Women and the Media in Capitalism and Socialism

Description

This book looks at the position of women in the media in capitalism and socialism using ecofeminist lenses. It argues that when the position of women in the media in capitalism is at stake, women suffer from discrimination, structural barriers, lack of recognition and a masculine way of thinking across countries whereas in socialism women did not suffer from the lack of recognition but they did suffer from dual expectations, which placed a burden on them and enabled the return of patriarchal discrimination with the change of regimes and this leads to the notion of masculine thinking that underpinned socialist regimes too.

Whilst it is obvious from existing research, as well as chapters in this book, that socialist regimes had more respect for women, it is clear that they were also underpinned by a masculine thought to an extent, which resulted in a double burden on women in society and this was mirrored by the media.

Therefore, the book argues that the new socialism is needed, the one which will take into consideration patriarchy in all of its elements and include not just policies on equal pay and equal opportunities in the organisation but also has active women’s voices in designing policies that last and that makes an impact on equality in all of its social segments.

Contributions from Nikolina Borčić, Ovidiana Bulumac, Joseph Nwanja Chukwu, Carla Cruz, Maria Cunha, Ivana Čuljak, Ivona Čulo,  Béatrice Damian-Gaillard, Elena Díaz, Sanita Nwakpu Ekwutosi, Barbara Henderson, Bethany Fenner, Mirela Holy, Lisa Makarchuk, Anka Mihajlov Prokopović, Chinedu Jude Nwasum, Jude Nwakpoke Ogbodo, Eugénie Saitta, Paloma Sanz-Marcos, Nataša Simeunović Bajić, Salomé Sola-Morales, Martina Topić, Hanne Vandenberghe, Lea Vene, Marija Vujović, Belén Zurbano-Berenguer, Batya Weinbaum.

 

Introduction: An Ecofeminist Perspective on Women and the Media in Capitalism and Socialism

Martina Topić

 

SECTION I: WOMEN AND MEDIA IN CAPITALISM AND MIXED ECONOMIES

 

1. Whither Gender Equality? The Image of Women in News over Time

Hanne Vandenberghe

2. Losing on Aggregate: The Visibility of Female Sports Journalists in the UK and the Dominant Perceptions of Female Football Journalists

Bethany Fenner and Barbara Henderson

3. New New New (n3) Portrayals of Women in Television and Postfeminist News

Batya Weinbaum

4. When Sexism in Politics became a Media Issue in France: Mobilization of Female Political Journalists

Béatrice Damian-Gaillard and Eugénie Saitta

5. Who Creates the News about Violence Against Women? The Case of Spain

Belén Zurbano-Berenguer, Salomé Sola-Morales and

Paloma Sanz-Marcos

6. Women in Portuguese Print Media

Maria João Cunha and Carla Isabel Cruz

7. One Human, Unequal Gender: A Critical Appraisal of Women and News Creation in Nigeria

Chinedu J. Nwasum, Jude Ogbodo, Joseph N. Chukwu and Sanita E. Nwakpu

 

SECTION II: WOMEN AND MEDIA IN SOCIALISM AND POST-SOCIALISM

 

8. The Media Representation of Female Politicians in Croatia: Who Will Give Us Power If We Think We Do Not Deserve It?

Mirela Holy

9. Being a Female Journalist in Serbia: Socialist and Post-Socialist Perspective

Nataša Simeunović Bajić, Marija Vujović and Anka Mihajlov Prokopović

10. Cuban Women and the Media: A View of Cinema

Elena Díaz and Lisa Makarchuk

11. Narratives about Women’s Identity in Yugoslavia from a Croatian Perspective

Nikolina Borčić and Ivona Čulo

12. Visual Representation of Fashion and Clothing Practices in the Post-War Period of Socialist Yugoslavia in the Magazines Žena u borbi (Woman in Struggle) and Naša moda (Our Fashion)

Ivana Čuljak and Lea Vene

13. The Female Profile Promoted in Scânteia During the First Decade of the Communist Regime in Romania

Ovidiana Bulumac

 

Notes on Contributors

Sujets

• Gender Studies
• Political Economy
• Media Studies
• Social Science
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 31 mai 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789386707
• Langue: English

