lesbian stereotypes...

Media both reflects and reproduces stereotypes. In this website, we have tried to show you the role of media in our perception by articles, videos and cartoons.

Articles:

--In the article 'Media and Its Portrayal of Black Americans' the black stereotyping in America is explained. The results of a research of Entman and Rojecki are given in the article.

--In the article 'Gay and Lesbian Stereotypes in the Media' the portrayal of gay and lesbian is considered. According to Ammonia Pine gays and lesbians do take place on Tv, however their actual relationships are never depicted.

--In the article 'Changing images: a long road' Bernadette van Dijck says "Reporting on the changing roles of men and women in society often implicitly assumes that women are principally responsible for child-rearing and home-making while men are responsible for income and management. "Bernadette van Dijck argues the gender portrayal in media.

--In the article 'Globalisation of the media and its implications for women’s expression' Meena M Shivdas tells about the feminist analysises and the impact of globalisation of the media in women’s lives.

--In the article 'Don’t abandon safeguards in the name of freedom of expression!' Ann Mainville-Neeson tells about the Code ( part of the CRTC’s gender portrayal policy most currently set out in 1992 Policy on Gender Portrayal) . Ann Mainville-Neeson says that according to the Code women and men should be portrayed in a wide range of roles in media.It specifically bans the negative portrayals of both genders.

-- In the article 'Looking beyond the ‘body count’ in the Caribbean' Marjan de Bruin gives information about Women’s Media Watch (WMW) which is a movement against violence in media and how it leads to violence against women in Caribbean.

--In the article 'Media vs. society in Lebanon: Schizophrenia in an age of globalisation' Dima Dabbous-Sensenig briefly tells about the conference on Gender and Communication Policy held in Beirut in November 1999.

--In the article 'Gender and Media: Indian Perspective' Dr Reinuka Dagar tells about the women portrayal in South Asia. In the article there are some facts that show the presence of women in private organization. The presence of women in media is increasing.

-The articles which are not explained have the same purpose with the ones above.

Videos:

Crash:

This is the music video of the movie 'Crash'. Crash is a movie which represents the stereotypes in Los Angeles.

We are the world:

This song was meant to suggest the peace in world Although the song says 'we are the world', it was sung in English by very little participation from the rest of the world. So there is an irony in the song.(For lyrics-http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/michaeljackson/weretheworldusaforafrica.html)

Dear Mr. President-Pink:

This is a song that is written to critisize Bush for the war in Iraq.(For lyrics-http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pink/dearmrpresident.html)

Tupac-Changes:

This is a song about the black stereotyping and it is sung by an black hip-hop artist,Tupac. The theme of the song is similar to the 'Crash'.It includes the conflict between black and white people.(For lyrics-http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/2pac/changes.html)

-As we see media both reflects and reproduces messages. Those songs are the media messages which are critisizing other media messages.

Pictures-Cartoons:

The pictures and the cartoons in the website show the stereotypes and the effects of media on people as we have explained below the pictures.




8 Mayıs 2007 Salı

Media in pictures

This cartoon represents gender stereotyping in media.
This cartoon represents the influence of media on perception of people.

This picture represents how global media products are indoctrinated to people of local nations.



This picture represents the gender portrayal in media. Women are always shown as thin,small and attractive.












This cartoon shows that media usually represents women as dominated by men.







In this cartoon people from different nations are portrayed differently. There are certain stereotypes. As you see an Arabian man is portrayed as thinking a bomb. He is portrayed as a potential terrorist.





Crash

"CRASH"



These scenes are taken from the film 'Crash'. The film represents the stereotypes and racism in LA.


In trying to create a film to address the touchy subject of race, the director has compounded issues and only superficially highlighted them. The relationship between the racist police officer Ryan and the black woman. During a routine traffic stop, Ryan manhandles her while enfocing negative stereotypes. Then, later, when she's involved in a traffic accident, he throws those stereotypes aside to rescue her, but her trepidation about the previous incident causes her to resist Ryan's efforts and fight back thinking he's just trying to feel her up again. The situation resolves in their embrace. However, Ryan goes back to the same racist ways when dealing with a black government official.


http://www.oscarguy.com/Reviews/2005/Crash.html









4 Mayıs 2007 Cuma

Media and its Portrayal of Black Americans

media project: “Stereotypes of a Black Male Misunderstood”

Discussing "The Black Image in the White Mind"

"The Black Image in the White Mind" - a wonderful book and multiple award winner, written by Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki, discusses the effects of life in a segregated society. It offers a comprehensive look at the intricate and subtle racial patterns in the mass media and discusses how these powerful images play a significant role in shaping the attitudes of Whites toward Blacks. White Americans, they show, learn about African Americans not through personal relationships, but through the images shown by the media. In addition, they reveal a subtle pattern of images that communicates a racial hierarchy (with Whites on top) and promotes a sense of difference and conflict.

Entman and Rojecki illustrate how the television news focus on black poverty and crime is grossly out of proportion with the reality of black life, how use of black 'experts' is limited to 'black-themed' issues, and how 'black politics' are often distorted in the news. In short, they conclude that although there are more images of African-Americans on television now than ever, these images are often harmful to the prospect of unity between the races.

A brief summary of some of their findings are listed below:

-A mug shot of a Black defendant is 4 times more likely to appear in a local television news report than of a White defendant

-The accused is 2 times more likely to be shown physically restrained in a local television news report than when the accused is White

-The name of the accused is 2 times more likely to be shown on screen in a local TV news report if the defendant is Black, rather than White

-"Telegenic" figures aren't always the most representative leaders though they are presented as if they were. Some statistics from 1994:

--40% of Black adults stated that Jesse Jackson represents Black people "very well"

--Only 11% of Black adults stated that Louis Farrakhan represents Black people "very well"

--22% of Black adults stated they had "never heard of" Louis Farrakhan

--Stories about, or soundbites from, Jesse Jackson on ABC World News: 13 versus stories about, or soundbites from, Louis Farrakhan on ABC World News: 25

-The media sowed discord during the affirmative action debate of the 1990s despite the considerable common ground between Blacks and Whites. Reporters often predicted affirmative action would be one of the key issues in the 1996 election because of the "rage" among Whites.
--A mere 1% percent of survey respondents named affirmative action as their top priority in voting against a presidential candidate

--61% percent of White men ("angry" or not) favored affirmative action programs as is or with reforms

--76% percent of White women favored affirmative action programs as is or with reforms

--Somehow only 12.5% percent of White "persons on the street" were shown to support affirmative action in a sample of network news, while the percentage shown to oppose was 87.5%

-While Black actors are now more visible in films, it is an open question as to how well they are being represented. Compare, for example, how Blacks and Whites are portrayed in the top movies of 1996.

--Black female movie characters shown using vulgar profanity: 89%

--White female movie characters shown using vulgar profanity: 17%

--Black female movie characters shown being physically violent: 56%

--White female movie characters shown being physically violent: 11%

--Black female movie characters shown being restrained: 55%

--White female movie characters shown being restrained: 6%

Research findings are reprinted with permission. Copyright notice: 2000 by Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki. This text appears on the University of Chicago Press website by permission of the authors. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki and the University of Chicago Press are notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text (or the rest of the text on the website) on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki.


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“Stereotypes of a Black Male Misunderstood”

Maria Teixiera

Livin’ life without fear,
Puttin’ 5 karats in my baby girl ear.
Lunches,
Brunches,
Interviews by the pool.
Considered a fool ’cause I dropped out of high school:
Stereotypes of a Black male misunderstood
And it’s still all good.
Unh, and if you don’t know, now you know...

-- Notorious B.I.G.

White America speaks of the growing equality for all the residents of this country. However, the truth of the matter is this: the more melanin in your skin, the further from parity you are. Nearly five centuries of slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil Rights Movement have come and gone; Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X among other prominent Black freedom fighters battled against oppression for true liberation. Yet the road to such freedom is far from sight. The lynching, hate crimes, and beatings are still going strong. Racial injustice in the court system, social stereotypes, and racial profiling by police officers are a daily occurrence. Anyone who speaks of present-day “equal opportunity,” the “end” of racism and a sense of “unity” amongst culturally and racially diverse groups is living in a bubble, formed by denial and fabricated by the media. White America, in the hopes of shedding or covering up its racist skin, wants to preach this pseudo-equality when in fact Blacks in the “U.S. of A” are still suffering from a society constructed by racist, untrustworthy individuals. Not only are Blacks in the capitalist, assimilationist misnomer “United States” continually suffering from physical violence, but we also suffer from institutionalized racism, including judicial bias, policing brutality, media brainwashing and anti-Black stereotypes.

