Current Issue
Abstracts of Vol 12(1), April 2006
Edited by Janet Bedggood and Allison Oosterman
Editorial
A legacy of gendered culture
Janet Bedggood and Allison Oosterman pp 5-9
Theme:
CONTEMPORARY GENDER ISSUES:
1. Who makes the news? Promoting gender equality in and through the news media
Anna Turley pp 10-14
2. Gender and journalism
Pru Goward pp 15-19
3. The pervasive power of man-made news
Judy McGregor pp 21-34
Abstract: Since the first woman was appointed as editor of a major newspaper in New Zealand in the mid 1980s, what has been the progress of women to top editorships? And what is the status of women at governance, management and staff journalist levels? These questions examine gender equality issues and are important given the power and ubiquity of the news media in modern society. The article analyses participation of women in the news media against the so-called ‘feminisation’ of pre-entry journalism training. The findings show that little progress has been made at editorship level, while there is more progress for senior women just below editorship level. Further, there is a difference in the status of women in governance of public service versus privately-owned broadcasting. The article is critical of the data available to monitor participation by gender and ethnicity in New Zealand journalism over time. Strategies to help break down the pervasive power of ‘man-made news’ are proposed. These include female shareholder activism at the governance level of media companies, and a greater commitment by the New Zealand Journalism Training Organisation to regular monitoring of women’s newsroom participation. Without it the status of women in New Zealand journalism remains invisible.
4. Where have all the young men gone? Gender imbalance in tertiary journalism courses
Yvonne Densem pp 37-53
Abstract: This project worked with groups of students who typically apply to tertiary journalism courses. Some students joined focus groups, some completed questionnaires, all had the opportunity to discuss their impressions of journalism and what might attract them to such a course. This research is set against published literature which highlights a gender imbalance in journalism courses but does not address it. The project reveals participants’ perceptions, largely based on the television news they see, determine their consideration of journalism as a career. It provides an insight into how young males view the news and the men who present it.
5. Women in Australian politics: Mothers only need apply
Cathy Jenkins pp 54-63
Abstract: When Julia Gillard considered running for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party in early 2005, her political enemies immediately raised three reasons for opposing her: she is female, single and without children. These criticisms prompted a flurry of discussion in the media about the relevance of a person’s family situation to their ability to work effectively in politics. This article examines the treatment of female politicians by the press over the more than 80 years since the first woman appeared in any Australian parliament. It finds that there continues to be pressure on women to continue in the traditional roles of wife and mother, while more recently, female politicians have had to contend with an extra layer of coverage concentrating on their sexual attributes.
6. The Don and Helen New Zealand election 2005: A media a-gender?
Heather Devere and Sharyn Graham Davies pp 65-85
Abstract: The media uses the technique of framing to process and package information in order to make sense of the material and present a news ‘story’ which is accessible to the audience. International research reports demonstrate a consistent ‘gendered’ framing of media coverage. ‘Gendering’ refers to the highlighting of a person’s gender, when this is not particularly relevant to the context. Usually gendering involves seeing the male as the norm, and the female as the remarkable. In terms of the media and politics, this gendering includes the under-representation of women politicians, an emphasis on their appearance, marital and maternal status, and personality rather than the policies and issues of debate. More recently, however, there is evidence that in some contexts the media is becoming less overtly biased in its representation of women politicians. While there are still many ways in which women are presented differently from their male counterparts, there is also some evidence that an emphasis on gender is initiated by the party campaigns rather than being a result of media agenda-setting.
7. Electing women to Parliament: Fiji and the alternative vote electoral system
Rae Nicholl pp 87-107
Abstract: In many places in the world, women struggle to be heard and, when it comes to having a voice in the highest authority in the land, the difficulties in some countries can be almost insurmountable. Women in Fiji are confronting the problem of women’s representation in Parliament. With only a small number of women (7.04 percent) in the House of Representatives, what changes could the citizens of Fiji make to remedy this lack of female representation? One answer that could be considered is for Fijian lawmakers to make amendments to the alternative vote electoral system, a variation on preferential voting. The alternative vote falls into the same simple plurality category as first-past-the-post, a system notoriously unfriendly to women candidates.
8. The representation of female athletes in online images of successive Olympics
Dianne Jones pp 108-129
Abstract: Photographs tell stories. They are ‘so much a part of our daily lives we rarely think about how they influence us and what that influence is’. Yet photographs, like other media images, can be used to legitimate the interests of hegemonic groups seeking to shape consensus or consent to existing social arrangements (Duncan, 1990, p. 22). A content analysis of 2004 Olympic Games coverage on the website of Australia’s national public broadcaster, ABC News Online, shows that images of female athletes outnumbered those of male athletes. However, in line with results from analysis of 2000 Olympics coverage on News Online, women competing in team sports received little recognition and females were frequently depicted as passive subjects rather than active competitors. Such under-representation for team players and stereotypical portrayals of sportswomen on News Online may instill in its news audiences the belief that women’s sports are less powerful, less interesting and thus separate and different from men’s sports.
9. ‘The innocence in her beautiful green eyes’: Speculations on seduction and the ‘feminine’ in the Australian news media
Janine Little pp 131-145
Abstract: It is a familiar refrain to describe journalism as, simply, story-telling (Manoff, 1986). The aim of this article, however, is to explore how that simple project turns complicated in a place like Australia, with its lingering anxieties of culture and identity (Gelder & Jacobs, 1998, p.142). This article is a start to a longer study of the specific critical and cultural implications of contemporary journalism, practised in an ‘unsettled’ Australian postcolonial milieu. Here, the study makes some speculative observations of gender representation in long-running news stories about two women: Schapelle Corby and Lindy Chamberlain. My disciplinary background is cultural studies, not social sciences.1 The result here, therefore, is not a set of conclusions drawn from content analysis as would be the case in a different kind of paper. I also want to lend support to the discussion in journalism scholarship of the conundrum of ‘objectivity’ for journalistic practice in socio-political contexts where assumptions of ‘objectivity’ may, in fact, obscure journalism’s public interest principle.
Commentaries
A dozen Danish cartoons and the wrath of the Muslim world
Philip Cass pp 148-154
Abstract: How do we understand the outrage in the Muslim world against the 12 cartoons published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten? And can we move on from anger and misunderstanding? Is there room for dialogue?
HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea: A reality check
Trevor Cullen pp 155-166
Abstract: An analysis of political statements, government reports, scientific debate and the remarks of international health officials on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Papua New Guinea. This commentary points to a grim future unless decisive strategies are implemented now and not later.
Reviews
A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor
By Joseph Nevins. Reviewed by Maire Leadbeater pp 169-172 ·
Advertisement: West Papua-the hidden Pacific conflict p 172 ·
Ending the Affair: The decline of television current affairs in Australia
By Graeme Turner. Reviewed by Paul Norris pp 173-176 ·
Al-Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World
By Hugh Miles. ·
The Al-Jazeera Phenomenon
By Mohamed Zayani. Reviewed by Philip Cass pp 176-182 ·
The Chinese Journalist: Mediating information in the world’s most populous country
By Hugo de Burgh. Reviewed by Alan Knight pp 182-185 ·
Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior
By David Robie. Reviewed by Selwyn Manning pp 186-189
Noted: Silenced: International Journalists Expose Media Censorship (David Dadge);
The Electronic Reporter (Barbara Alysen); Hard News: The Scandals at The New York Times and their Meaning for American Media (Seth Mnookin). Reviewed by David Robie and Danni Mulrennan pp 190-194
