- “About Us.” Just Yell Fire, 2008. http://www.justyellfire.com/
- “Body Image: The Media Lies,” Our Bodies, Ourselves. http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/excerpt.asp?id=2
- “Industry Statistics,” Media Report to Women: Covering All the Issues Concerning Women and the Media. http://www.mediareporttowomen.com/statistics.htm
- “Media Coverage of Women and Women’s Issues,” Media Awareness Network, 2010. www.media-awareness/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/.cfm
- “Research and Statistics.” The Women’s Media Center, 2009. http://www.womensmediacenter.com/index.php/resources/research-and-stats.html
- Brown, Rick. “Anne Royall: America’s First Professional Female Journalist?” Historybuff.com. http://www.historybuff.com/library/refroyall.html
- Gerber, Robin. Official Site. http://www.robingerber.com/
- Greenwald, John. “Barbie boots up.” Time Magazine, November 11, 1996. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985509,00.html
- Kilbourne, Jean. “Beauty… and the Beast of Advertising.” Center for Media Literacy, http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/beautyand-beast-advertising
- Mindich, David T.Z. “Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News,” Oxford University Press, 2005. Pages 54-56.
- Smolowe, Jill. “Nipped, Tucked, and Talking.” People Magazine, Vol. 57, No. 6, February 18, 2002. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20136440,00.html
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Works Cited.
Conclusion: Drawing Parallels.
The issues women are confronted with everyday in journalism and the media greatly outnumber the obstacles their male counterparts face. The only way to change the downward spiral women are facing is to encourage positive representation in the media and news.
Instead of journalists focusing on women's style and sexuality, they must focus on:
- The issues. What are female politicians fighting for?
- Athletes' abilities. Make news coverage of female athletes equal.
- Views of women. Focus less on their sexuality and more on their intellectuality.
- Pay equity. Why are women still earning less than their male counterparts?
- Equality. Female journalists should be equally represented in positions of power.
- Respect. The media's message is that women are objects. This needs to end.
Although these ideals may seem unreachable, every little difference can lead to a larger change but the people must demand this of the press.
Strong women of today:
Image Source: nydailynews.comFemale journalists and sexual assault.
In the course pack, an associated press article title “TV reporter’s assault highlights women’s issues,” shows how sexualizing women and devaluing them in the media can seriously affect reality. In the article, a senior U.S. television correspondent experienced “a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating” by a frantic mob during the last night of an 18-day revolt in Egypt. Another article in the course pack, “Four female journalists stripped naked in Sierre Leone,” states that four women were humiliated and degraded when they were stripped naked in Kenema District in Eastern Sierra Leone. The journalists were covering events that marked the “International Day Against Female Circumcision,” when they were attacked and abducted by supporters. The women were also forced to march the streets naked and were only freed after the police intervened.
Fact: Teenage girls face a one in four risk of sexual assault. If the media uses less exploitative representations of women and the news reports more on sexual assault awareness, this statistic could decrease.
Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsqH5X7qQCM
Women's worth measured by weight.
Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and a half times more advertisements and articles endorsing weight loss than men’s magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise, or cosmetic surgery. Television and movies reinforce the importance of thinness as a measurement of a woman’s worth. Heavier actresses often receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies in the media. Unfortunately, 80 percent of these negative comments from males are followed by canned audience laughter.
Advertising companies fuel news industries and have a large influence on what is reported and depicted in the media. Advertisers believe thinness sells products. When the Australian magazine New Woman recently included a picture of a full figured model on its cover, it received an abundance of letters from satisfied readers asking for more. However, the magazine’s advertisers complained and the magazine returned to featuring extremely thin models.
Jean Kilbourne argued that the overwhelming presence of devastatingly thin women in the media has a negative impact on female readers. Women are judging their own bodies and trying to live up to impossible standards of beauty, which has led to increased competition in women for men’s attention and the presence of eating disorders.
Source: “Body Image: The Media Lies,” Our Bodies, Ourselves.
The message: thinner is better.
Women’s magazines are filled with articles and advertisements stressing weight loss as the key to a perfect and happy life. This mainstream idea of beauty is achievable for a very small number of women.
Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and she would have to walk on all fours to move around. These standards have made their way into every form of media in America’s culture. Pressure to be thin and beautiful is weighing down today’s girls and women. In 2003, Teen Magazine reported that 35 percent of girls ages six to twelve have been on at least one diet, and that 50 to 70 percent of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Overall research indicated that 90 percent of women are dissatisfied with their appearances in some way. This is because of the way the news industry and the media are portraying women to be perfect.