On February 14, 1965, Malcolm X addressed the people of Detroit at Ford Auditorium on the need to educate ourselves about politics and media. “Then you’ll be in a better position to make an intelligent judgment for yourself. So as Afro-Americans or Black people here in the Western Hemisphere, you and I have to learn to weigh things for ourselves. No matter what the man says, you better look into it yourself.” Men and women, Blacks and Whites alike, fail to realize that the mass media is a powerful entity with the ability to place both contaminated and valid images or information in our minds. This influential medium provides us with information that they deem necessary. They provide us with mis-information that will brainwash us into conforming to their beliefs and views.

And they projected Africa and the people of Africa in a negative image, a hateful image. They made us think that Africa was a land of jungles, a land of animals, a land of cannibals and savages. It was a hateful image…. Why? Because those who oppress know that you can’t make a person hate the root without making them hate the tree. You can’t hate your origin and not end up hating yourself. And since we all originated in Africa, you can’t make us hate Africa without making us hate ourselves. And they did this very skillfully (Malcolm X, 156-157).

These media have been feeding their image to the public for so long that they have truly mastered this skill. The sad part is that not only does the White public embrace these images, as if they were written in stone, but Black communities do as well. These images portray Blacks as pathologically poor “criminals,” “gang-bangers,” and “druggies.”

The coverage leading to the conviction of Michael Lewis, a.k.a “Little B” in Elaine Brown’s The Condemnation of Little B (2002), is a perfect example of the effect of mass media on the public. Following Little B’s arrest for the 1997 murder of a Black father of two, headlines were plastered all over Atlanta condemning this 13-year-old boy. The Black and White communities of Atlanta convicted him of the murder long before his trial. The local Black “leaders” in the community did not think to protect this boy who was supposed to be “innocent until proven guilty.” These same “leaders” demanded fair treatment for O.J. Simpson when the media stereotyped him with a racist image, the Black man as “beast.” Instead of protecting Michael Lewis when he was being portrayed as a “thug” and “delinquent,” they chose to jump on the bandwagon and see him as the figurehead of all Atlanta’s problems. A literal scapegoat in an effort to build up the city’s image and economy, Little B was used to enforce the new tough-on-crime-laws. He had multiple strikes against him. He was young, Black and “from the streets.” No one stopped to think that he was a product of a disadvantaged, drug-infested community. No one stopped to think of his welfare when he became a ward of the state at age eleven and dropped out of school. Where was the judicial system to place him in a home and provide this child with the basic necessities to survive? Why were the courts so quick to knock at his door the minute they needed someone to blame? They were never interested in his well-being while he lived “life on the streets.”

Brown addresses the issue of media stereotypes along with more general topics of new age slavery in prisons and “U.S.” society at large. “Say, you think I’m really evil?” (Brown, 28). This one line from Little B was the basis for the entire book. When Black youth are suspected of committing crimes, they are portrayed as evil. When White boys are caught in the act, they are “possessed, misunderstood, alienated, isolated, or lonely--but never ‘evil̵’ (Brown 39). When “good kids” from a “good neighborhood,” a “good church going community,” or in other words, White kids from the suburbs, do something as monstrous as mass murdering their fellow classmates, White America asks, “What’s happening to our children?” (Brown, 38).

What went wrong is that we allowed ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security by media representations of crime and violence that portray them both as the province of those who are anything but white like us. We ignore the warning signs, because in our minds the warning signs don’t live in our neighborhood, but across town, in that place where we lock our car doors on the rare occasion we have to drive there. That false sense of security -- the result of racist and classist stereotypes -- then gets people killed. And still we act amazed (Wise 2002).

Due to media stereotypes, violence and evil have a face and that face has Black skin. White America and at times, such as in the case of Little B, Black communities also believe that this image is real; that these portrayals of their own youth, living in their community, are valid. What they fail to do is re-educate themselves, as Malcolm X implored.

The public continues to believe that Blacks are the ones using and dealing drugs. They believe that Blacks are more prone to violence and criminal activity. For decades, throughout the United States, Black males have been subject to racial/ethnic stereotypes. Merely being a young man of color on the streets and highways of this country makes you a suspect for “law enforcement.” Racial profiling has given rise to an extremely appropriate term, “Driving While Black” (DWB), considering that a mass of profiling victims is Black. It is illegal for an officer to pull over a vehicle without just cause. So when they have “reason for suspicion,” they simply stop the driver on the basis of a traffic violation, with the underlying purpose of searching the vehicle for narcotics. Racial profiling is largely due to the effects of the nationwide “war on drugs.” Police officials have been using race alone to determine whether or not an individual or groups of people might be engaged in criminal activity such as drug trafficking. A majority of the discrimination occurring is against young Black males because they fit this society’s description of supposed drug dealers. In fact, in 1985, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles issued guidelines for the police on “the Common Characteristics of Drug Couriers.” These guidelines warned officers to be suspicious of rental cars, “scrupulous obedience to traffic laws,” motorists wearing “lots of gold” or who do not “fit the vehicle” and “ethnic groups associated with the drug trade” (Harris, 7). These stereotypes are targeted directly toward Black males. If a Black man is behind the wheels of a decent vehicle, and is taking precaution on the road, he is considered suspect, criminal, guilty.

The United States “law enforcement” strategy for curtailing drug abuse has had a negative impact on Black people. Blacks are being incarcerated at a higher rate than Whites due to racial profiling. 62.7 percent of Blacks are imprisoned for drug offenses, whereas only 36.7 percent of Whites are (Human Rights Watch, 1). One would think that Blacks are the main source of the drug problem in the United States; and, in turn, that racial profiling is effective in ridding this country of criminals. On the contrary, racial profiling concentrates on Blacks; therefore, if Blacks are the only group being targeted then only Blacks are going to be found with drugs. This concept is not hard to grasp but “law enforcement” insistently focuses their efforts on stopping Black males. This leads to the myth that Blacks are the primary source of drug usage and trafficking, considering the high rate of incarceration. The stereotype has been proven in fact to just be a myth. In March of 1998, a group of doctors, Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy (PLNDP), composed of high-ranking health officials from the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations, released a study on U.S. drug policy. The PLNDP study showed that 50% of heroin users are “educated” Caucasians and that 60% of monthly cocaine users are White. Furthermore, 77% of regular marijuana users are White, whereas only 1 in 6 are Black (Muharrar, 2). An “educated” White man from the suburbs does not fit the “Drug Courier Profile” and has thus been systematically ignored by police officials. Yet it is clear that the majority of drug users and traffickers are (not-so-young) White males.

Racial profiling is just another form of oppression for Blacks. This tactic used by White officers does nothing except abuse and further diminish our faith in the “justice” system. The laws by which we are governed (and which we abide) are, allegedly, the backbone of this country. If we cannot trust the individuals that create and “enforce” these regulations what kind of faith is left in these representatives? If you are Black, you are not safe from “the long arm of the law.” The media has placed a false image in the minds of the residents of this country with regard to Black male youth. Many Blacks have taken this image and condemned our own while racist Whites use this “evidence” to support their ignorant, racially prejudiced views of non-Whites. Malcolm X said it long ago; it is time that we start educating ourselves and second-guessing the newspaper and all news coverage. Until you know the facts, take the information the media puts out with a grain of salt. “Nothing is as it seems.”
______________________________________________

References

Brown, Elaine. The Condemnation of Little B. Boston. Beacon Press, 2002.

Harris, David A. “Driving While Black: Racial Profiling on Our Nations Highways.” American Civil Liberties Union Special Report. June 1999/ November 2002 http://www.aclu.org/profiling/report/index.html

Human Rights Watch. “Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs.” Spring 2000/November 2002. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/usa/Rcedrg00.html.

Muharrar, Mikal. “‘Racial Profiling’ in News Reporting.” Extra! September/October 1998/November 2002. http://www.fair.org/extra/9809/media-blackface.html.

Notorious B.I.G. “Juicy.” Ready to Die. New York: Bad Boy Entertainment/Arista Records, 1994.

