Looking beyond the ‘body count’ in the Caribbean

In 1998 media activists and media workers from eleven countries in the Caribbean drew up the Kingston Declaration on Gender and Media Policy. Marjan de Bruin

Like declarations on this topic drawn up in other regions in the world, it stated principles, intentions and guidelines designed to improve media coverage on gender issues. It focused on content (portrayal), media employment (women’s share in production and decision making) and professional behaviour (codes of conduct). The following article explores what happened next.

The 1998/1999 issue of Media & Gender Monitor said the Kingston Declaration was ‘strongly worded’, to be taken back and ‘used in media houses, and to be employed in the revision of national and regional communication policies.’ But what was the significance of this meeting, apart from the product - ‘A Kingston Declaration’? Was it the start of new developments? Was it an expression of development? Was it a milestone or just a symbolic milestone? Something to mark history, to refer to, but without any consequences?

There was a series of post conference plans, some of which - especially the regional ones - were never realized for the usual reasons: key individuals were too busy, there was no budget and since, the majority of the participants were women, all of them were overcome by work. The intention to start email-networking for instance, never got off the ground. But at a local level, some of the plans were realized as part of work programmes locally. WMW (Jamaica) followed up with consultations with media workers and lobbying activities. The Women and Development Unit in Barbados (WAND) trained women and men with disabilities in new information technology.

I will relate a selection of activities, which took place nationally and regionally and more importantly indicate the shift in thinking and approach that seemed to inspire these recent activities. I will take Women’s Media Watch in Jamaica, and CARIMAC (The Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication) as two examples of actors in this field. WAND in Barbados also continued the fight but sketches a pessimistic picture. WAND, Judith Suarez: ‘The Kingston Declaration has no impact on the media in Barbados as the principles were not implemented. Women continue to be portrayed negatively, there is no legislation guaranteeing time and space for women’s programmes, there is no evidence of a Code of gender ethics.’

Repositioning

Women’s Media Watch (WMW) in Jamaica repositioned itself, not as a result of the Kingston Declaration but as a result of introspection and feedback. The Declaration was more a confirmation, an encouragement, than an initiator in this change.

WMW Jamaica originally started as an action group against media violence, exploring how this may contribute to legitimizing and perpetuating violence against women in Caribbean societies. Not a single news item, advertisement or television drama in which violence was glorified could occur without WMW being on top of it: writing letters, calling editors, giving interviews. Many of these examples of media violence also became the subject of discussions and analyses in WMW workshops with participants from, for instance, children’s homes, police youth clubs, and women groups.

The result was not only positive: yes, the organisation attracted new members, women who were equally concerned about the one sided portrayal of women in the media, but it also developed an image of WMW as a group of men-bashing feminists. Hilary Nicholson, founding member of WMW, explained: ‘Initially the strategy was immediate and reactive: turning towards the creators of programme content and media content - journalists, advertisers, programme directors. Much of the lobbying was critical, initiating public outcry or debate about offensive images or messages. The image that we were promoting was an anti-men image and one ‘against the media’ image. The effect was that we alienated ourselves from the media. We deliberately sat down to think about a new approach.’

The efforts of WMW Jamaica to change its image were not inspired only by public feedback. A much more important driving force was the growing understanding of the context in which media production was taking place. The product that WMW was protesting against was an end result of a complicated process in media organizations. Public outcry alone was not enough to achieve any change. The production process itself needed to be looked at in much more detail. Who were the actors responsible for what was presented to the audience? The individual journalists was one of them, but she or he was also only a link in a long chain of decision-making.
WMW decided to focus on the various players in the field and to choose a different approach. ‘During the last three to five years we have tried to work through positive reinforcement. Instead of pointing out what in our views were weaknesses of the media, we focused on achievements, commending journalists for good work, congratulating media houses. We established Media Awards.’

The organisation discovered that inside the media houses’ major allies were to be found. Hilary Nicholson: ‘We tried to build alliances with media workers, who are potential allies. We networked with young journalists, often female, with similar concerns, struggling with conservative editorial policies and traditions.’

Closer contact with journalists showed how the often stereotyped portrayal of women in media was partly due to the routines in choosing sources. Male sources were often easily available and used to dealing with media. The well known pattern in journalistic practice of selecting sources that are ‘suitable’ and ‘available’ could also be seen in the Caribbean. But there are many sources which could present women in the news in a different light: as independent active contributors to development. So why sit back and wait for change? WMW put together a list of women who were willing to speak as sources on radio talk shows and distributed this list among media workers who began to use these women as alternative spokespersons on a variety of issues.

WMW: ‘We strengthened our regional and international contacts through active exchange with international and regional institutions and agencies. We became a steady partner for CARIMAC, the regional training and education institution for the English speaking Caribbean and part of the University of the West Indies.’

