Women in the news frame : an investigation into the representation of women in television news : an analysis of SABC2, SABC3 and e-tv news.
Loading...
Date
2002
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The aim of this research is to investigate the representation of women in South African
television news by closely comparing the three stations; e-tv, SABC 2 and SABC 3. The
news bulletins that were recorded over a week (seven consecutive days), for each station
were measured and compared to find out the presence of men and women as workers for
news production; as news reporters and news readers as well as news subjects.
Theories of news and feminist media are strong points from which the study is informed.
The feminist media theories highlight the sexist ideology of media content and addresses
issues of how television news positions the female news subjects. Theories of news on
the other hand emphasize the question of what is news and aids the understanding of why
women are represented the way they are in news as they stress the nature of news as a
human construction that is shaped by the world. Together these theories used in this
research highlight the background of the ideologies underlying the coverage and
representation of both men and women as news sources.
The findings of this research confirm the assumption that news is designed for male
audience by having more men than women as newsreaders and reporters and also by
having a remarkable dominance of men as news subjects over women. All the three
stations; e-tv, SABC 2 and SABC3 are dominated by men in the newsroom. With
affirmative action policy in South Africa, which was designed to uplift the image of the
previously marginalised, especially women, the number of women as window dressing
has increased. However, when looking for news sources, women are still not considered
reliable and embodying reason, trustworthiness and knowledgability. Male experts
occupy all fields of knowledge from politics, terrorism, and economics to science and
medicine, from literature to technology, law, sports and environment. Of all the social
actors who were covered in news, the presence of men outnumber that of women with the
majority of 80.9% compared to 19.1% of women.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.
Keywords
Women in television broadcasting--South Africa., Women broadcasters--South Africa., Television broadcasting of news--South Africa., Theses--Culture, communication and media studies.