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South African vocalist Gloria Bosman tells how she has gained confidence in her professional and personal life.
South African vocalist Gloria Bosman tells how she has gained confidence in her professional and personal life.
Gender stereotypes
The gender biases and prejudices inherent in journalists, editors, photographers often find their way into editorial content and packaging. These biases and prejudices lead to different portrayals of women and men in the media. When women do appear, they often are depicted in roles such as ‘the good mother’, ‘evil temptress or adulteress,’ ‘victim’, ‘sex object’, as ‘an honorary man’ if she is successful, and so forth.
When women step outside of the traditional gender roles, the media tends to sensationalise their behaviour as deviant or going against the social norm (e.g. in media articles about children dying accidentally in a fire in a hut while the mother is out at a pub, the message conveyed is that there are dire consequences for a mother who steps outside socially defined boundaries)
Pointers on portrayal
Journalists and editors must be trained to write stories and take images which do the following: (these pointers can be written on flip chart or board and each one discussed by asking trainees to cite examples from the media.
The words media practitioners choose can give a value judgment about a situation or a person. Journalists have to be exceptionally careful that ‘unannounced comment’ does not enter into news, news analysis or feature stories through language. Language is not neutral. It can promote stigma, stereotypes and discrimination against individuals or a group. The media often uses different language for women and for men in editorial content due to the gender biases and prejudices journalists, sub-editors, editors hold.
Journalists, editors, sub-editors must be trained to be aware of the power of language and the subtle and blatant messages that are conveyed to readers by the words. The Bosman article will make the trainees aware of :
It is not enough to get the text gender sensitive and then couple this with a sexist headline, misleading photographs and inappropriate captions which re-enforce gender inequalities or stereotypes. The entire package coveys a message to the readers. The visual images in the media communicate in the same way that words do. Using what is ‘sexy’ and ‘looks good’ to sell newspapers, often goes against the ethical grain of what the media purports to do.
Training exercises
Exercise one: Discuss the following questions:
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