Wise, Tim. “School Shooting and White Denial.” Alternet. March 6, 2001/November 2002. http://www.alternet.org/story.html? storyID=10560.

X, Malcolm. February 1965: The Final Speeches. New York. Betty Shabazz and Pathfinder Press, 1992.

© 2003 Africa Resource Center, Inc.

Gay and lesbian stereotypes in the media

(idea) by Ammonia Pine 4 Me

2 Mon Apr 16 2001 at 14:52:35

It's officially the new millennium and so far it has brought us school shootings, a reality TV craze so absurd that the latest show actually has four men chained to a woman and gay activists protesting outside the Grammy Awards for Eminem's controversial duet with Sir Elton John. To quote that old Virginia Slim catch-phrase, "We've come a long way, baby" and it shows.

Is my sarcasm too subtle? Well it shouldn't be. The new millennium promised Americans that we would be stepping away from the past and moving into the future, but has anyone actually noticed a difference especially when it comes to Hollywood?

Hollywood has praised itself for being "gay-friendly," spotlighting the sitcom success of "Will & Grace" and making it Hollywood's poster child for the millennium. Even Entertainment Weekly recently released an issue devoted to high-paid, powerful and famous homosexuals in the business, with the cover featuring (what else?) "Will & Grace." Hollywood is practically screaming how it has come out of the closet, yet if one looks closely they really wouldn't notice a difference. In a survey, where ordinary citizens were asked to name recent films that dealt with homosexuality, most were stumped. Some replied with "My Best Friend's Wedding," while others went so far back that they mentioned "The Birdcage." No one remembered last year's Academy Award-winning "Boys Don't Cry" or a handful of other titles, including "Center Stage," "Cruel Intentions," "Chasing Amy," "In and Out" and "But I'm a Cheerleader."

Television is another story. Numerous students thought of the hit shows "Will & Grace," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dawson's Creek," while many thought of past shows like "Roseanne" and "Ellen" that dealt with homosexuality. Some students thought of Showtime's "Queer as Folk" and the recently canceled "Normal, Ohio."

Still, for the number of shows that have homosexual characters, how many of them actually deal with homosexual relationships? Sure, two of the main characters on "Will & Grace" are gay, but when was the last time viewers watched Jack and Will share a passionate kiss with another man? In fact, despite Jack and Will being public about their sexuality, network writers have Jack marrying a woman (for green card purposes of course) and Will sharing an intense kiss with his female best friend, Grace. "The entertainment industry is an industry; not a business of raising social consciousness, but a business of raising quarterly earnings for shareholders," said professor Charles Fleming, who teaches entertainment reporting. "The broadcast executives who program these shows, and the standards and practices geniuses who answer to them, and the writer-producers they employ are all doing nothing more than reflecting a conservative version of what the audience is telling them it likes."

Those who are open about their real life sexuality fall into the same trap of having networks too conservative to write their stories. Even among the gay characters that are televised, many are stereotyped as flamboyantly gay or butch lesbian types. And while not every man who is gay acts like Jack from "Will and Grace," many films and television shows tend to focus only on these gay stereotypes. The few shows that do represent homosexuals as everyday people also deal with same-sex relationships, and ironically tend to get pushed off network television and onto a more adult-oriented station like Showtime or HBO. Is this because the general public isn't ready to see gay relationships yet?

Or is it because the networks aren't ready to show homosexuals as equal to heterosexuals? Is that why shows like "Normal, Ohio," which was awarded this year's People's Choice Award for John Goodman's portrayal of a gay man, got canceled before they begin, even when there is obviously an audience interested in the show? Shows like "Party of Five" are renewed for seasons at a time in hopes that their ratings will go up, but "Normal, Ohio" isn't given a chance. "Has Hollywood come out of the closet? No," Fleming states. "Does Steve Martin's Oscar night patter so peppered with coy references to homosexuality mean the industry's public stance about homosexuality has changed? I don't think so."

The sad thing about all this is the fact that "Roseanne," still remains one of the few shows that accurately portrayed homosexual characters of both sexes in a way few films and television shows have been willing to do today. Sure, "Dawson's Creek" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" have occasional episodes involving gay characters, but so did "Soap." And while "Will & Grace" made headlines because one of its title characters is a homosexual, so did "Ellen." "Roseanne" was that rare TV show that had homosexual recurring characters both young and old, male and female in relationships, and even aired a lesbian kiss.

"'Roseanne' was certainly ahead of its time, or at least was very different for its time," Fleming said. "I think what it showed is that most Americans will accept any kind of character that is given to them, if the character is delivered to them in a sympathetic way and in a show that is well-crafted. I think the public would absolutely accept an openly, actively gay character if the character were set up properly in a show like 'Frasier' or 'NYPD Blue.'" Will the networks finally give us these types of characters in the new millennium? Will Ellen DeGeneres' new show stay on for longer than her last one after she came out of the closet? One can only wait and see if Hollywood will finally treat homosexuals equally in their programming.


Fall 2002 Issue , Elizabeth Tassaro

Stereotypes and Ideals: Femininity in the Media

Intrigued by the concept of gender, Elizabeth Tassaro initially intended to conduct an in-depth exploration of just that. With contemporary society’s conflicting ideas of what is to be male or female, however, her essay quickly took shape as a discussion of stereotypes and ideals. Considering media as perhaps the most pervasive communicator of culture, this essay focuses on what several media sources present as ideal in terms of gender. Drawing upon her own content analyses and other scholarly writings, Elizabeth found an interesting, and at the same time disturbing, account of our society’s stereotypical gender ideals. What she found were ideals for both masculinity and femininity that were seemingly desirable, yet ultimately unattainable. The negative effects of prolonged exposure to such ideals were Elizabeth’s primary concern, inspiring her to pursue this topic. She hopes that her account would provoke thought and consideration, leading people to desire a change in media presentations of gender.


Various sources indicate that female body images presented through models, mannequins, and even Barbie dolls are strikingly deviant from the actual female form. One such example occurs in the January 1998 issue of Marie Claire magazine, which states that the average American woman is 5’4” and a size 12. She has a 37-inch bust, a 29-inch waist, and 40-inch hips. A mannequin is 6 feet tall, a size 6, with measurements of 34-23-34. A life-size Barbie doll would be 7’2,” with bust, waist, and hip measurements of 40-22-36, respectively. A woman of these measurements would have to walk on all fours to balance her disproportionate body. Considering that Barbie’s physical characteristics are outrageous and ultimately unattainable, how has she come to be an “icon” of femininity (duCille 101)? Girls and women across the country look to Barbie as a beautiful ideal, and strive for a body like hers. As a result, many battle endlessly with dieting, eating disorders, distorted body images, and low self-esteem. In addition to physical standards put forth by Barbie, models, and mannequins, girls and women must also comply with given gender norms. Not only must they achieve an ideal body type, but also ideal femininity. As a result, several points must be addressed. Primarily, one ought to consider gender as an inherent biological distinction versus gender as an ongoing fabrication due to one’s actions. Although evidence may be provided to argue that gender is an innate characteristic, I will show that it is actually a result of one’s actions, which are then labeled masculine or feminine according to society’s definitions of ideal gender. Furthermore, I will discuss the communication of such definitions through the media, specifically in music videos, TV, and magazines, and illustrate by means of a content analysis exactly how prevalent ideals are in the media. The harmful implications of ongoing exposure to these unattainable ideals, such as low self-esteem, eating disorders, unhealthy body image, and increased acceptance of violence, make urgent the need for change. How does a society go about changing such long-standing norms? In light of its pervasiveness and highly influential nature, the media may be the proper place to begin changing gender stereotypes.


