Company closes after women ?thrash? boss, Weekend ...
Company closes after women ?thrash? boss, Weekend Observer
Date: January 1, 1970
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Women managers attack company director in a dispute over the termination of their contracts.
Women managers attack company director in a dispute over the termination of their contracts.
This article may be used to:
- Provide learning tips on the portrayal of women in the media.
- To highlight accuracy in reporting.
Trainer’s notes
The women managers in this story have made news because they have become embroiled in a controversy/conflict with the male director of their company. The women also have made news because they ‘stepped out of the norm’ – physically assaulting the director in public.
The news criteria most often used by the media to determine when women should make the news include:
- controversy/conflict;
- doom and gloom;
- out of the ordinary and the bizarre;
- crime; and
- sex.
Rather than exploring the issue of discrimination against women in the textile factory, the angle of the story is focused more on the actual assault by the women. This event is sensationalised in the article and in the headline, image and caption. Women have made news in this example because of their ‘extraordinary’ behaviour which is caricatured by the way they are portrayed in the story.
The women are portrayed as emotional and irrational. They are described as ‘scorned women’ and as ‘bees’ when they reportedly surround the director. The language used to described the attack also is sensational and paints a dramatic scene: eg. …’thrashed him thoroughly with fists and kicks’; …’files flew and furniture was turned upside down as the five jumped over desks in a fierce karate fight’.
The women themselves do not speak in the story, nor does the company director. It is unnamed workers who are sourced in the story.
The narration of the incident raises professional questions. The journalist relies on ‘eyewitness’ accounts of the incident from unnamed sources and there is no verification of the details. This leaves room for ‘hype’ and possible misrepresentation of the facts. The media’s credibility is based on a balanced and fair representation of events and issues, through a diversity of verifiable sources.
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