Gender in Communication MCS1000 PDF

Gender in Communications MCS1000 – Aspects of Comunication Ms Sandy Calleja Portelli Sandy Calleja Portelli my story … industry; education; research; activism. what IS ‘gender’?  Key concepts - Sex Biological difference – the...

Gender in Communications MCS1000 – Aspects of Comunication Ms Sandy Calleja Portelli Sandy Calleja Portelli my story … industry; education; research; activism. what IS ‘gender’?  Key concepts - Sex Biological difference – the internal and external sex organs, reproductive difference that do not change over time, place, or culture.  Key concepts - Gender Gender is fundamental to our identity. A social construct that changes across time and space. Characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine, and how these notions are applied to people based on their sex. Gender roles are socially constructed behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Transgression is a taboo, but some transgressions are less acceptable than others.  Key concepts – Sexual Orientation Sexuality (or sexual orientation) refers broadly to an individual’s physical and/or emotional attraction to a person of the same or opposite sex. Sexual orientation is interpersonal. LGBTIQ+, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer (or questioning), has become the common shorthand to inclusively reference this diverse set of sexuality and gender based identities and communities. Gender is confused with sex because people justify their ‘decisions’ on what roles should be like on the sex of a child/person “Talking about gender for most people is the equivalent of fish talking about water” J. Lorber, 1994 Why address Gender Issues in the Media? The media play a key role in regulating social practices (individual behaviour) The images and messages produced and circulated by the media result in knowledge and values We use the media to judge others and ourselves GENDER is one of the identity constructed and represented in media culture Stereotyping, marginalization,… Why is gender inequality an issue in society? With men viewed as the ‘standard’, products, pharmaceuticals, services are not tailored to the needs of 50% of the population. Businesses with women in key decision-making roles tend to perform better. Families with women as the sole earner are more likely to experience poverty. Understanding Stereotyping is when we produce a convenient mental picture of what something is like, based on faulty Gender and generalizations rather than facts. Stereotyping A stereotype is a shortcut used to describe something very complex quickly. Its effectiveness is achieved through the exaggeration of a few characteristics of a few people in the category of people the media wants to represent. For example, women make bad drivers or men do not know how to clean! Understanding Gender and Stereotyping Stereotyping is something we all do. We may not even be aware we are doing it!! Stereotyping often leads to prejudice and discrimination. Where is the gender imbalance? Gender-mainstreaming - in the media and beyond …  looking at the media through a gender lens  Women in the Media: An Overview How are women and girls portrayed or represented in the media? How are women placed as practitioners working in the media industry? Who is talking?  The Media Workforce Several studies have confirmed horizontal and vertical labour market segregation within media industries. Women are under-represented in the media workforce, particularly at senior, decision-making levels. Research from the European Institute for Gender Equality found that women are under-represented in decision- making roles in European media industries  The European Women’s Audiovisual Network found that while women represent almost half of directors graduating from film schools, the overall proportion of female directors working in the industry is less than one-quarter. European media industries are still by a significant gender pay gap, gender-based discrimination, and sexual harassment. (McCracken et al., 2018: 7)  This is, in turn, associated with the production and distribution of media content that reflects and expresses the gender inequality present in the media workforce and wider society. (McCracken et al., 2018: 7) Barriers to women’s participation in the workforce include direct and indirect discrimination, inadequate access to mentors and support networks, and inflexible workplace structures that do not meet the needs of women who have childcare responsibilities. (McCracken et al., 2018: 15)  In Northern Europe television programmes women: constitute just 32% of participants are most highly represented in programmes dealing with human relations, family, social, and health issues and least represented in programmes dealing with crime, technology / science, and sport usually appear in low status roles are more likely to be under the age of 19 than over 50  Not only are women less visible overall in media content but, when present, their portrayals too often conform to sexist tropes. Women are, still, commonly framed in stereotypical (home- and family-focused), sexualised, or auxiliary roles, and as less authoritative, capable, and serious than men, which fails to reflect the reality of women’s diverse lives and contributions to society. (McCracken et al., 2018: 7) “It matters profoundly what and who gets represented, what and who regularly and routinely gets left out; and how things, people, events and relationships are represented. What we know of society depends on how things are represented to us and that knowledge in turn informs what we do and what policies we are prepared to accept.” (Stuart Hall 1986:9)  Advertising Advertising is one genre that systematically depicts women as objects, uses men to speak for women, stereotypes women in the worst roles and places them in the binary of ‘young, sexy, skinny and stupid’ vs. ‘old, frumpy, fat but sensible’ – women are generally not portrayed as diversifying from those two paradigms. Advertising and Gender Gender Bias in advertising - the Geena Davis Institute (2017) 2,000 English-speaking advertisements from 2006 to 2016  Invisibility Older women, women outside the heterosexual norm, black women, women of African/Asian origin – absent or depicted in a narrow range of stereotypes (Gill, 2007)  Goffman was a sociologist who is most known for his Face Theory Erving Goffman – Gender Gender Advertisements was a Advertisements seminal analysis of advertising illustrated how popular culture reflects and shapes normative concepts of gender (masculinity and femininity)  Bechdel Wallace Test 3 rules: 1. Must have at least 2 named women 2. Who talk to each other 3. About something other than a man Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media 2020b  The film contains a character that is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or Vito Russo Test transgender. of LGBTQ representation That character must not be solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity The LGBTQ character must be tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect (meaning - the character must matter) GLAAD, 2024a GLAAD, media __________________________________________ Women make up only 25% of the persons seen, heard, or read about in newspaper, radio, and television news (only 1% more than they did in 2015). In contrast, 3 out of 4 of the people who appeared in the news were male. (GMMP 2020) Women in decision-making roles (in boardrooms, senior management, management) in the media account for just 32% of all top level, decision- making roles in the EU-28. In some states, including Malta, women find it difficult to reach top- level posts in media organisations. (EIGE, 2014)  What is the GMMP Project? The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) is the largest and longest-running research on gender in the world’s news media. It is also the largest advocacy initiative on changing the representation of women in the world’s news media. GMMP data has shown that news paints a picture of a world in which women are virtually invisible. Women are dramatically under-represented in the news, with only 24% of them serving as news subjects and sources. Every five years since 1995, GMMP research has taken the pulse of selected indicators of gender in the news media, including women’s presence in relation to men, gender bias and stereotypes in news stories and other content. The most recent edition — the 6th — took place in 2020. All things remaining equal, it will take at least a further 67 years to close the average gender equality gap in traditional news media. GMMP 2020 All things remaining equal, it will take at least a further 67 years to close the average gender equality gap in traditional news media. GMMP 2020 GMMP 2020  References European Institute for Gender Equality, Combating Violence Against Women: Malta (Vilnius: EU Publications Office, 2016) The World Bank, The World Bank in Gender, 14 April 2020 https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender/overview GLAAD, 2024 Studio Resonsibility Index, https://glaad.org/sri/2024/ GLAAD, Where We Are on TV 2023-24, https://glaad.org/whereweareontv23/ Global Media Monitoring Project, https://whomakesthenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GMMP- 2020.Highlights_FINAL.pdf Williams, R., Culture and Society 1780 – 1950 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1958, repr. 1963) https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/jun/11/how-we-made-spare-rib-magazine