When considering issues of gender, one must first consider how and where differences in masculinity and femininity come about. Although masculinity and femininity are achieved through various actions, some attribute characteristics of gender to innate, biological criteria. David G. Myers comments on such attributions in “Social Psychology,” when he writes that “the persistence and omnipresence of gender stereotypes leads some evolutionary psychologists to believe they reflect innate, stable reality” (337). Anthropological and evolutionary studies show that even the earliest societies supported the same gender hierarchies as those evident in today’s culture, many of which are based on biology. Interestingly enough, studies show that males have consistently dominated such hierarchies. As S. Goldberg writes in “Feminism Against Science,” “[A]mong all the thousands of societies on which we have any sort of evidence, there have never been any Amazonian or matriarchal societies. The hierarchies of all societies have always been dominated by males” (4). Furthermore, Myers writes that in “the world around, from Asia to Africa and Europe to Australia, people rate men as more dominant, driven, and aggressive … [I]n essentially every society, men are socially dominant” (182). Historically, males have always been dominant over females, and whether or not a direct result of biology, females were (and are) seen as the weaker sex. However, does this fact necessarily mean that women are inferior, or simply that they fulfill a different role? Perhaps in support of the latter, Myers writes that, “Men tend to excel as directive task-focused leaders, women as social leaders who build team spirit” (183).


The roots of these different types of leadership lie in the earliest evolutionary processes of natural selection, which may be the source of current gender stereotypes. A human being’s most natural instinct is to reproduce. Because “physically dominant males gained more access to females,” the natural yearning to produce more genes was successfully fulfilled when males were physically dominant, and traits of physical dominance therefore carried through generations (187). As Myers goes on to explain, “men everywhere feel attracted to women whose physical features, such as youthful faces and forms, suggest fertility. Women everywhere feel attracted to men whose wealth, power, and ambition promise resources for protecting and nurturing offspring” (188). These natural attractions are possible explanations for today’s ideals regarding masculinity and femininity. Media portrayals of men stress wealth, power, and ambition, while those of women stress physical youthfulness, attractiveness, and submissiveness. In contemporary society, many see these portrayals as derogatory toward women, although some argue that they may simply be the results of a natural instinct toward characteristics best suited for reproduction.


Although one could argue that gender is a biological determination, greater evidence supports the idea that gender is more a result of one’s actions, and the labeling of those actions as masculine or feminine according to society’s definitions. As Joe Gow writes in “Reconsidering Gender Roles on MTV,” “Traditionally viewed as reflecting innate biological differences, gender roles are increasingly seen as social constructions” (1). In accordance with Gow’s idea of gender, West and Zimmerman write in their essay, “Doing Gender,” that “Rather than as a property of individuals, we conceive of gender as an emergent feature of social situations: as both an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements” (476). People act out femininity or masculinity according to those actions society deems acceptable for either classification. Furthermore, they justify their actions in accordance with given norms. For example, femininity is often acted out through displays of open sexuality and submission to males’ authority, while masculinity is acted out through achievements of dominance and success. According to Gow, stereotypical TV depictions of the sexes indicate that “a male should strive for power and aspire to highly prestigious occupations; to do so, he can be aggressive and break rules and has to be smart, stable, [and] persistent, and remain unemotional” (2). Males may act this way in attempts to prove masculinity, and then justify unfair or aggressive actions by viewing them as proper in terms of gender definitions. A female, on the other hand, “should strive for marriage, and to attract a man she must be warm, sensitive, altruistic, and attractive” (2). These gender ideals lead women to display their physical attractiveness and submit to males’ aggressiveness. Unfortunately, such ideals may also lead women to view the resulting eating disorders or compliance to males’ violence toward them as acceptable because, in terms of society’s gender norms, such submission is proper.


In further discussion of gender as an accomplishment, West and Zimmerman point out that “both gender role and gender display focus on the behavioral aspects of being a woman or a man” (476). According to this statement, gender role and display differ from classifications of sex and sex category. To clarify the different definitions, West and Zimmerman write, Sex is a determination made through the application of socially agreed upon biological criteria for classifying persons as females or males. … Sex category is achieved through application of the sex criteria, but in everyday life, categorization is established and sustained by the socially required identificatory displays that proclaim one’s membership in one or the other category. … Gender, in contrast, is the activity of managing situated conduct in light of normative conceptions of attitudes and activities appropriate for one’s sex category.” (477)
West and Zimmerman show here that “identificatory displays,” which may constitute either physical appearance or outward actions, lead to one being identified as either male or female. It is when one deliberately molds his or her actions to fit society’s definitions of proper gender, however, that one may be labeled as masculine or feminine.Because of physical standards (Barbie, supermodels, etc.), and personality characteristics (submission, passivity, etc.), which society leads women to believe are proper, many women feel that in order to be feminine they must act to achieve these body and personality types. As duCille writes in her essay “Dyes and Dolls,” “If Barbie is a monster, she is our monster, our ideal” (114). She views Barbie’s image “as a gendered, racialized icon of contemporary commodity culture (97). That it is possible for a simple doll to become an icon of femininity “may be able to tell us more about ourselves and our society—more about society’s attitudes toward its women—than anything we might say about the doll her—or, rather, itself” (113). It may be concluded that gender activities both “emerge from and bolster claims to membership in a sex category,” and those actions considered normative in a particular category (West and Zimmerman 477).


Yet this idea does not only apply to women, as Susan Faludi shows in her essay “The Naked Citadel.” Here, Faludi explores the overall environment of the all-male military institution, and the actions of cadets attending The Citadel. When they are attacked and questioned for their almost barbaric acts of violence toward one another, Faludi takes on a sense of pity for the men of The Citadel because she, like Gow, West, and Zimmerman, sees how society’s distorted gender ideals also affect the men. Their violent actions are not the result of any biological trait but are the result of the need to fulfill gender roles dictated by society. As Myers writes, “[A] man who doubts his own strength and independence might, by proclaiming a woman to be pitifully weak and dependent, boost his masculine image” (355). Faludi’s essay illustrates what has become a “submerged gender battle, a bitter but definitely fixed contest between the sexes” (132). She points out that if men at The Citadel could not “re-create a male-dominant society in the real world, they could restage the drama by casting male knobs in all the subservient female roles” (132). Although referred to as submerged, this battle is a mirror image of what often occurs in the real world. It is a rather disturbing thought, but as Faludi notes, the fact that “they must defend their inner humanity with outer brutality may say as much about the world outside The Citadel walls as about the world within them” (151). Similar to society’s demands to conform to ideal gender roles, “the institution demands that [cadets] never cease to ‘act like a man’—a man of cold and rigid bearing, a man no more male than Tiffany’s Southern belle is female, a man that no one, humanly, can be” (151). Just as no human male could fulfill such a role, no human female could ever meet society’s physical standards for the ideal feminine form. So, whether with respect to males or females, evidence suggests that “gender and sexuality are social constructions, or ‘interactional accomplishments’” (Kalof Dilemmas 1). Because ideals for gender are unrealistic and ultimately unattainable, people continually try to act more and more masculine or feminine, which potentially leads to harmful results.


The realization that “ideological ‘codes’ for gender and sexuality are learned early in the socialization process, entrenched during adolescence and transmitted in large part by the popular culture” (1) makes it clear that a change must occur. In some cases, however, media influences may not be entirely detrimental, as one study by Donna and Eaaron Henderson-King found. Their research concluded that “stronger messages may prime gender-related social norms and expectations regarding physical attractiveness and may elicit resistance on the part of women who experience such messages as constraining” (1414). Some women feel that society and the media’s pressing of gender stereotypes and ideal body images on them is a threat to their personal freedom of choice. They feel that society is in a sense ordering them to achieve these ideals. As a result, when cues to act out proper gender are “made more blatant through, for example, accompanying verbal commentary, women may engage in active processing and be more likely to question and resist cultural norms” (1409). This may be true, but more often the media do in fact influence their viewers, imposing upon them harmful ideals and stereotypes.


Provided that such ideals are obviously prevalent in society, an attempt to change them must begin by identifying a primary source. The media is one area which portrays existing stereotypical gender roles. Not only do the media portray stereotypical roles; it seems as though the media encourage them. Is it justifiable to blame the media for encouraging these roles? Depending on one’s perspective, one may see it acceptable for the media to present these views. The collective media is a profit-seeking industry, and whether right or wrong, stereotypes sell. Music, TV, magazines, etc., have little choice but to make what will sell in a competitive world of commodification. Perhaps, though, the media could be a bit more sensitive. It is one thing to portray stereotypes, but quite another to exacerbate them—to make it seem as though fulfilling stereotypes is the only way to fit into society. Keeping in mind that images presented in the media may negatively affect both women and men, one must consider what exactly the media portray as ideal.


