Women 's Impact On The Media Industry

Throughout today’s society, media contributes to almost everyone’s daily life. From informative news channels to comical television shows, media proves to be effective in advertisement, releasing messages and informing the audience. Although media proves to be wildly effective in advertising, releasing messages and informing the audience, periodically destructive and misleading messages are provided to the audience and directly influencing women. Cultural critics widely agree that media tends to negatively influence women and all the critics point to research which supports the belief that women are portrayed as subordinate to men, having no

Women have never been treated fairly in society, and the media, which is meant to give a voice to the population, reflects that. You’d think that today women would have a better representation in the media, yes? Unfortunately you’re wrong. How women are represented in media is very harmful to the population, and I’ll tell you why.

when we think women are the protagonist or the hero, the story ends up revolving around the man.

The Miss Representation documentary film by Jennifer Newsom explores how media contributes to the under-representation of women in influential positions. This message is portrayed by delivering content through media and technology as well as advertising partial and/or often degrading interpretations of women. The consequences are becoming more and more dreadful. In today’s world, composed of a million stations, people will tend to do more and more shocking things to break through the crowds. They resort to violent, sexually offensive, or demeaning images. Jean Kilbourne, EdD, filmmaker, Killing Us Softly Author and Senior Scholar Wellesley Center’s for Women states, that “it creates a climate in which

In Miss Representation, many female actresses, news anchors, politicians, directors and producers talk about how females suffer a lot of social, political and economic inequalities in today’s society. There are double standards against women in magazines, on TV, in movies, the news, politics, and the workplace. The media is an influential part of modern culture. When women are portrayed as objects for men to use -- never as the protagonist or president -- and when female news anchors are objectified, this will cause girls of all ages to begin viewing themselves as objects. Girls grow up in a world where their voice does not count; where our culture does not embrace them in all of their diversities, where

“People learn more from media than any other single source of information” (Missrepresentation). This quote exemplifies how society learns and creates their standards about people, places, and things. All sources and mediums of media impact billions of lives every day. The media holds this power over society and it’s time to change that; especially when it comes to the media’s view of women. Women are constantly being misrepresented. This misrepresentation of women in the media is negatively impacting America by corrupting both the youth and adults. This is occurring because of the hyper-sexualization of women, wrongly portraying women in leadership positions, and creating stereotypes of women in movies and television.

Women Advancement in the Film Industry Additionally, statistics prove that women have not progressed as much as men have in the industry. In the past, females wouldn’t’t have dominant roles in the industry where as now we see an increase in women popularity in the industry. Recently, there has been

An Annotated Bibliography for The Main Cause In Negative Gender Stereotypes and Traditional Gender Roles:

Through the TED talk Women should represent women in media, journalist Megan Kamerick presents her argument that women are under-represented within the media, which ultimately misrepresents media as a whole. She points out that even in stories on gender based violence, men get an overwhelming majority of print space and airtime. She claims that women need their voice to be heard and not just by other women but the world. She is arguing that women should be represented in media by women, but to do that the media are going to have to actively add more women, and actually have more women in higher more prominent positions in the work place.

The key research question of ‘Gender Roles in Media’ is to analyze gender roles to determine how women are represented in an array of media and how they are portrayed in a sexualized manner. The study was published in 2010 and 2011 by Rudy et al in two issues of Sex Roles. The research suggests that an increase in representing women in media can be worthy provided they bear in mind that the way women are depicted is positive in order to alleviate negative connotations. The research queries if media can affect the mindset of viewers in a negative or positive manner.

Redbook magazine are devoted to selling products ranging from shoes to shampoo. The entire magazine only has only 210 pages. Approximately 6-8 min of every half hour television show is produced by ad agencies. Americans are bombarded with advertisements. We see them everyday in many different forms and through different mediums. Advertisers study America’s population through a systematic breakdown and analysis of our likes and dislikes in relation to our differences. These differences include gender, sexual orientation, economic status, location, race, ethnicity, and more. Advertisers have substantial knowledge of what appeals to each of these demographics and how these demographics will respond to

fifty times in the press. Male political figures might be called mean and terrible names, yet those words do not, more often than not, reflect superstition and fear (Monière 2006).

How women are portrayed or represented in media is also important. Media can play a significant role in sensitizing the society about gender issues. But, before that, the media itself needs to be sensitized in covering women issues. The distribution of power between the two sexes both physical and economic is unequal, leading to discrimination against women.

Women are a low percent of those behind the camera. “In 2014, a whopping 85 percent of films had no female directors, 80 percent had no female writers, and one-third lacked female producers, according to a San Diego State University study (Davidson). How can there be strong women characters if there are not that many women working behind the scenes? With the lack of women behind the camera, the roles women play are often degrading and sexist. Women are often portrayed in service jobs such as waitresses instead of in leadership roles. In the top 500 films from 2007-2012, 28.8 percent of women wore sexually revealing clothes while men only accounted for 7 percent (IndieWire). TV and movies teach girls from a young age that they are meant to be a wife or homemaker and not much else. It is hard to dream to be a doctor or a CEO of a big company if you do not see it when you turn on the TV. And it is not that women are not qualified to work behind the camera, they are just not given the chance. It is hard to change your portrayal in film and TV if you are not the one writing the characters or directing.

Skinny, blond, ditzy, annoying, un-educated, easy, and considered a typical women. If you’re a women and you hear these words, does it make you think of who you are, or your mother or sisters? I think not…but I do think about the people I see on television and in magazines or in movies. What I want to know is who is writing the scripts for some of the television shows that I watch. I would like to hope that it’s not women putting these stereotypes on their fellow “sisters”.