Extrait

Women and the Media in Capitalism and Socialism
Women and the Media in Capitalism and Socialism
An Ecofeminist Inquiry
EDITED BY
Martina Topi
First published in the UK in 2023 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2023 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2023 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Cover designer: Aleksandra Szumlas
Cover image: Christian Goodman
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Hardback ISBN 978-1-78938-668-4
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This is a peer-reviewed publication.
Contents
Introduction: An Ecofeminist Perspective on Women and the Media in Capitalism and Socialism
Martina Topi
SECTION I: WOMEN AND MEDIA IN CAPITALISM AND MIXED ECONOMIES
1. Whither Gender Equality? The Image of Women in News Over Time
Hanne Vandenberghe
2. Losing on Aggregate: The Visibility of Female Sports Journalists in the UK and the Dominant Perceptions of Female Football Journalists
Bethany Fenner and Barbara Henderson
3. New New New ( n3 ) Portrayals of Women in Television and Postfeminist News
Batya Weinbaum
4. When Sexism in Politics Became a Media Issue in France: Mobilization of Female Political Journalists
B atrice Damian-Gaillard and Eug nie Saitta
5. Who Creates the News About Violence Against Women? The Case of Spain
Bel n Zurbano-Berenguer, Salom Sola-Morales and Paloma Sanz-Marcos
6. Women in Portuguese Print Media
Maria Jo o Cunha and Carla Isabel Cruz
7. One Human, Unequal Gender: A Critical Appraisal of Women and News Creation in Nigeria
Chinedu J. Nwasum, Jude Ogbodo, Joseph N. Chukwu and Ekwutosi S. Nwakpu
SECTION II: WOMEN AND MEDIA IN SOCIALISM AND POST-SOCIALISM
8. The Media Representation of Female Politicians in Croatia: Who Will Give Us Power if We Think We Do Not Deserve It?
Mirela Holy
9. Being a Female Journalist in Serbia: Socialist and Post-Socialist Perspective
Nata a Simeunovi Baji , Marija Vujovi and Anka Mihajlov Prokopovi
10. Cuban Women and the Media: A View of Cinema
Elena D az and Lisa Makarchuk
11. Narratives About Women's Identity in Yugoslavia From a Croatian Perspective
Nikolina Bor i and Ivona ulo
12. Visual Representations of Fashion and Clothing Practices in the Post-War Period of Socialist Yugoslavia in the Magazines ena u borbi ( Woman in Struggle ) and Na a moda ( Our Fashion )
Ivana uljak and Lea Vene
13. The Female Profile Promoted in Sc nteia During the First Decade of the Communist Regime in Romania
Ovidiana Bulumac
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: An Ecofeminist Perspective on Women and the Media in Capitalism and Socialism
Martina Topi
Lots of work has been published, particularly since the 2000s, on women in the media and the distinctive position that women occupy in newsrooms, and issues they face. However, not much work considers the position of women in the media within the media's political economy and the position of women in the media using ecofeminist lenses. The argument on media political economy comes from Marx ([1849] 1959) who argued that the press needs to be a watchdog and the tireless denouncer of those in power, the omnipresent eye, the omnipresent mouthpiece of the people's spirit that jealously guards its freedom (p. 231, cited from Sandoval, 2013 , pp. 44-45). However, for this to happen, media would have to work on a not-for-profit basis or not being a trade (Sandoval, 2013 ), which led many authors to argue that media need to be studied in the context of capitalism and as part of the political economy of capitalism (Garnham, 1998 ; Herman Chomsky, 1988 ; Mosco, 2009 ; Sandoval, 2013 ). The fact that media operate in the context of capitalism means their commercial interests are working against their social work and result in exploitation of employees, market pressures which lead to uniformity and conformism, and this ultimately threatens democracy (Fuchs, 2011 , 2010 ; Garnham, [1986] 2006 ; Herman Chomsky, 1988 ; Horkheimer Adorno, [1947] 1997 ; McChesney, 2004 ; Schiller, 1997 ; Schiller Schiller, 1988 ; Smythe, [1977] 1997 ). However, what these works fail to analyze is the notion of patriarchy and sexism, which is deeply entrenched in the media's organizational culture. Many works have tackled this issue only to find that women work in a fundamentally masculine culture where they are often seen as outsiders because men do not join newsroom culture but constitute it (North, 2009b ). In practice, this means that newsrooms operate under masculine patterns such as masculine understanding of what constitutes news, and the division of hard vs. soft news is still rampant (Lobo et al., 2017 ; Lofgren-Nilsson, 2010 ; Ross, 2001 ; Ross et al., 2018 ; Shor et al., 2014 ; Topi Bruegmann, 2021 ). What is more, women were traditionally confined to the so-called soft news such as health, lifestyle, food and fashion, however, once these topics came to the agenda, such as health and food for example, then it is men who now write on these topics whilst women remain in specialist sections, marginalized (Topi , 2018 ). In a nutshell, women continually struggle to cover the most prestigious beats, face the glass ceiling, leave the industry earlier (Knowles, 2020 ; Lobo et al., 2017 ; North, 2009, 2016a ; Robinson, 2005 ; Ross et al., 2018 ) and they struggle trying to manage the work/home balance, especially for working mothers, and were concerned with the dominance, still, of a long-hours culture (Ross, 2001 , p. 532; see also Lafky, 1991 , 1993 ; North, 2016; Organ et al., 1979 ; Ross, 2001 ; Ross et al., 2018 ; Topi Bruegmann, 2021 ).
However, these are not the only issues women face. Some authors argued that women have to become blokish to succeed and

