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The connection between gender and media contains the connection between gender identifications and the conception of masculinity and femininity and how these identities are represented within mass media. It can be observed through specific analytical lenses evolved from social sciences, gender and feminist studies as well as in communication studies. Some scholars who specialize in this topic include Mary Celeste Kearney, Rosalind Gill and Gloria Steinem. These schools of study focus on the concept of social constructionism or the idea that the world is made up of ideas which are perpetuated by society and form a sense of reality which is not naturally inherent. Ideas related to social constructionism analyze how both gender and social roles are configured as well as how they impact the lives of individuals throughout society. Other science districts such as sexology and neurosciences have devoted areas of study to examine gender and its reflection in society on a scientific level.

Definition of Gender
The distinction between the definition of gender and sex began in 1955 with the analysis of gender roles and heteronormativity by scientist John Money. Money's books on sexology redefined the concepts of gender identity and expands the idea of "male" and "female" to include other identities. Gender as a concept may include the biological sex of an individual or the social construction of gender which is enforced by feminist analysis. The concept of media is a broad definition and refers to many media forms including social media, mass media, new media and print media. According to social scientists, media spaces in general create ways in which individuals see society and perpetuates common ideologies.

Media Studies Critique of Gender
Writer and activist Rosalind Gill suggests that the use of media studies approaches such as analysis, semiotics and ideological critique are useful in examining gender and media. These techniques are used by media scholars in order to conduct content analysis of media texts while determining connotations and denotations surrounding publications. A semiotic analysis is concerned with how media advertisements and publications portray aspects of society through connotations and denotations. A denotation in media studies refers to "the most literal meaning or the first level of signification of any particular signifier" while a connotation is considered a "second level signifier". When it comes to gender and media, feminist media studies scholars refer to semiotics and how certain aspects of gender representations in media hold both connotative and denotative ideologies regarding women and men. The basis of determining common ideological ideas can be found through the deconstruction of narratives and ideas which form the binaries which arise in the media piece. Political philosophers such as Marx and Engels argue that it is precisely the consciousness of individuals and their beliefs of the world which help build these ideologies. Ideological critiques regarding gender and media include the popular study by scholars Angela McRobbie and Janice Winship where they studied women's magazines in the 1970s and critiqued how "magazine discourses are constructed around highly restricted ideologies of femininity centering on romance, domesticity and caring". The use of discourse analysis goes back to the basics of the text and looks at the media texts as a whole and how they are organized. Social scientists including Montgomery, Fairclough and Scannell have used the tool of discourse analysis to critique media representations throughout the 20th century. Rosalind Gill used discourse analysis in her critique of the lack female radio broadcasters in England and questioned the views of the audience, freedom and autonomy as well as the job description.

Violence and Gender in Media
The United Nations estimates that 70% of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence from their partner at some point in their lives. Violence against women is a topic which is often raised by feminist scholars regarding the representation of women and men in media. Concepts of rape and battering are prevalent throughout print, entertainment and mass media. Author Jean Kilbourne discusses violence in advertising in her book "Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising" where she claims: "Adverts don't directly cause violence... but the violent images contribute to the state of terror... Turning a human being into a thing, an object, is almost always the first step towards justifying violence against that person... This step is already taken with women. The violence, the abuse, is partly the chilling but logical result of the objectification". Media scholars critique how the perception of gendered violence in media has a problematic connotation. Views of rape and spousal abuse is often labeled as a "family matter" in order to erase it from dialogue in the public sphere. The way in which rape and sexual assault victims are shown throughout print and news media is considered to be a problematic portrayal according to the Canadian Women's Foundation: "News media, when related to domestic violence, often takes the easy way out. It can be observed that the media tends to portray domestic violence cases as individualized or isolated, rather than a thematic and contextually societal issue. Often victims are blamed, or excuses are made for the violence. Coverage is typically only seen relating to fatal incidents, as opposed to situations involving emotional/psychological, financial, or verbal abuse, leading to the belief that the latter forms are not abuse at all". News media also tends to focus on violence against women while failing to recognize that domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault also affects individuals who identify as male. Despite the critique of news media's connection with violence against women, media is also key in ensuring the widespread dialogue and awareness regarding violence and how it is reflected throughout society. The concept of gender and violence also relies on the intersection of Race and Class which may change the way in which women are silenced in media spaces.

Campaigns like the United Nations "Say NO- UNiTE to End Violence Against Women" campaign uses the media in order to battle violence against women internationally. They have launched petitions as well as days of action on the 25th day of each month through the use of social media in order to spread awareness of ongoing violence against women. The hashtag #OrangeDay is used throughout social media as an organizing tactic to promote collective engagement and direct action.

