"Sex tourism on the internet is at the confluence of issues of race, gender, sexuality, technology and globalization. Increasingly, information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as the internet, are playing a particularly significant role not only in the promotion and packaging of sex tour
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ism but of a new type of global surveillance of bodies, race and desire (Gabriel, 1998, 2000; Ware and Back, 2002). Cyberspace enables sex tourists to build deeper connections between the racialization, sexualization and commodification of sex workers' bodies and Western masculinity. Like chat rooms (Travers, 2000), MUDs (Turkle, 1995) and MOOs (White, 2002), sex tourists use discussion boards to exchange information and give immediate feedback on their experiences. In this culture of hypertext, users are active contributors to the representation of sex tourism as the recombinant nature of the discussion boards allows them to be consumers and producers (Elmer, 2004: 56; Landow, 1992). The members of this community discuss issues and places with the intention of buying sex and from the experiences of that desire and pursuit. This raises important concerns regarding dystopian and utopian outcomes of internet use. Instead 884 Media, Culture & Society 28(6) of ICTs making us freer and more democratic, they may be deepening social inequality and structures of difference." (Abstract)
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"Women and Media" is a thoughtful cross-cultural examination of the ways in which women have worked inside and outside mainstream media organizations since the 1970s. The book provides an overview of the key issues and developments in feminist media critiques and interventions over the last 30 years
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, beginning with the extant literature in this growing field and ending with a new study of women's media activism in 20 nations. The authors recount and analyze the first-hand narratives of nearly 100 women media activists whose work has contributed to the making of a feminist public sphere that has moved women leaders and agendas more forcefully into their societies. This highly original empirical base, and the Model of Women's Media Action that the authors developed from it, provides a unique account of women's struggles to improve, create, and otherwise employ media in pushing for social change. The text is written in a concise, engaging style, laying out the central concerns about the women - media relationship as it has operated in a variety of political/critical contexts. It can be used alongside "Women and Media: International Perspectives" (2004), by the same authors." (Publisher description)
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"The Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication—a South African multi-media health promotion project—together with the National Network on Violence Against Women, formulated an intervention to address domestic violence. Recognising that behavioural change interventions aimed so
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lely at individuals have limited impact, the intervention was designed to impact at multiple mutually reinforcing levels; individual, community and socio-political environment. The intervention and its evaluation results are presented. Soul City successfully reached 86%, 25% and 65% of audiences through television, print booklets and radio, respectively. On an individual level there was a shift in knowledge around domestic violence including 41% of respondents hearing about the helpline. Attitude shifts were also associated with the intervention, with a 10% increase in respondents disagreeing that domestic violence was a private affair. There was also a 22% shift in perceptions of social norms on this issue. Qualitative data analysis suggests the intervention played a role in enhancing women's and communities’ sense of efficacy, enabling women to make more effective decisions around their health and facilitating community action. The evaluation concluded that implementation of the Domestic Violence Act can largely be attributed to the intervention. While demonstrating actual reductions in levels of domestic violence was not possible, the evaluation shows a strong association between exposure to intervention components and a range of intermediary factors indicative of, and necessary to bring about social change. This paper reports on the evaluation, discusses its limitations and challenges as well as lessons learned regarding multi-level interventions on domestic violence." (Abstract)
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"Nearly one woman in ten does not listen to radio at all. However, the results of the survey indicate that over half (51.4%) of women does not listen at all, or seldom listens to radio. This situation is not due to the competition from television, but rather to the fact that the majority of women do
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not have a radio and, to a lesser extent, to their core duties which leave them little time to listen to radio. The effect of the high impact of household core could be reduced if these women had their own radio sets. Indeed, an overwhelming majority of the women was classified as "housewife", which is not incompatible with listening to radio. Young people, in particular teenagers, have a lower level of access to information through radio. Health programs usually target this age group which should also be a focus for women promotion programs. It is all about women, who, while being still young, are becoming mothers and heads of a family. Their needs for information would seem to be thus more significant than those of other women. This is, however, the group that shows the least interest in radio. Moreover, radio management should see to it that these teenagers get more interested in their programs. This lack of keen interest from teenagers could be due to the fact that they have a more significant access to television. Women with lower incomes and those from the regions have the lowest rates of access to radio programs. These results tally with the low rate of radios owned by women. The results show a positive link between radio ownership rates and the percentage of women who listen to radio everyday. Very few female listeners (5%) contacted radio stations to take part in a program. This participation is somewhat easier for women who have access to telephone. However, the costs of communication could be a deterrent considering the low incomes of the population." (Executive summary)
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"This toolkit is divided into two key sections. Section One - defines the conceptual issues on gender and media advocacy; looks at why the media should be a focus of gender and feminist activism; highlights the key issues for gender and media advocacy using the findings of the Global Media Monitorin
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g Project (GMMP) 2005; and discusses the various target audiences key to achieve change. Section Two - provides the tactical information on the steps, tools and strategies that are useful in gender and media advocacy; provides tips and pointers on how to engage with the media and how to put gender on the news agenda. Information boxes, case studies and discussion points are provided in the various chapters. At the end of each Section, the user will find a glossary of key terms used in the chapters, and a summary of the key pointers and issues that have emerged from the chapters." (Page 6)
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"This focus analyses strengths and weaknesses of the media coverage of the 16 Days of Activism Campaign. The authors explain the current media representation of gender-based violence and the changes that need to be made to ensure that gender-based violence issues are covered more substantially and r
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egularly in the media. This focus also critiques the quality of media articles and the degree to which comprehensive analysis of gender-based violence issues are dealt with in the press and whether or not the media coverage adds new information to the debates around gender-based violence." (Abstract)
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"There is a huge disparity seen in the representation of men and women in the coverage of the twenty-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka. Most of the media coverage had been facilitated by the military during the period of the conflict. These, however, were not regular and only afforded a one-sided view
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of the conflict. The media visits organized by the military in the days of the war and the consequent visits or organized by peace-building forces were almost always represented by male journalists, while almost all individual assignments initiated by newspapers on the realted issue were also passed onto men. Less than a handful of women managed to conduct such coverage, and the few who went had to put up a regular fight for their assignments. The average ratio of female to male journalists would be one female journalist to 10 male journalists." (Introduction)
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