Media activist Jean Kilbourne said, “Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which makes us feel anxious about our weight.”
Photo source: clutch.mtv.com
Women’s bodies are everywhere in the media and on the news and are especially plastered all over advertisements. Popular film and television stars are becoming younger, thinner, and taller.
Beauty before brains?
The idea of beauty before brains has never been more prevalent in the news than it is today. According to People, when news show host Greta Van Susteren moved from CNN to Fox News in early 2002, she underwent surgery to alter her face and appear younger and more beautiful to viewers. When her new show, “On the Record,” premiered, her hair was perfectly in place and she sat behind a table so viewers could see her short skirt and legs.
Author Robin Gerber said, “Before her surgery, Van Susteren had been an increasingly visible beacon projecting the hope that women had made progress. You believed that she made it in television because she was so darn smart, clearly the best legal analyst on the air.”
Photo source: thumpandwhip.comHowever, her surgery represents the many ways that women are using their appearances to become important, remembered figures but for the wrong reasons. This proves that beauty is becoming more imperative than what a woman has to say. Gerber concludes that Van Susteren “has become a painful reminder of women’s inequality… Being smart, smarter, and smartest is not enough. By trying to become just another pretty face, Van Susteren instead became another cultural casualty.”
Source: Smolowe, Jill. “Nipped, Tucked, and Talking.” People Magazine, Vol. 57, No. 6, February 18, 2002. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20136440,00.html
Women underrepresented in sports.
Sports journalist jobs are also overwhelmingly white and male.
Women are just...
- 6 percent of sports editors.
- 10 percent of assistant sports editors.
- 6 percent of sports columnists.
- 9 percent of sports reporters.
- 16 percent of copy editors and designers for sports news.
Women as athletes are also disparaging in the news. Margaret Carlisle Duncan and Michael Messner studied sports coverage on three network affiliates in Los Angeles and found that only nine percent of airtime was devoted to women’s sports, compared to the 88 percent dedicated to male athletes.
Image Source: womentalksports.com
Language used by sports commentators (which are 97 percent male) is also gendered. Commentators describe male athletes as...
- Big.
- Strong.
- Brilliant.
- Gutsy.
- Aggressive.
Commentators describe women as...
- Weary.
- Fatigued.
- Frustrated.
- Panicked.
- Vulnerable.
- Chocking.
Professor Pat Griffin said, "When it was once enough to feminize women athletes, now it is necessary to sexualize them for men. Instead of hearing 'I am woman, here me roar,' we hear 'I am hetero-sexy, watch me strip.'"
Source: “Media Coverage of Women and Women’s Issues,” Media Awareness Network, 2010. www.media-awareness/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_coverage.cfm
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Women of color ignored in media and press.
Another issue in journalism is the misrepresentation of ethnically diverse women in the media. In a study conducted in 2008, by Juanita Covert and Travis Dixon titled “A Changing View: Representation and Effects of the Portrayal of Women of Color in Mainstream Women’s Magazines,” found that although there was an increase in the representation of women of color, overall, white women were overrepresented in mainstream women’s magazines from 1999 to 2004.
Click here to view a news clip on CNN regarding African American women and media representation (or lack of).
Images of women in power always skewed.
The lack of representation of women is detrimental to the public’s views because the news is not showing women as competent leaders and the views of young girls as well as adults regarding women in power will be less serious. Professor Caryl Rivers also notes that politically active women are often belittled and stereotyped in the media. When Hillary Clinton was first lady, she was referred to as a “witch” or “witchlike” at least 50 times in the press. Rivers said, “Male political figures may be called mean and nasty names, but those words don’t usually reflect superstition and dread. Did the press ever call Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, or Clinton warlocks?”
Click here to read the types of language used to portray women in power (specifically Hillary Clinton) in a negative light.
And click here to see how photos can be used to belittle women in power.
Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-IrhRSwF9U
Underrepresentation of women in the news.
Women as professionals, leaders, and athletes also continue to be underrepresented in the news. When they are present, stereotypes distort who they actually are as women and even what they actually look like. Women have been steadily becoming professionals over the past twenty years, but most mainstream press coverage still focuses on men as experts on the topics of business, politics, and economics. Women are more likely to be featured in stories about accidents, natural disasters, or domestic violence than in stories about their professional abilities.
Canadian journalist Jenn Goddu studied newspaper and magazine coverage of three women’s lobby groups over a fifteen-year period and discovered that journalists tend to focus on the domestic aspects of female politicians’ lives. For example, Michelle Obama is constantly judged for her choices in fashion and has been featured in entertainment magazines regarding her beauty practices and fashion choices, although this is rarely a topic of discussion for Barak Obama.
