Women and Media

Women and Media is a thoughtful cross-cultural examination of the ways in which women have worked inside and outside mainstream media organizations since the 1970s. Rooted in a series of interviews with women media workers and activists collected specifically for this book, the text provides an original insight into women’s experiences. Explains the ways that women have organized their internal and external campaigns to improve media content (or working conditions) for women, and established womenowned media to gain a public voice. Identifies key issues and developments in feminist media critiques and interventions over the last 30 years, as these relate to production, representation and consumption. Functions as both a research case study and a teaching text.

Preface and acknowledgments vi About the authors ix 1 Introduction 1 Part I Research on women and media: a short history 15 2 Women in/as entertainment 17 3 Images of women in news and magazines 37 4 Women as audience 56 5 Women and production: gender and the political economy of media industries 75 Part II Women, media, and the public sphere: shifting the agenda 97 6 Toward a Model of Women’s Media Action 99 7 First path: politics to media 129 8 Second path: media profession to politics 155 9 Third path: advocate change agent 185 10 Fourth path: women’s media enterprises 208 11 Conclusion 231 Bibliography 240 Appendix: research participants 273 Name index 278 Subject index 284