Change of focus in research

CARIMAC too had begun to change its focus, especially in the area of research on women/gender and media. Given the lack of any data on media and gender up till 1994, CARIMAC had originally placed heavy emphasis on quantitative baseline studies. Before 1994 there was very little systematic documentation on the state of women in Caribbean media and communication. There was no research on their situation, how they were portrayed, their position in the media, their influence of lack of influence, their power or lack of it, or on any other aspect of women and media in the Caribbean. Maybe it reflected the field of communication in general, which was described in the late eighties as ‘a latecomer to feminist scholarship’ (Dervin, 1987: 11).

The lack of local research meant a dearth of local perspectives. Most research on women and media had been conducted in First World countries and had been published through the larger, well-known distribution networks. The Euro-centric or Anglo-American perspective was of limited use to a developing region: especially to one with such diverse cultural influences and scarce resources as the Caribbean. In addition, what was published was very restricted in its circulation. It was often easier to get information on the region from foreign sources than from the Caribbean itself. These difficulties were not typical only for the Caribbean region. Complaints from women researchers in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific were similar: shortage of research and exploration, many small scale studies and initiatives but no overall picture (Abu Nasr and Abul-Husn, 1994; Adagala and Kiai, 1994; Balakrishnan, 1994; De Bruin, 1994; Emberson, 1994).

Against this background CARIMAC, decided to concentrate on trying to fill the gap and to come up with regional baseline studies. Several of these studies were done within a period of five years and published in global text books (Gallagher, 1994; Jimenez-David, 1996) and were also made available in regional publications (De Bruin, 1994; Francis Brown, 1995). The main topics were employment patterns and content analyses. CARIMAC conducted two regional surveys (1993/1994 and 1997/1998) which, although limited to mainstream media in a selection of countries, allowed comparison over time. The pattern was similar to what was noticed world-wide: increases in women’s share in the total media work force, accompanied by increases in women’s share of senior positions; also the disproportionate spread of women over certain areas and positions.

Fewer women than one would expect (from the %age of women throughout the media organisation) were found in the editorial departments, and fewer women occupied leading or decision-making positions (middle management and even more so in senior management). The same under-representation that was only too familiar from research elsewhere over the last twenty-five years (Abu Nasr and Abul-Husn, 1994; Adagal and Kiai 1994; Balakrishnan, 1994; Butler and Paisley, 1980; Emberson, 1994; Gallagher, 1981; Gallagher and Von Euler; Johnson, 1993; Rodriguez and Silva, 1994; Van Zoonen, 1994; 1995, Weaver, 1997). Apparently the Caribbean was no exception.

Although these baseline studies in the English-speaking Caribbean were necessary and useful, and brought Caribbean research on gender employment patterns in media up to par with research in the rest of the world, they were also limited. The varieties in media size made it difficult to generalize across the region: companies ranged from those employing three hundred or more people to media run as a family business. In the smaller media there is a minor degree of horizontal division of labour; many people take on overlapping tasks. There is none of the usual distinctions of layers in management: no middle and senior management, just a small group of people who run the business, and sometimes own it.

A more important limitation, however, reflected the political and linguistic fragmentation of the region. CARIMAC’s reach covers most of the times only the English-speaking Caribbean. There is no institutionalized exchange between the English, French, Spanish and Dutch speaking territories.

Methodological challenges

At a methodological level, comparing different regions of the world through separate research projects is not easy. Approaches of major studies are often different: some researchers focus on women’s overall share in the media jobs and look at the entire media organisation (e.g. Gallagher, 1995), while others limit themselves to news organisations, i.e. editorial departments (e.g. Weaver and Wilhoit, 1996).

Even within ‘global studies’ there is an imbalance in the representation of regions. Gallagher’s benchmark study on gender patterns in media employment for instance, which is generally referred to as a global standard reference book and which has a wealth of information on individual countries, also shows an over-representation of Europe: almost half the 43 countries and almost half of the 239 organizations involved are European. Countries of Asia and Oceania - covering in global terms about 60% of the world population - are almost totally absent. Close to one fourth of the 43 countries are in Southern Africa, but only 12% of the 239 organizations covered by the study are located in Southern Africa - only one section of a continent with about sixty countries. Latin America is represented by about two thirds of this continent’s countries - although Brazil, by far the largest, is missing - and accounts for about 16% of the 43 countries involved. About 30% of the 239 organizations covered by the study are located in Latin America.