Heteronormativity and the Media
When critiquing media and its connection to gender, many media scholars evaluate the idea of heteronormativity and how it is reflected through media channels. Weddings are an important component on the idea of heteronormativity and how it is introduced in society. The media plays a large role in this conception through the creation of wedding media coverage and their popularity in society. Heteronormativity is defined as "of, relating to, or based on the attitude that heterosexuality is the only normal and natural expression of sexuality". Feminist media scholars suggest that there was a major shift in the 1970s away from heteronormative media and towards an inclusive representative media. Queer theory emerged in the early 1990s and made a significant impact on media studies with the textual analysis of heteronormative media. According to scholar Rosalind Gill, queer theory analysis of media texts shed light on the reliance on a heterosexual/homosexual binary that is found in media. According to author Brenda Cooper, media pieces during the 20th century focused on heterosexual characters and failed to acknowledge different sexualities. Cooper claims that the reliance on heteronormativity can be seen through the weakening or vilifying of characters who break the heterosexual norm within media. An example of a revolutionary show which breaks the heteronormative structure includes the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer which depicted the first televised lesbian relationship. Television networks like Here TV allow for a space for LGBTQ representation through the airing of shows which break the heteronormative binary including shows like Dante's Cove, Just Josh and From Here on OUT.

The Evolution of Masculinity within Media
Within the 1990's, gender and media studies begun to expand with the critical analysis of masculinity within media spaces. The analysis of gender and media was originally focused on the perceptions of women and femininity and men were often overlooked due to the male narrative being a normative part of history and social sciences. The field of masculinity studies has developed since the 1990's where it focuses on ideas of masculinity perceptions in the workplace, within media as well as the structure of fatherhood. Similar to the study of women within media, the critique of masculinity follows the deconstruction of roles, a psychoanalytical approach and social constructionist approaches. Key traditional activists who engage in the study of masculinity within media are Robert Bly and Sam Keen. Gill explains that there is a dependence on masculinity to be the opposite of femininity while heterosexual masculinities are depicted as being against homosexual masculinity. A common form of media which is analyzed by media scholars for its reliance on gendered ideals is in the area of sports broadcasting. The critique of sports and media began in 1984 with media scholar Sut Jhally who analyzed the ideological symbols found within sports media labeled the "sports/media complex". Jhally's analysis focused on the capitalist network of advertising related to sports coverage which also contributed to the social norms and ideologies including the way in which gender identities are perceived. Scholars Michael Messner, Michele Dunbar and Darnell Hunt critique the concepts of masculinity within sports media coverage by stating that white male voices seem to be escalated while themes of aggression, heteronormativity and the objectification of women appear within the sports media world. These concepts of masculinity are concerning to scholars like Messner, Dunbar and Hunt due to the alienation of men who fit outside of the hyper-masculanized norm as well as due to the harmful ideas of what it means to "be a man". In their article, "The Televised Sports Manhood Formula", Messner, Dunbar and Hunt the formula of masculinity within sports media:

"A Real Man is strong, tough, aggressive, and above all, a winner in what is still a Man's World. To be a winner he has to do what needs to be done. He must be willing to compromise his own long-term health by showing guts in the face of danger, by fighting other men when necessary, and by 'playing hurt' when he's injured. He must avoid being soft; he must be the aggressor, both on the 'battle fields' of sports and in his consumption choices. Whether he is playing sports or making choices about snack food or auto products to purchase, his aggressiveness will net him the ultimate prize: the adoring attention of conventionally beautiful women. He will know if and when he has arrived as a Real Man when the Voices of Authority- White Males- say he is a Real Man. But even when he has finally managed to win the big one, has the good car, the right beer, and is surrounded by beautiful women, he will be reminded by these same Voices of Authority just how fragile this Real Manhood really is: After all, he has to come out and prove himself all over again tomorrow. You're only as good as your last game (or your last purchase)".

This poem by Messner, Dunbar and Hunt regarding what makes a "Real Man" depicts how aggressive masculinity is "codified" within sports media.

