MEDIA DISEMPOWER WOMEN

Media Disempower Women

Media Disempower Women

This paper summarises and tailors the accounts of a semiotic analysis of women contributing to the media industry.

Introduction

The cultural symbolism of national TV anchors—of women in authority presenting the news—remains an important yardstick for the progress of women overall in the media, print, and broadcast. Women in the media—in print, broadcast, and online—have not only symbolic but real power if they are present in enough numbers and have enough clout. Their presence in newsrooms can—and has helped—alter the definition of what is covered and what is news, whether it is giving prominence to education and other beats wrongly considered to be only of interest to women, reporting on the status of women worldwide, or proving that politics, national security, and war reporting all are jobs in journalism that women and men are equally capable of doing. (Bradley, 2005, 23)

History of Women

Colonial women were not encouraged to work outside the home at all. Therefore women who published newspaper during the colonial period are especially notable because they are among the few examples of women who managed business early in the nation's history. Early colonial women printers, such as Anna Zenger, usually belonged to printing families that trained wives and daughters to work in the print shops. By the time the American Revolution began, at least 14 women had been printers in the colonies. One of these family-trained printers was the first woman publisher.



Discussion

Women in the media also are role models for young girls and young women, just as are other women in the public eye; and the gains of women in the media are a public reflection of the gains of women in all fields. Yet as long-time women's advocate Ambassador Linda Tarr-Whelan notes in her 2009 book on women's leadership, Women Lead the Way, the news about women in many fields today is that after significant and important progress in employment and promotion in years past, the percentages of women in positions of power—from boardrooms to the ministry—remain stuck in low, and may even be going backward today. (Brooks, 2008, 65)

In the important fields of broadcast and print journalism, as in other fields, women have made great strides, symbolically and in real numbers—but the 30% solution and a seat at the executive table where decisions are made remain elusive. With an economic downturn causing layoffs and cutbacks at major newspapers and TV news organizations, specifically in the face of declining revenues and circulation in the Internet media age, there appears to be a climate in which there is less pressure—not more—than before for affirmative action for women and minorities in the media. (Vennochi, 2007)

Although news executives say they are committed to increased diversity, the number of women and minorities in senior positions and in management have remained at close to the same percentages for the past decade, according to annual surveys of newsrooms by the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), the industry's ...