some of the women who do remain in senior positions become so bloke-ified by the macho water in which they swim that many younger women looking up don't see them as role models for the kind of women they might want to become.
(Mills, 2014 , p. 19)
In other words, women have merged to masculine newsrooms and those who do not want to merge or simply cannot embrace masculine behaviour and communication have to leave, this ultimately meaning that values and practice (such as newsgathering technique) have not changed despite the increase of women joining the media industry (Christmas, 1997 ; Djerf-Pierre, 2011 ; Graber, 1980 ). Thus, newspapers still have

macho cultures, desk editors openly watching and talking about porn, and heading off to the pub [ ]. The tabloid newsroom is far from being woman-friendly - visitors would be lucky to see a woman anywhere near a news desk or a backbench. There is a deeply entrenched bloke culture. It's all about the boys club, promotions are dished out in the pub and women aren't invited. In the end, women just get fed up.
(Mills, 2014 , p. 22)
What is more, when women first joined journalism male editors and journalists expressed fears that they will bring emotion into coverage (Franks, 2013 ), and women have historically occupied positions in healthcare, lifestyle, food, fashion and beauty and family topics (Christmas, 1997 ). Up to today, research shows that women's interests are labelled as soft news and remain unappreciated (Christmas, 1997 ).
While the works cited above vividly explain the position of women in journalism, they do not consider this position in the context of the political economy of the media, which led me to embrace ecofeminism when editing this book and I am trying to understand and analyze case studies in this book with an ecofeminist lens.
Ecofeminism is a feminist movement that links feminism with ecology and the struggle to preserve the natural environment, and thus links the oppression of women with the oppression of Nature (Mallory, 2012 ; Sandiland, 1999 ). This oppression happens as a result of hegemonic masculinity and patriarchy, and both of these oppressions are linked to capitalism ( ur evi Marjani , 2020 ; Gaard, 1997 ; Henderson, 1997 ; Ling, 2014 ; Maclaran Stevens, 2018 ; Merchant, 1992 ; Radford Ruether, 2012 ; Stoddart Tindall, 2011 ; Von Werlhof, 2007 ; Warren, n.d.) as a system which is inherently oppressive to women and Nature. Ecofeminism is predominantly centred on tackling hierarchy and capitalism and thus presents an anti-hierarchical and anti-capitalist movement, and ecofeminism has followers around the globe working on tackling oppression of women and Nature (Bandyopadhyay, 1999 ; Fakier Cock, 2018 ; Green Belt Movement, n.d.; Griffin, 2020 ; Holy, 2007 ; Jain, 1984 ; Moore, 2011 ; Mishra et al., 2021 ; Shiva Bandyopadhyay, 1986 ). Rosemary Ruether (1975) summarized what ecofeminism stands for decades ago but her words still stand today,

Women must see that there can be no liberation for them and no solution to the ecological crisis within a society whose fundamental model of relationships continues to be one of domination. They must unite the demands of the women's movement with those of the ecological movement to envision a radical reshaping of the basic socioeconomic relations and the underlying values of this [modern industrial] society.
(p. 204)
Ecofeminists see oppression of Nature and women as intertwined and this oppression is seen as a result of hegemonic masculinity which adversely affects women, indigenous communities, people of non-white