"Women on the air are usually viewed through a traditional model - in the context of their relationship to their husbands or children – and not as individual beings with a broad range of interests and needs. As a result, radio does not currently meet the needs of women, and women do not participat
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e as much as they would normally otherwise be willing to do. For the latest generation of young women, it has become easier to overcome traditional cultural obstacles as well as to embrace the newest technologies that allow them access to a public platform. However it is still difficult to get ordinary women – of all ages – to come and talk on the radio about their experiences, opinions and interests. This will not change without an increase in women radio presenters and contributors – more women's voices need to be broadcast, and outside of the stereotypical contexts, to encourage greater female ownership in community radio." (Executive summary)
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"The findings from this stuy indicate that the Papua New Guinea (PNG) press is not helping to highlight and address the issue of family violence, which is a social hindrance to development in PNG. This is supported by arguments of lack of prominence given to family violence stories, unreliable sourc
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ing, negative representation of women as victims, especially of rape, and lack of investigative journalims which is essential to address family violence and its root causes." (Conclusions, page 81)
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"Based on a year's research from within a Brazilian slum, this study follows a series of unemployed women who watch up to six hours of telenovelas a day, often in the midst of arduous physical labour in the home. The women suffer in relation to their bodies, but simultaneously invest in a masochisti
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c glorification of suffering that links their lives to the soap operas, revealing disturbing valuations of the female body that traverse reality and fiction. Through its exploration of this daily integration of real suffering and fictional glamour and wealth, 'Body Parts on Planet Slum' reveals how fantasy and social exclusion can together induce a form of psychological survivalism, enabling these women to reconfigure the central features of their existence – their suffering, pleasure, sexuality and embodiment." (Publisher description)
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"This article aims at reviewing the condition of Iraqi female journalists specifically after the US invasion in 2003 by using different Arabic and English sources. The study argues that female Iraqi journalists enjoyed new freedoms of speech and got new opportunities to improve professionally after
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2003, but many of them were harmed because of the spread of lawlessness, and thus they were mostly drawn to their sect or ethnic group as a protective measure to secure them from outside threats. After the US invasion, some journalists who wanted to cover the events in a balanced manner were threatened, kidnapped or assassinated by armed groups, militias and political parties. This fact has further enhanced the polarization of these journalists. Iraq has become known as the worst place for journalists to live and work; thus, it is not surprising that the circumstances Iraqi female journalists go through are probably some of the worst in the world." (Abstract)
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"Media activism groups work to bring about change in the mainstream media, but their gains are often limited. Drawing on theories of the political function of news in a democracy, media sociology, and feminism, this article focuses on the specific experience of Gender Links, a Southern African gende
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r and media organization founded in 2001. An analysis of institutional materials and 25 in-depth interviews shows that Gender Links is using a professional-technical approach to feminist media activism that is insufficient in bringing about deep and long-term change on an ideological level. It is suggested that Gender Links could benefit from more emphasis on political and countercultural approaches. The research also highlights some of the other dilemmas posed by issues related to funding, networking, the grassroots, press freedom, the profit motive, and the strong backlash from a patriarchal culture." (Abstract)
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"This article aims at understanding the popularity and cultural and social significance of the highly prominent Chinese television show Super Girls’ Voice (the 2005 season), a talent contest largely modeled upon “reality shows” such as American Idol in the United States and Pop Idol in the Uni
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ted Kingdom. We focus particularly on whether the show, as some critics have claimed, has altered the power relationship between the media and the audience. Theoretically, we follow Couldry’s (2000) framework and consider the media’s construction of the symbolic boundary separating the “media world” and the “ordinary world” as crucial to the legitimization of media power. Based on an analysis of media discourses, review of publicized materials about the show’s organization, and a focus group study on young female audience members, we contend that the Super Girls’ Voice has involved a temporary suspension of the media/ordinary boundary. Yet the boundary was re-established toward the end of the show, thus relegitimizing media power. The audience members, meanwhile, were largely complicit throughout the process: they both enjoyed the temporary suspension and the ultimate re-establishment of the media/ordinary boundary." (Abstract)
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"The Gender, Agriculture and Rural Development in the Information Society (GenARDIS) small grants fund was initiated in 2002 to support work on gender-related issues in information and communications technologies for the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions. GenARDIS recognises the constraints and
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challenges encountered by rural women, and has disbursed small grants to diverse and innovative projects in order to counter these barriers, to document the process and results, and to contribute to more gender-aware ICT policy advocacy. GenARDIS has supported projects which are as diverse as the countries where they are located. Over the years, GenARDIS has learned from and documented projects such as women’s community radio drama groups, pest control through information access, and using technology to promote women’s inheritance and land rights. Grantees have supported deaf women in Ethiopia to generate their own income through digital photography, and enabled rural mothers to earn additional income for their families because they can market to buyers from outside their community. In some areas, women small farmers are no longer being taken advantage of by the middleman as they now get a fair price for their crops by sending a simple SMS." (Pages 5-6)
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"The article discusses the coverage of politics in South African women’s magazine Fair Lady in selected years from democratisation in 1994 to ten years later in 2004. In a democracy, the media has the explicit duty to inform society. Within this context three questions are asked: (1) Which politic
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al themes are covered? (2) In what genres do the political items feature? (3) In what ways does the magazine focus the reader’s attention on political items? These aspects were selected to provide a clear view of the extent and manner in which Fair Lady presents politics in its content. This study was done by means of a qualitative content analysis. By focusing on these issues and by drawing on the functions of the media; the agenda setting theory; the schema theory and the on-line evaluation theory, it is argued that the magazine deems politics as important and incorporates it on its agenda to provide readers with necessary political information which they might not otherwise attain. Fair Lady overcomes the fact that politics does not traditionally feature in women’s magazines by taking care in attracting and keeping readers’ attention to political items. The publication (especially in 2004) can be held up as an example to other women’s magazines trying to fulfil their function as a medium to educate and inform readers whilst at the same time not alienating the entertainment-seekers." (Abstract)
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"Die Bedeutung von Medien für den Krieg und das Gendering des Militärischen sind zwei seit langem kontrovers diskutierte Themen in den Medien-, Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften. Weisen etablierte stereotype Bilder von friedfertigen Frauen und kriegerischen Männern in gegenwärtigen medialen Texte
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n Brüche und Widersprüche auf oder werden sie im öffentlichen Diskurs bekräftigt? Wie tragen populäre Medienangebote in verschiedenen kulturellen Kontexten zur Legitimation oder Infragestellung von militärischen Institutionen und Gewaltakteuren bei? Welche Rollen nehmen Journalistinnen im Spannungsfeld von Kriegsberichterstattung, Konfliktbearbeitung und emanzipatorischen Vorstellungen ein? Der Band versammelt Beiträge von WissenschaftlerInnen unterschiedlicher sozial- und geisteswissenschaftlicher Disziplinen, die mediale Repräsentationen, Bilderpolitiken, Narrationen und Artikulationen von Gender in Krieg und Militär in synchroner wie diachroner Perspektive analysieren." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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