What are society’s ideals, and how are they communicated in the media? The music industry, specifically the visual image content of music videos, is one indicator of what society labels ideal in terms of femininity. For example, I observed on one episode of TRL (MTV’s Total Request Live) that seven of the ten most popular music videos of the day featured male artists, suggesting that males are more suitable to hold lead positions. In the background of most of the videos, women dressed in bra-tops and miniskirts catered to the needs and wants of the featured males, showcasing their looks and sexuality. Of the three solo female artists on the show, one was outfitted in a form-fitting backless dress, and the other two in midriff-baring tops and low-cut leather pants. As a whole, the show seemed to communicate that to be feminine is to objectify oneself, display as much of the body as possible, and to submit to a man’s authority—a symbol of his success. Similar to my own findings in this particular show, Joe Gow writes in “Reconsidering Gender Roles on MTV: Depictions in the Most Popular Music Videos of the Early 1990s” that “all too often—especially as supporting characters in the videos of male singers—[women are] played as bimbos. Dressed in fishnet and leather, they drape themselves over cars, snarl like tigers, undress in silhouette behind window shades” (3). One would think that with all the feminist movements and recent empowerment of women, this portrayal of femininity would not be acceptable. A study of 300 popular videos circulating on MTV found, however, that what was thought to be a phase of the ’80s and early ’90s is still prevalent today. Seventy-four percent of the videos “portrayed women in traditional, stereotypical roles” (Kalof Dilemmas 2). Furthermore, as Gow writes in his article, “television has engaged in … ‘the symbolic annihilation of women.’ With great regularity and throughout a wide variety of programming contexts the medium has suggested to its vast and heterogeneous audience that women are much less powerful and important than men” (2). During the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was found that women were not only underrepresented by more than a six-to-one ratio, but when they were given positions in videos, they were “presented as the scantly clad targets of men’s condescending actions” (3).


Similar to the stereotypical roles found in music videos, sitcoms, drama series, and soap operas also present women in subordinate roles far more often than they present women in positions of authority. Despite attempts to change these presentations, a study found that “while over the years soap opera content has changed, the change has been in the portrayal of sexual relationships and morality, not in the portrayal of gender roles” (2). Women continued to be portrayed as inferior to males. Concerning prime-time television and sitcoms, Joe Gow found that “women in prime-time programs have been more likely than males to act seductively, while men have been more likely than females to be aggressive. Women typically have been cast as housewives or in other traditional familial roles, while men usually have been shown out of the home, often in high-status occupations” (2). It is clear that soap operas, prime-time shows, and sitcoms all contribute to stereotypical ideals.


In terms of body stereotypes, magazines and advertisements found in magazines may be the most blatant communicators of extreme physical ideals. Through a content analysis of several magazines intended for women, I found that quite often advertisements make use of the ideal female form in attempts to sell a product. Spreads of thin, long-legged, full-busted models, with strikingly symmetrical, flawless facial features occupy entire pages. In the November 2001 issue of Cosmopolitan, I counted 116 advertisements total; of the 116 ads, 81 contained such models. Similarly, in the November 2001 issue of Glamour, I found that approximately 40 ads contained full-body images of female models. The September 2001 issue of Mademoiselle contained 66 advertisements total, with 42 of the 66 showcasing ideal feminine forms. Not only are feminine ideals emphasized in advertisements, but these magazines also featured many articles concerning how to perfect one’s body and achieve an ideal form. Of the 47 total articles in Cosmopolitan, 20 focused on weight loss or body improvements. Fifteen of the 32 articles in Mademoiselle did the same. If models can easily achieve this look, why do ordinary women spend so much time struggling to do the same? Victoria’s Secret supermodel Heidi Klum sheds light on this phenomenon. When asked by a Mademoiselle interviewer whether or not she wears makeup during photo shoots, Klum replies, “They put a little bronzer on for shows, but for photos, if I have a scar or something, they retouch the photos so much that they just take everything away” (Norwood 132). The ideal images presented to women through magazines are artificially enhanced. They are not real. Why then are women made to feel that they must achieve such ideals, when they are clearly unrealistic and unattainable?


In addition to the fashion magazines directed towards an older audience (for example, Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, Glamour, etc.), many magazines for teens and adolescents (Seventeen, Teen, YM, etc.) also relay harmful messages concerning body image and femininity. In her essay “What’s a Girl to Do?” Judith Timson points out that millions of mixed-message teen magazines “feature cover lines like: ‘Quiz: Do your looks scream sexy?’” (3). They include articles such as, “‘Do you have the newest eating disorder?’ (they ask, as if it's the latest handbag)” (3). As Timson writes, “Be yourself, be yourself, the magazines insistently croon, so long as your real self has a killer body and a starlet's face. Granted, the magazines also speak to ambition and self-worth, but the image rules tyrannically over all” (3). Even young girls are misled into believing that they must achieve the unrealistic ideals depicted in magazines. They are so misled, in fact, that they often do not realize how effective ideal images are in shaping their attitudes and self-esteem.


It is in such instances, when ideals become so prevalent and women begin to unconsciously process them, that media has its most severe effects on viewers. As Henderson-King writes,An expanding critique of contemporary media points to the pervasiveness of idealized depictions of female attractiveness, which are difficult, if not impossible, to attain, and asserts that a psychological toll is taken by exposure to such images. The pervasiveness of such imagery, and the ongoing experience of failure to meet the unrealistic expectations established by these images, it is argued, result in increased concern with physical attractiveness among women and diminished self-confidence and self-esteem. …Because of their prevalence, these images are likely to be automatically, perhaps nonconsciously, processed. (1407-8)


DuCille provides another insightful perspective on these effects. Using Barbie dolls to illustrate her point, duCille describes the dolls (and any idealized images by extension) as “objects that do the dirty work of patriarchy and capitalism. … Barbie is not simply a child’s toy or just a teenage fashion doll; she is an icon” (101). The media, whether through music, TV, magazines, advertisements, etc., then sell icons, doing the “dirty work of patriarchy and capitalism” (101). It is understandable that the media must engage in capitalism to a certain extent, creating images that will sell, but must it exacerbate these ideals to such an extent that people begin to look to them as icons? When a certain person or image is made into an icon, ordinary women then feel the need to mirror this image. They begin to interpolate themselves into the lives of iconized people or images. Watching TV, listening to music, and reading fashion magazines are no longer innocent wanderings through the fantasy worlds of society’s ideals, but each of these become a “potentially damaging process not simply of imagining, but of interpellation” (101). To interpolate is to insert oneself into the fantasy worlds shown in media, molding one’s life to the lives of fantasy characters. It is the strong desire resulting from continued exposure to media to associate oneself with what Marguerite Helmers refers to in “Media, Discourse, and the Public Sphere,” as “representative characters” (255). DuCille’s Barbie dolls, TV characters, actresses, and fashion models are all examples of representative characters, which ordinary women wish to identify with. By means of publicized aspects of a representative character’s life, women pick and choose those aspects which also apply to their lives, and then strive to make those connections even stronger. As Helmers writes, the media provide people with “a certain flow of cultural material from producers to audiences, who in turn use them in their lifeworld settings to construct a meaningful world and to maintain a common cultural framework through which intersubjectivity becomes possible” (256). By imitating the lives of representative characters, women reassure themselves (although often falsely) that they are properly fulfilling society’s given roles. When fulfillment of these roles requires compliance to and achievement of extreme standards, dangerous results often occur. With thinness being one of the most common of these extreme standards, such results include eating disorders and diminished self-esteem.


In addition to the intrapersonal effects, media portrayals of gender stereotypes also have interpersonal effects, especially where violence in concerned. Kalof raises a crucial point when she writes that “the possibility that exposure to stereotyped images of gender and sexuality in music videos influences adversarial sexual beliefs has profound implications for American youth, the primary audience of music videos” (Effects 4-5). She found that in a study of 44 U.S. college students, exposure to sexual imagery in music videos had a substantial impact on attitudes toward sexual relationships. Interestingly, it was found that when considering women’s displays of sexuality in the videos, female viewers saw the displays as a result of indecisiveness and submission to a man’s pursuit. Males, however, saw the sexual acts as teasing. As Kalof writes, “Music videos emphasize sexual innuendo and suggestiveness, gender stereotypes, and implicit aggression” (1). The portrayal of women as objects, subordinate to men, insinuates that men have the dominant hand over them. Does this objectification give men the right to go so far as to physically abuse women? It certainly does not give them the right, but as Faludi says in her essay, it is society’s definition of masculinity which often leads to violence. Another such definition indicates that “within many societies, socialization of males tends to emphasize qualities such as dominance, autonomy, and aggressiveness” (Kinney, Smith, and Donzella 3). Perhaps so many males only resort to violence because their identity is being challenged as a result of a role created by society. When they do not feel as though they are properly fulfilling this role, they feel threatened and exaggerate characteristics of male dominance to ensure they are perceived as masculine. As one study found, “experiencing a self-discrepant state [a cognitive state created by the perception of not living up to expectations] should activate negative affect and trigger thoughts and memories associated with aggressive behavior” (4). Therefore, blame cannot be placed on males alone, but on society as a whole for ensuing unrealistic gender norms.


