Today, Dr. Carol Rogers visited our class as a guest speaker on media coverage of women and minorities, and the role of women and minorities in newsrooms. In the beginning, she mentioned Nellie Bly, the pioneer of a new kind of investigative reporting. I knew the name sounded familiar, and once she mentioned her undercover work in a women's asylum, it all came back to me.
It was my junior year in high school, and I'd watched a video in Sociology class about Bly and the asylum in which she stayed. Showers were buckets of cold water dumped on her, and time was spent in a dark, small room for hours on end. Nevertheless, Dr. Rogers' telling of the story was still surprising. A lot of that surprise comes from the fact that journalism in many ways has changed drastically over the years.
At the same time, the exercise we did at the end of class [analyzing male and female sources quoted on the front page of the Washington Post, and male and female bylines] made me realize how there are still issues with gender roles. Why is it that men seem to dominate the papers?
In what other ways haven't we changed since Bly's time?
And why do you think we haven't changed such ways? Are we losing the activism--specifically, feminism--and the determination that once pushed Bly to go to such great lengths for change?
3 comments:
I think we definitely have slowed the progress of women over time. We tend to think that both genders are equal now, yet we saw today that there are some gaps in the media. The momentum towards feminist activism we once had has come to a halt. We let it leave the public eye and now we have to bring it back again if we want equality; and not just for women, but all minorities.
First of all, I’d like to say that I was extremely impressed by Dr. Rogers lesson today because gender studies is a topic that greatly interests me. However, I was never aware that such a gender imbalance still existed in the field of journalism, especially in the world of print. It is possible that men dominate the papers because much of the front page concerns topics, such as politics, business, and sports, that are also largely dominated by men. Therefore, in order for a journalist to cover these male-dominated topics to the best of his or her ability with the most involved or knowledgeable references, he or she must use a male reference. But then again, Dr. Rogers herself pointed out that many prominent women occupy positions in these male-dominated fields, such as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and are still quoted rarely for some reason.
As far as the newsroom goes, it is likely that men still dominate the newsroom because they are characterized as more aggressive and straightforward than women, two qualities that are necessary in such a tense, fast-paced environment. Some may argue that women are too emotional or “nice” to effectively run a newsroom and push their writers to the limit. However, this argument is disproved by the example of Janet Weaver, the executive editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Her more caring, nurturing newsroom allowed for a more relaxed and friendly but still extremely successful newsroom. Weaver demonstrated that it is personality and skill, not gender, that determines the accomplishments of a newsroom.
It is highly possible that many women, and even some men, have lost the determination to go to such great lengths to create gender equality because they are instead fighting for more prevalent causes in today’s society, such as the environment or healthcare. Furthermore, I believe that this lack of concern over gender roles in the media continues because many are under the impression that sexism is a thing of the past, that the fight for equality is now history. Therefore, they accept the uneven gender roles in journalism as they are or, in many cases, fail to recognize that the issue even exists because it is rarely a topic of discussion. Hopefully the work done by Dr. Rogers and other experts in the field will inspire women and minority journalists to revive the movement for true equality in the field of journalism.
I believe that women aren't as prominent in hard news reporting because they aren't respected as much in that field. Women are often stereotyped and expected to cover fluffy topics like fashion or celebrity news etc., so when women cover real topics often they aren't taken seriously.
That being said, I do think that women have come a long way in news reporting although I do recognize a slight halt in the process. I think it is due to the fact that most people, male and female, are more focused on the news being reported rather than who is reporting it, which is how it should be, but there needs to be a shift in focus back to equality in media coverage.
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