The Consumption of the Female Body
The concept of femininity as a piece of "bodily property" is a theory that writer and activism Rosalind Gill addresses in her article "Postfeminist Media Culture". When examining the idea of representation in media spaces, the fixation on sexualizing female bodies is a prevalent concern for media scholars. According to Gill, the idea of an ideal sexy body becomes the primary form of identity for female actors and can therefore lead to problematic identity concerns for viewers consuming the media. On top of this critique, the consumption of the female body through media formats only provides further concern regarding the surveillance of female media personalities and how it influences social norms. Magazines and mass media outlets display the idea of the surveillance of female bodies by critiquing and analyzing the appearance of women in order to attract a larger audience of viewers and readers. This can be seen in shows like What Not to Wear and magazines including Cosmopolitan. Isabel Molina Guzmán and Angharad N. Valdivia consider the idea of consumption of the female body and suggest that the relation between popular media, gender and race become problematic within mass media. The authors deconstruct views surrounding Latina women within the media and suggest that the objectification of these women are a mix of racism and sexism. Guzmán and Valdivia use the example of Jennifer Lopez and claim that the actress' business and entertainment success is often overshadowed due to the media's fixation on her appearance. Scholar bell hooks calls this a political "gaze" and discusses how the intersection between racism and sexism are reflected within historical film productions from the 20th century: "Black female spectators have had to develop looking relations within a cinematic context that constructs our presence as absence, that denies the 'body' of the black female so as to perpetuate white supremacy and with it a phallocentric spectatorship where the women to be looked at and desired is white". The body of a black woman, according to hooks, is not only objectified, but also held up to a white standard.

Self Identity
Media can shape how individuals view society, especially how they view themselves and how they fit into the world. An individuals self-concept refers to the body of beliefs that one has about themselves which shape their thoughts, values and outlook on themselves. Campaigns like Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty focuses on the way in which media influences the way young women view their bodies due to the use of Photoshop and editing in advertisements and celebrity culture. Scientist Carl Rogers explains that ones self-concept has three different parts. The first is the view that you have about yourself which is called "self image". An individuals self esteem is the second component while the "ideal self" is the third. These three components of what makes up an individuals view of themselves can all be changed and altered by societal pressures including media portrayals. Media fixates on portrayals of gender and reflects messages of how norms and societal expectations. Rosalind Coward writes in "The Body Beautiful" regarding magazine tips for women that: "language pertaining to the female body has constructed a whole regime of representations which can only result in women having a punishing self-hating relationship with their bodies". Coward states that this critique of the female body is harmful because "there is fragmentation of the body- the body is talked about in terms of different parts, the problem areas, which are referred to in the third person. The result is that it becomes possible, indeed likely, for women to think about their bodies in terms of parts... a fragmented sense of the body". This "body fragmentation", according to gender and media scholars, provides a negative and hateful relationship with ones body. Author Lisa Ayuso discusses the damaging portrayal of femininity within print media by writing: "The corruption of beauty stems from the minds behind the glossy magazine ads and the media, which continually reflect a formulated beauty on runways and in advertising". Unlike Coward, Ayuso argues that the consumers of media are also responsible for the damaging effects it has on them as they are participants and are complying with the messages which they are viewing.

Radio Broadcasting Ownership
According to many studies conducted by scholars throughout the United States, media ownership is largely dominated by men. In radio broadcasting, women own 6% of commercial broadcast radio stations despite representing over half of the population in the United States. For every 16 radio stations owned by white men, there is only one owned by a woman in the United States. The percentage of commerical broadcast radio stations with a female CEO, president or general manager is 4.7%.

Television Station Ownership
The television station market in the United States is largely owned by men, with only 4.97% of all stations being owned by women in 2006. The numbers have increased and as of 2011, 6.8% of all commercial TV stations are owned by women. The American Telecommunications Act of 1996 critiqued the exclusion of women and minorities from TV ownership and requires that the Federal Communications Commission allow for diverse ownership. The Commission followed by releasing "Form 323 Report and Order" stating that there needs to be more media programs to encourage the ownership of broadcasting facilities by women and people of color. Despite this announcement by the FCC, there has been very little action in the facilitation of broadcasting ownership for women.

Representation in News Media
According to the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), women represent 33.3% or one third of full-time journalists out of the 522 companies complied for their report. Throughout their analysis of 60 countries and their news industries, the IWMF determined that 73% of the top management jobs are held by men while women represent 27% of these jobs. In regards to reporting jobs, women make up 36% of the journalists with male reporters holding over two-thirds of these positions. Despite the gender divide within news media, when compared to the 1995 study by Margaret Gallagher, it is clear that female involvement has increased. Gallagher's study concluded that women only represented 12% of the top management positions within the 239 nations examined which proves to be a 15% increase since 1995 according to the International Women's Media Foundation study. According to the IWMF, their 2013 study found that both Eastern and Nordic Europe had the highest percentage of women within the news media upper management. Within middle management positions, men hold 71.3% of the positions while women represent 28.7% of the workers.