Therefore, as the responsibility of both women and men, the problem of gender role portrayals leading to violence toward women must be addressed. In her research, Kalof found that “adolescents view male-against-female sexual aggression as a typical, and sometimes acceptable, part of intimate encounters, and that younger women in particular tend to subscribe to the ideas that men will always be on the prowl and that women will always be treated as sex objects” (Dilemmas 7). Not only does exposure to sexual imagery increase “men’s acceptance of interpersonal violence against women,” but it also increases teenage “girls’ acceptance of teen dating violence” (Effects 2). It is becoming increasingly evident that “some segments of American popular culture negatively influence mood and attitudes by increasing feelings of anger, encouraging gender stereotyping, and promoting the acceptance of dating violence and rape myths” (2). Media has the tendency to objectify women into things, decorations, ornaments, etc., which is the first step to making violence against them seem acceptable. If a woman is seen not as a person, but as an object, it is easy for a man to justify treating her as such. For many media viewers, “merely observing another person being innocently victimized is enough to make the victim less worthy,” and in a sense, deserving of this treatment (Myers 366).


Because of its implications and recent feminist movements, the portrayal of women in popular culture is a highly controversial and widely discussed issue. It seems as though most of society recognizes the distortedness of gender depictions and the need for change; however, people have thus far been less than adamant about making that change. For the sake of women’s self esteem, and general well-being for that matter, some sort of change must take place. For example, as Henderson-King writes, “Given the pervasiveness of appearance-related messages in contemporary society, and given the apparent ease with which some women’s body-esteem can be diminished by these messages, our data suggest that the current social environment could result in many women experiencing unstable self-esteem” (1414). Perhaps if the media began to represent women in a more equal and realistic fashion, that representation would carry into society and help to change our cultural views concerning ideal femininity.


In light of its pervasiveness as a communicator of popular culture, the media may, in fact, be the proper place to start reforming gender ideals. In some cases, the media have already begun to make changes. One such example is the recent emergence of plus-size models. Contrary to society’s equating of thinness with beauty, Natasha Kassulke wrote an article in the Wisconsin State Journal stating that “Emme is a plus-sized model and proof that beauty comes in all sizes” (1). As “one of the more than 62 million women in America who are ‘plus-size,’ meaning that they wear a size 12 or larger, Emme’s goal is to be a voice for full-figured women—her preferred term—and to set a new standard for beauty” (1). Emme, who can be seen on the E! Entertainment Television network as well is in numerous women’s magazines, may be the first step in leading women to accept realistic body types, and to disregard ultra thin model types. As Kassulke notes, she is currently “encouraging people to make up their own minds about what is healthy, what they want to read, and which TV shows they want to watch” (1). Should the public take her initiative, society could make a gigantic step in straying from stereotypical gender portrayals. If consumers begin to demand more realistic images of femininity, the media will be forced to produce such images, and an overall change for the better may be achieved. Considering the long-standing nature of current stereotypes, this change would be monumental and exceedingly beneficial to women’s overall health.

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Works Cited


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Henderson-King, Donna and Eaaron. “Media Images and Women’s Self-Evaluations: Social Context and

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Kinney, Terry A.; Smith, Brian A.; Donzella, Bonny. “The Influence of Sex, Gender, Self-Discrepancies, and Self-

Awareness on Anger and Verbal Aggressiveness Among U.S. College Students.” Journal of Social Psychology. Vol. 141 Issue 2 (Apr. 2001): p245, 31p.

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Ed. April Lidinsky, et. al. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002. 475-501.

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White, Kate, ed. Cosmopolitan Nov. 2001.
Changing images: a long road

Bernadette van Dijck

‘We are journalists. We tell it how it is. You cannot expect us to make the world prettier than it is.’ Discussions with programme teams about gender portrayal often become heated affairs. Both male and female programme-makers have difficulty acknowledging that the way men and women are portrayed on television is still fairly stereotypical. Women appear on screen less often than men and they hold the floor for less time. ‘If this picture really is accurate, the fault lies with reality, not with the journalist.’ And that is precisely the conclusion that the Gender Portrayal Department of the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation (NOS) rejects. The fact is that reality is far more varied than the image we see on television. Change in the way we see men and women must come first and foremost from journalists.

Ever since 1991 the NOS Gender Portrayal Department has been concerned with the image of men and women projected in programmes on Dutch radio and television. After an initial phase largely taken up with research, the Department has more recently concentrated on the journalistic process by which images are formed and the influence that particular pragmatic decisions can and do have on gender portrayal. At the heart of the Department’s approach are awareness and change, and a key concept is ‘quality’: by focusing attention on gender portrayal you switch off the automatic pilot and an item becomes better journalism. But paying attention to gender portrayal is also important for managers and policymakers. Public service broadcasting in the Netherlands is obliged by law to broadcast programmes that reflect society, and varied gender portrayal is an essential part of this. However, it is still the viewers who have the last word: they expect public service broadcasting to offer programmes in which we can all recognize ourselves, man and woman, black and white, old and young.

Actively stimulating more varied gender portrayal in programmes is a necessary element of public service broadcasting, the NOS Management Board recently concluded. For this reason, it has been decided that the Gender Portrayal Department should be given a permanent place within the structure of the organization. This is a brave decision, given that it means taking a critical watchdog on board. But it is also a unique decision, because it means that public service broadcasting is now taking the initiative to build bridges between programme-makers, audiences and media critics.

Time

For years research into gender portrayal has consistently revealed the same patterns. For every woman on screen we see two men. At the same time, men appear in roles with a higher status, e.g. as experts and authorities, while women appear principally in lower-status roles as e.g. victims and passers-by. Reporting on the changing roles of men and women in society often implicitly assumes that women are principally responsible for child-rearing and home-making while men are responsible for income and management. (Eie, 1998)

At first sight, changing this picture would seem to be mainly a matter of time: as women become more and more emancipated and take an increasing share of paid employment, gender portrayal will change of its own accord. We have now reached the stage at which almost half of all journalists in the Netherlands are women, yet there is nothing to indicate that this has done anything to change the content of programmes or the image they project. Stereotyping is not so much a function of the sex of the programme-maker, it is deeply rooted in the routine of journalism. Any attempts to bring about change will have to concentrate mainly on changing that routine. The motives and arguments for change must be found in journalistic considerations.

Journalistic choices

Changing journalistic routines begins with charting the journalistic production process. Programme-makers are constantly taking decisions, and they do so under great pressure of time. What subject is about to become news? What angle should we approach when we report on a particular subject? Who do I choose as the spokesperson? Where shall I put the camera? What questions shall I ask? What background pictures do I show? These decisions are often rational and individual, and in the perception of many journalists their view of the position of men and women in society plays no part in them whatever. Yet the sum of all these individual choices continues to show the stereotypical pattern that I described earlier.

Let us look at an example. In the Dutch parliament a debate is in progress on a new bill designed to regulate the admission of refugees. The government proposes various measures, the opposition has alternative plans. This is all properly reflected in the report in the news. A politician from one of the progressive parties of government explains the basis of the bill. A politician from the conservative opposition party puts forward another proposal. The progressive party responds. The view of the refugee interest group is put in the voiceover. The statements made by the various parties are interspersed with archive footage of refugees at an asylum seekers’ reception centre.

The spokespeople are all white middle-aged men. ‘That’s coincidence’, is the journalists’ initial response. ‘And anyway it doesn’t matter because the subject has nothing to do with men or women, it’s about the new legislation.’ From the point of view of gender portrayal, however, it is not a coincidence and it does make a difference who acts as spokesperson and who one is talking about. The choices made in the making of the programme serve to reaffirm and reassert an existing power structure.