Insufficient coverage of women and their issues is a worldwide occurrence. In 2000, the Association of Women Journalists studied news coverage of women and women’s issues in 70 countries.
- Only 18 percent of stories quoted women.
- The number of women-related stories came to barely ten percent of total news coverage.
News talk shows are also showing these trends. The White House Project proves that...
- Only nine percent of the guests on Sunday morning news shows such as Meet the Press and Face the Nation are women.
- These women only speak ten percent of the time.
Women’s voices are increasingly lost from the news and the only way to change this is to make sure women more present.
Source: "Media Coverage of Women and Women’s Issues,” Media Awareness Network, 2010. www.media-awareness/issues/stereotyping/women_coverage.cfm
Female Journalists even less present in print.
Women only make up a third of the full-time staff at daily newspapers. They also only make up one-third of the top 100 collective opinion columnists in the United States. The ratio of male to female writers in national “general interest” magazines from 2001 to 2005 was three to one. The bylines in the nation’s top intellectual and political magazines are also overwhelmingly male.
In an analysis of eleven magazines published between October 2003 and May 2005, male-to-female byline ratios varied from thirteen to one at the National Review to seven to one at Harper’s and the Weekly Standard.
- Women as opinion columnists at the eight largest news companies make up fewer than 25 percent.
- Finally, according to data from 2007, 82 percent of Presidents, Publishers, and CEO’s at large newspapers were men,
- 74 percent of Editors, Executive Editors, Senior Vice Presidents, and News Vice Presidents were male,
- 52 percent of all newspaper personnel were male.
Even after almost 300 years of newspapers and news media, men are still dominating the field in every way.
Source: “Industry Statistics,” Media Report to Women: Covering All the Issues Concerning Women and the Media. http://www.mediareporttowomen.com/statistics.htm
Source: Tribune Media Services.
Wage Gap: Female journalists earn $9,000 less than males!
On average, women make 75 cents to every dollar a man earns. This wage gap is greatly represented in the journalism profession. According to the Women’s Media Center, women only hold three percent of the positions of power in mainstream media. Only one in four communications and media jobs created between 1990 and 2005 were filled by women.
Groups such as Fox Entertainment, McGraw-Hill, and advertising firms Grey Global Group and Omnicom do not have women in any of their executive positions. White men are paid 29 percent more than white women and 46 percent more than women of color in the communications and media sector.
- The median salary for male journalists in all news media is $46,758, but the average salary for women is $37,731.
“With few exceptions, we have not moved beyond tokenism in the number of women in top leadership positions or serving on the boards of communications companies,” Susan Ness, former Federal Communications Commission Commissioner, said in 2004. “Men still hold the vast majority of positions. The glass ceiling is firmly in place.”
Source: Christian Science Monitor.
The Issues.
Although greater numbers of women are entering the journalism profession today, there are still many issues they face that men do not. To list a few...
1. Underrepresentation of women in positions of power, specifically in the journalism field.
2. Pay inequality; Men's work is valued higher than women's work in our society.
3. Women as politicians, celebrities, athletes, and citizens depicted in stereotypical ways.
4. Media's standard of beauty as limited, which leads to...
5. All women seen as beauty objects and beauty is valued and depicted over intelligence; the idea of beauty before brains.
6. Sexualization of women in the media, which leads to...
7. Female journalists as victims of sexual assault.
8. Lack of media coverage of women and women’s issues.
9. The imbalance of male to female reporters in certain news areas (such as sports).
10. The need for positive female role models in positions of power and as journalists to provide a more realistic representation in the media and on the news.
Here is a trailer for a new documentary called "Miss Representation," which introduces many of the issues I will confront throughout my blog project.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
First Female Journalist: Anne Royall
Women have faced great obstacles through their journey into the journalism field simply because of their gender. Journalism has been present in America since colonial times when Benjamin Franklin's brother, James Franklin, published the first colonial newspaper called the "New England Courant" in 1722. By the 1770s, 89 newspapers were published in 35 cities, but all reporters were male. By 1800, there were about 234 newspapers being published. Yet again, women were absent from the news field. Women were restricted by law from becoming professional journalists and they faced significant discrimination within the profession.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, women started to advocate for their right to work as professional journalists in North America and Europe. Anne Royall is noted as the first professional female journalist in the United States, who began her career at age 51, in 1824. That is 100 years of journalism without women...
Source: Brown, Rick. “Anne Royall: America’s First Professional Female Journalist?” Historybuff.com. http://www.historybuff.com/library/refroyall.html
Anne Royall, first professional female journalist in the U.S.
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