Although Gallagher assures us that ‘reliable comparisons could be made across organizations and countries’ (1995: 10) there are some gaps that make these comparisons difficult because the selection of media organizations for individual countries looks rather uneven. For instance: Argentina (population 34.7 million) has only one media organization (radio) represented in the overview, and Colombia, with approximately similar population (36.8) is represented by 17 media organizations. Mexico, with a population almost seven times larger (91.8 million) than
Chile (14.2 million) has 12 media organizations represented, while Chile has 14.

A similar difficulty lies in other studies with statements about vast continents, such as Africa. When Adagala and Kiai write that ‘on average women represent less than 20% of workers in African media organisations’ (1994:13) it is very unlikely that a substantial portion of the approximately 60 countries that make up ‘Africa’ has been included.

The same gaps are mentioned for research taking place in smaller regions, for instance Europe, where many research reports have been produced. Researchers note the lack of comparative studies and the geographical imbalance - for Europe itself (European Commission, 1999: 34,35).

Beyond the body count? From presence to practice to politics

What does the stream of studies on gender employment patterns world-wide, all reflecting an uneven gender division of labour, tell us? What do we see? What in fact do we want to know by looking at employment figures? Does looking at the increased presence of women in the newsroom tell us more about changes in institutional priorities of media houses, on behaviour of media practitioners, and on media output? Voices around the world reflect a variety of opinions on this point: uncertainty, sometimes hope, often disappointment (Abu Nasr ,1994; Balakrishnan, 1994; Beasly, 1993; Creedon, 1993; Emberson, 1994; Gallagher and Von Euler, 1995; Mills, 1997; Rodriguez and Silva, 1994).

How useful is it to focus mainly on employment patterns and women’s presence in media organizations? If the quality that we associate with women’s presence is not necessarily embodied in women physically, but related to social practices embodied in conventions and rules at a formal and informal level, then focusing on women’s presence is not enough. It is time to look ‘beyond the body count’.

Academic debates show a similar turn in thinking. Recently, more systematic research on the interaction of gender and organizational variables has emerged. Counting men and women, although necessary and useful, is also seen as only scratching the surface of the realities of media. Various authors over the last few years have began to problematize gender and media production by defining and looking at the gendered sub-structures in the media organization (Allan, 1998; Carter, 1998; De Bruin, 1998; Kitzinger, 1998; Skidmore, 1998; Steiner, 1998; Van Zoonen, 1998b). The emphasis has changed from figures on job and task descriptions to the use of gendered symbols, values, meanings and significations.

This turn can be seen in Caribbean research, as well as in Women’s Media Watch activities and priorities. CARIMAC’s researchers concluded that the descriptions of practices and discourses in the various case studies and essays, actually prepared new ground for distinguishing organizational, professional and gender-identity, certainly at a conceptual level. In later research this would also be helpful at an operational leve (De Bruin, forthcoming). These identities are not static and fixed, but constructed and continuously renegotiated through many processes. Research foci have shifted from overviews of employment patterns towards cultural interpretations of every day work, analyses of actions and language as feminine or masculine, and the restructuring of relations in the media organization.
WMW has taken several initiatives to go beyond the individual media worker and to reach out to the various levels of media production, recognizing that it needs to go beyond the surface. It has made stronger alliances with professional interest groups outside of the media houses, such as the professional fraternities. WMW: ‘We not only organised gender-sensitivity training sessions for media personnel, but we also linked up with the national press association in, the Press Association of Jamaica.’

Current research executed by WMW on gender and violence in media portrayal is going to be used in co-operation with CARIMAC in advocacy and lobbying media managers and in the teaching of media, gender and development courses at CARIMAC. Also WMW compiled a substantive review of literature on research projects, theoretical frameworks and political/public activism focussing on the effects of media violence on behaviour, especially of youngsters’. The main objective of this review is ‘to bridge the gap between the groups involved in this debate’; between those academics who have become cynical, saying causation is hard to prove and those who think enough credible research has become available as a basis for action (Walker, 2000: 5).

The major problems with most of the (research) projects are the shoestring budgets available, which are barely enough to put the findings together, and certainly not enough to distribute them into the public domain.

WMW has recognized the need to get into the consciousness of the media. Much more work needs to be done to identify and secure economic resources to make this possible. It also needs a strategy to develop a constituency which demands better from the media, a strategy to implement the intentions of the Kingston Declaration. The two strategies should combine to produce a push/pull effect, convincing the media managers that they must respond to the more exacting demands of their audiences. It may also mean that pressure groups like WMW should pay more attention to the economics which are the driving force in many media managers’ decisions. As one media manager has said, the organisation is willing to make any qualitative improvement as long as it is ‘sexy.’

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Drs. Marjan de Bruin is Senior Lecturer at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication, the University of the West Indies. She is a Board member of Women’s Media Watch Jamaica and president of the Gender and Communication section of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Her research interests are professional socialization; gender; dynamics in the newsroom; quality of media coverage.