Screening gender

When you confront programme-makers with this pattern, most of them are horrified and come up with all sorts of plausible explanations. ‘There was no female spokesperson, we only had a couple of hours to put the item together, we had no money for an interpreter. And besides: surely it’s all about the story, the subject, and not about who tells it?’ All these remarks are true and legitimate. And yet it is still important to ask whether things could have been done differently. What angle would you have had to choose in this case to let women or ethnic minorities express their views? How much time would you really have needed to make a better item? What would you have asked if you had had an interpreter? What kind of story would someone other than the politician have had to tell? And is that story important to the viewer, the citizen trying to form an opinion about the parliamentary debate?

By asking these questions we appeal to the reporter’s journalistic responsibility and curiosity. The automatic pilot is switched off for a moment, the choice of a particular approach has to be rationalized. This makes it clear what consequences pragmatic decisions have for the meaning of the images you ultimately broadcast, and hence for the story you are telling. It is precisely in these observations that the germ of change lies.

The audiovisual training toolkit Screening Gender collects together pieces of video footage that ask these questions. It was developed by five northern European public service broadcasting organizations, of which the NOS was one. (Screening Gender 2000) The patterns of gender portrayal identified by academic research are illustrated visually with the aid of recent television footage. Alternative examples, some of them news items produced specially for the toolkit, demonstrate what kind of gain in quality can be achieved by paying attention to gender portrayal. Programme-makers explain how they achieve more varied gender portrayal and what benefit they derive from it. In June 2000 the toolkit was distributed to training institutions affiliated to the European Broadcasting Union.

Global Monitoring Media Project

One of the constant challenges facing the NOS Gender Portrayal Department is how to find fresh angles when entering into the dialogue with programme-makers. The Global Monitoring Media Project organised by the WACC on Tuesday 1 February 2000 gave us a good opportunity to bring the various target groups for whom we work into contact with each other. We invited women’s organizations, ethnic minority organizations, researchers, programme-makers, managers and young journalists to come and have a collective look at what part women and men play in the news of the day. We promised them a fun day during which we would not only work but also, together, visit the seat of government in The Hague. There we would be joined by politicians for the last part of the programme, analysing the news as presented on television.

Over eighty people accepted our invitation and worked in groups filling in the code lists. Monitoring is clearly important: statistics have the power to reveal the true balance. Or, as one of the young journalists put it, ‘It’s as if the news suddenly tipped on one side, as if you were reading the newspaper through 3-D spectacles’. Next day, the results of our monitoring were in almost every Dutch newspaper. More important than the figures, however, were the day’s conversations. As the day progressed, it became increasingly clear to both programme-makers and journalists that the world inhabited by those with whom they were now engaging in dialogue was being largely overlooked by ‘the news’. Where were all the young people, the women, the ethnic minorities?

On 1 February they were mainly victims - literally: in the UK, where medical doctor Harold Shipman had been found guilty of murdering at least fifteen of his elderly women patients and the news was on almost every front page, even in the Netherlands - or problem cases: the papers were full of a study of school children from ethnic minority backgrounds, who were performing poorly in the education system. Is it any wonder that people no longer follow the news, if there’s so little in it that they can recognize as relevant to their own lives?
But there was more insight in the other direction, too. Those who represented women’s organizations and ethnic minorities came to realize that the journalistic process is governed by rules that determine what is news and how it has to be presented. If you want to influence the news as an interest group, the first thing you have to do is stick to these rules. For example, you will have to train some energetic spokespersons who can put your point of view concisely and lucidly so that journalists will be prepared to listen to it.

Changing images

Deliberately setting out to initiate a process of change so as to produce greater diversity in the media image not only of men and women but also of ethnic minorities: that is the complex task facing the NOS Gender Portrayal Department for the coming years. But while it may be a complex task, it is one that is not only supported by those at the top of public service broadcasting in the Netherlands but also empowered by a statutory framework. By concentrating on the journalistic debate we hope to be able to advance the right arguments to bring about change. But it is through the meeting of minds that the importance of that change will become a live issue. And in that process, programme-makers, critics and viewers all share part of the responsibility.

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Notes

Eie, Birgit, 1998. Who Speaks in Television? A comparative study of female participation in television programmes. Oslo: NRK

Screening Gender (June 2000); a training toolkit for innovation in programme production. Produced by: NOS (Netherlands); NRK (Norway); SVT (Sweden); YLE (Finland); ZDF (Germany).

Bernadette van Dijck studied linguistics and film at the University of Utrecht. She has worked as a programme-maker and journalist since 1983. She was appointed Head of the Gender Portrayal Department at NOS in 1998.
Globalisation of the media and its implications for women’s expression

Meena M Shivdas

The women, media and development relationship has been analysed by media activists and academics in the Asian region since the 1970s. The focus then was on highlighting unacceptable stereotyped portrayals of women in the media. Subsequently, calls were made for more women journalists in media organisations to initiate change. The shift in focus since addresses such issues as the unequal flow of information, gender biases in media policy, media’s treatment of violence against women, questions on pornography, implications of satellite and telecommunications technology including issues of Internet usage and pornography on the net. These issues have added more complex layers to the women and media relationship. The following article raises questions on some of the contradictions and conformations encountered when feminists have analysed and assessed the impact of globalisation of the media in women’s lives.

The overarching process of globalisation of economies and the changing socio-economic realities in countries as a result of it are of particular interest to feminists analysing women and media issues. This is because the globalisation process has implications for the media portrayal of women and men and women’s access to new technologies. Despite some headway made in changing the women and media relationship, many issues continue to remain on the feminist agenda even as new issues have emerged. Issues surrounding representation and portrayal continue to challenge women media activists and concerns are raised about the promotion of a homogenous culture and the media’s trivialisation of violence against women. Other issues engaging media activists are the ambiguity of media accountability mechanisms and the mega-mergers of media conglomerates. However, women’s varied and diverse responses to the globalisation of the media through their role as active creators and consumers of the media have not been fully explored.

By illustrating some of the Asian experiences with the media, this article attempts to unpack the complexities shaping the women and media relationship with a view to pointing to the conformations and contradictions in the perceptions and experiences of the media by women in the region. While a detailed analysis of the effects of globalisation of the media in women’s lives in the Asian region is beyond the scope of this article, it offers a brief overview of the various factors that currently shape the women and media relationship. An attempt is also made to record women’s responses to new technologies and the globalisation of media images. It concludes by referring to some of the concerns raised by media activists and practitioners in the global review of the implementation of Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action and points to factors to consider for a sharper analysis and understanding of the issues at stake in the women and media relationship.

Media issues of concern to women

Feminist analyses of the media point to the following trends in various countries:

  • Corporate ownership of media that has forged powerful political and business links and sets limits on freedom of expression;
  • Foreign ownership of media that has implications for accountability issues;
  • The creation and interpretation of news that are shaped and influenced by factors associated with the control of media by governments, advertisers and business groups;
  • Existing media codes that do not have a gender concern or address issues such as the portrayal of violence against women;
  • Persistent stereotyped portrayals of women and marginalisation of women’s perceptions and experiences by the media that continue to negate women’s roles and contributions as equal partners in development;
  • Absence or minimal representation of women in senior positions and posts of authority in media organisations;
  • The presence of transnational media corporations and the consequent beaming of homogenous media images and perceptions of women;
  • Influx of pornographic material and data banks on women through the Internet, video tapes and VCD and also through the print media;
  • Influx of computer and video games that violate women’s images and reinforce violence against women.
  • Through the efforts of feminists, women’s groups, academics, media practitioners and research and training institutions, there have been innovative and creative use of the media to change stereotyped portrayals of women and present women’s perceptions and life experiences. There have also been initiatives instituted at the policy and organisational levels to initiate change. Although many changes to the women and media situation have been instituted by forging strategic alliances between women activists and women media practitioners, crucial areas remain. For example, the need to lobby for policy changes, sustain programmes on training, increase awareness raising on media issues and engage the public in media monitoring to mobilise their power as media consumers.
Conformations and contradictions in perceptions and interpretations

Theoretically, the globalisation of the media can and should mean that the diverse voices, images and opinions from around the world are heard and seen by everyone. In actual fact, this is not so. Current trends in communication and information world-wide conform to the larger trend in globalisation. Gallagher (1995a) opines that, although the presence of women working within the media has increased, real power is still a male monopoly. The power to shape and influence media therefore continues to elude women. Further, media mergers have concentrated power in a select few mega corporations and more importantly, blurred the old boundaries between information, entertainment, production and distribution, and other aspects of global information/communication processes and culture (Gallagher, 1995b). Media conglomerates present a worldview that not only reinforces their power in the global system but also reflects that system (Schiller, 1989). As a consequence, the dominant news agenda often does not include the perceptions and experiences of women and marginalised and disadvantaged groups. Therefore any analysis of the media including the considerations for gender portrayal has to consider the larger issues of the political economy of communication.

