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| Monday, 12 July 2004 |
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Mainstream press and gender sensitivity by Lasanda Kurukulasuriya An edited version of a paper presented at a regional conference on "Gender and Media" organized by the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) and Sancharika Samuha (Forum for Women in Media, Nepal), held in Kathmandu, Nepal on June 26-27. There are no available studies of gender breakdown in Sri Lanka's mainstream newspaper organizations. The concept of gender itself is still not widely acknowledged and is only beginning to be incorporated into mainstream parlance and policy making.
One statistic that is evident is that there is not a single woman editor in the mainstream press. The following data is gleaned from Dharman's Media Guide of Sri Lanka - Year 2004 Edition, published by the Sri Lanka Environmental Journalists' Forum. The male/female breakdown below was not computed by the publishers but is based on a count of the names of key editorial staff such as deputy editors, news editors, features editors etc. who are listed for the general interest newspapers (Sinhala, Tamil and English). Daily newspapers: Editors Key editorial staff M F M F 11 0 72 13 Weekly newspapers Editors Key editorial staff M F M F 18 0 71 11 These figures would indicate, not surprisingly, that women are under-represented at the higher management and decision-making levels in the mainstream press. The general newsroom culture continues to be overwhelmingly male-chauvinist. Studies done so far in the area of media and gender have monitored newspapers for articles relating to gender issues, critiqued the content of their "Women" pages and highlighted negative stereotyping of women. Treatment of gender Admittedly this is not enough. Any serious study of newspapers in relation to gender would have to look at articles and images of men and women that appear throughout the newspaper generally, as well as those that appear in pages dedicated to specific subjects. These would have to be analysed in relation to the intentions lying behind their publication as well as in relation to their reader impact. Who handles these pages, what are the assumptions that lie behind the choice of content, whom do they "target?" If changes are suggested, in the interests of more responsible reporting, would the editors/managers be amenable? If not, why? How do market imperatives influence editorial decisions? These are some of the many inter-related questions that need to be asked, in order to identify the forces at work in obstructing a more progressive approach to gender. It is not just the lack of serious reporting on gender issues that needs to be addressed, but the need for greater sensitivity to gender in reporting and presenting all editorial content, just as greater sensitivity is required in matters relating to race, class, religion, disability and age. Such a change in the newspapers content would be manifested in style of reporting, choice of language and judgment in the treatment of stories, e.g., how much prominence to give the story, what kind of pictures if any, what kind of headline, what other stories it is juxtaposed with, etc. Most mainstream English language newspapers have finally sensed, at some level of their editorial managements, that the inclusion of segregated "Women" pages is patronizing. Having realized perhaps that their standard content-formula of recipes, fashion, childcare advice and beauty hints is sexist in its assumptions about women's interests and roles, most of them have discreetly dropped the "Women" tag from this type of content. By no means does this indicate that sexism has been eliminated. If one looks at the images of women that appear repeatedly and in greatest numbers in newspapers, they are of fashion models, beauty queens and film stars. There is the occasional sportswoman picture in the Sports section and woman head-of-state on page one. All the mainstream newspaper groups carry a fashion spread once a week, featuring mainly female models. Some papers in addition carry a full page of pictures of people at society events and cocktail parties - mainly urban, affluent women, who are identified by name. The pictures are accompanied by write-ups describing their attire in great detail. This is relatively speaking, a lot of valuable editorial space to devote to a very small segment of women. In the absence of positive or empowering images of women elsewhere, the overall effect of this preponderance of fashion-and-society images is to associate women with social frippery. Hence the overall impact is sexist. Where are the women professionals, the women workers who earn most of the country's precious foreign exchange, the breadwinners, the businesswomen, the artistes, the war widows, the schoolgirls-who invariably fare better than their male counterparts at exams, the outstanding sportswomen? Such women still remain relatively invisible in the mainstream newspapers. On the positive side, an attempt has been made to take a progressive approach to gender issues in at least one weekly women's supplement, which has lately carried articles on subjects such as women in politics, verbal abuse, the manipulative effects of cosmetics advertising and the increasing incidence of rape. However, this content tends to be diluted with other material completely unrelated to gender. There appears to be difficulty in sustaining a supplement of this nature in the long run and it would be interesting to find out why. Gender related issues need to be dealt with more thoroughly in the general news and feature pages of mainstream newspapers and not merely in columns or pages dedicated to women. Most women's issues have something to do with patriarchal attitudes or behaviour and problems can be traced to male-dominated bureaucracies and environments of one kind or another. So these discussions need to address both women and men. They are everybody's business. Suggestions Some suggestions that emerge from these observations are that, to improve gender sensitivity in the mainstream press - 1) Women would need to be more visible at the higher decision-making levels of the news organisations. 2) Awareness-raising is required within news organisations, especially at editorial and management levels, to bring about changes in style and content of reporting. 3) When it comes to increasing gender-related content in newspapers, there appears to be a "supply" problem regarding the matter, even when there is positive motivation on the part of the news organisation. The reasons for this could be complex and need to be explored. In conclusion it must be said that the use of these various devices to check the media with respect to their treatment of gender, or any other subject for that matter, at all times needs to be balanced by a respect for the freedom of expression. Because if that freedom is not safeguarded, we may not even be able to talk about women's rights. |
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While exact figures of staff breakdown at various levels are not
available, it is possible to say from newsroom experience, as well as from
indicators such as by-lines and attendance at press conferences and other
events, that there is no shortage of female journalists in the field. One
might even surmise that there is something like a 50-50 balance of men and
women at the level of reporters and sub editors. This is not necessarily a
reason to rejoice, because it could have something to do with the fact
that journalism is not seen to be a very lucrative career option and is
therefore not attractive to males.