A crucial aspect of globalisation of media which has implications for the women, media and development relationship is the blurring of national boundaries and, thereby accountability. Butalia and Chakravarti (1996) report that in many places, the state no longer sees itself as accountable and it does not bind private enterprise including media conglomerates to any sort of responsibility. Women have recognised that within the current media environment any kind of external regulation or control of media is virtually impossible particularly in the case of satellite imaging. Further, Internet technology, given its very nature, eludes monitoring and regulation and poses more complex problems for the women and media question.

Another complex dimension is added to the analysis and understanding of the impact of the media on women’s lives through the differing views held by feminists on the issue of pornography and its regulation. While some feminists opine that the call for more stringent regulation could become a threat to freedom of expression, others perceive pornography as a form of violence against women that cannot go unchecked. The dilemma for many feminists becomes critical. While a call to check pornography runs the risk of colluding with the moral majority that lobbies for censorship in all areas of expression, issuing no call of any form leaves women vulnerable given the rapid growth of the pornographic industry.

The question of the media’s treatment of violence against women also sees competing discourses - some feminists contend that there may be a connection between the depiction of violence and sexuality in the media and violence in women’s everyday lives. However, other feminists argue that the reportage of violence in women’s lives is presented as a bizarre phenomenon and the work of aberrant individuals whereas women are often physically and sexually assaulted by men they know.

Other issues that continue to pose problems in interpretations and responses by women media activists are women’s media images and their representation in media organisations, the contradictions with seemingly positive images and ideologies, and the perceived threats to cultures from the beaming of homogenous images of women. Analyses of the global media processes and their connection with the national scenarios point to the promotion of a homogenous culture which raises questions of cultural imperialism, the threat to diverse media images and the potential impact of the media on women’s lives (Sreberny, 1995; Bhasin, 1994; Hermano, 1990). However, counter arguments suggest that there is scope offered by the globalisation of media for creating heterogenous images through providing new sources for creativity (Abu Lughod, 1991; Davies, 1991).

Feminists in South Asia have drawn a connection between globalisation of the media and the
religious backlash they face and have rejected sexist/passive homogenous foreign images of women. Butalia (1997) asserts that in India, the influx of foreign images of women (blonde, blue-eyed), has enabled Hindu right wing groups to also claim that foreign programmes are corrupting Indian traditions and morals. We therefore have a situation where both feminists and right wing groups in India are against the beaming of foreign images but for different reasons. In contrast, the women in Central Asia appreciate foreign images of women that reinforce stereotypes. As Azhgikina (1995) points out, women’s images from the Soviet era never reflected existing realities and were seen as an imposition of a particular political ideology with the result that now, Central Asian women want to reclaim the femininity denied to them by the
Soviet regime.

From the issues and concerns raised about the women and media relationship, the differing positions of feminists on these issues and the responses of various groups (eg., women media consumers, general public, right wing groups), it is evident that there has to be a deeper understanding of the connections we make between globalisation and women’s portrayal and representation at the local levels. For a sharper analyses and understanding of the women and media relationship, the questions to raise should focus on how women can advance their interests as a gender through the media given the differing political, ideological, religious, socio-cultural and economic factors shaping and influencing their lives?

Five years after the 4th World Conference on Women took place in Beijing, the UN held a review in June 2000 to evaluate the implementation of the Platform for Action (recommendations and strategies for women’s advancement agreed upon by member states). Women’s groups presented assessments of the implementation of Section J on Women and Media. The following section offers excerpts from the global alternative review compiled by women media activists and media practitioners.

The picture after five years

There are continuing concerns reflected in the global review of the Media Section of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA). Section J of the BPFA highlighted five key points in the women, media and development relationship. These are:

  • The advances made in information technology, particularly the scope for communication networks to transcend national borders, that have benefits and disadvantages for women;
  • The increase in the numbers of women who work in the communications sector, however, this has not translated in increased access to power and decision-making in media organisations; women are also not able to influence media policy;
  • The lack of gender sensitivity in media policies and programmes; increased promotion of consumerism; and the need to create self-regulatory mechanisms for the media;
  • The continued stereotyped portrayal of women in the media and the increase in violent and pornographic images of women;
  • The obstacles to women’s ability to access the expanding electronic information highways; and the need to involve women in the development and dissemination of new information technologies.
  • The alternative report showed that five years after governments adopted the BPFA and committed themselves to implementing the recommendations, many of the concerns expressed in Section J remain while new ones have emerged. Information from the various regional reports indicate that although some progress has been made in implementing recommendations from section J, a lot of this has to do with the sustained monitoring, networking and lobbying efforts of women’s organisations and media watch groups. This is indicated in NGO as well as government reviews and analyses.
Both official (UN) reviews and NGO reports indicate that there has been an increase in the numbers of women entering media organisations at the professional level and there is an increase in the percentage of women students graduating from journalism and mass communications courses. The women and media situations in both Asia Pacific and the Latin America and the Caribbean conform to this trend. However, there is a continued negative portrayal and representation of women that may be linked to the lack of implementation of national media codes and, in some cases, even to the lack of existence of such codes. Women continue to have limited access and participation in decision-making in the media industries and governing authorities and bodies that oversee formulation and implementation of media policies. From the foregoing it can be said that more still needs to be done by GOs, media organisations and NGOs to achieve the two strategic objectives outlined in Section J.

Even as Section J captured some of the concerns of women activists, researchers and women media practitioners in its analysis of the women and media situation, not all dimensions of the women and media relationship are explored. The economic and political realities within which transnational media corporations perpetuate inequalities and inequities are not addressed and women’s vulnerabilities as traditional keepers of indigenous knowledge within this environment are not acknowledged. Women media activists therefore expressed their concern with the absence of analysis of the globalisation of media, particularly mergers of transnational media corporations and changes in media ownership at national levels that have a bearing on media content and intent.

Activists from the Asia Pacific region asserted that the strangleholds of transnational media corporations were edging out nationally owned media enterprises leaving even less space for women in both the mainstream and alternative media. In addition, globalisation of the media was paving the way for increased commercialisation, consumerism and more importantly, homogenisation of cultures resulting in the marginalisation of the voices of minority and indigenous cultures and peoples. In Latin America and the Caribbean, women activists were concerned that giant multimedia organisations controlled different kinds of media resulting in unequal representation of all social actors. Such crucial issues as freedom of expression and information, and mechanisms for accountability with increased use of ICTs (information and communications technologies) engaged women activists in Europe and North America.
Women in Latin American and Caribbean noted that the weak democracies in most of the countries in the region functioned within inflexible structural adjustment programmes imposed on them leaving their institutions, the media among them, vulnerable to vested economic interests. This has implications for media’s role in mobilising civil society and promoting democratisation and political participation. The report called for a deeper understanding of the connections made between globalisation and women’s media portrayal and access to expression and decision making in all media including ICTs (Global Alternative Review of Section J, 2000).

Conclusion

The points raised in the review of implementation of Section J of BPFA reveal the complex layers and dimensions that need to be deconstructed and understood and call for relevant analytic frameworks that include the socio-political and economic realities of women’s lives. While it is important to strategise and apply pressure for changes to the women and media situation with our reading and understanding of portrayal and representation, it is equally important to understand the implications of global processes of deregulation and developments in new technology. This is in order for us to locate interventions within the framework of globalisation and new technology that have given new dimensions to freedom of expression as we understand it and its potential to virtualise human experience.


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Meena M Shivdas is currently a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Development Studies, UK. This paper was originally written for a regional congress on gender and media policy organised by WACC and Isis International in 1997. The author elaborates further on the analysis of globalisation of the media in this article and has added a review of the implementation of Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action.