Gender Role in the Media in the 21st Century - Coursework Example

Gender Role in the Media in the 21st Century Introduction Media is stated to be amongst the most persistent and strong medium in depicting the gender role in the present century. It acts as a powerful medium in developing perception regarding the role of genders in the 21st century as it is considered to be a vital part of regular lives in the modern society. Owing to this factor, media tends to instill their version of the messages collected into the awareness of the individuals which in turn results in forming perceptions accordingly. It is in this context that the modern trend indicates that a majority of the various types of media channels are observed to converse images in relation to the sexes. The initial idea relates to the actuality that women remain underrepresented. This particular fact is known to untruly depict that the men are considered to be of the enriching standard whereas women are considered to be insignificant or even imperceptible. The second notion underlines the impression that men as well as women are depicted in stereotypical manners that reproduces and upholds the socially certified perceptions with regard to gender. According to the third idea, portrayal of the associations among men as well as women calls for attention towards the customary roles and standardised violent behavior made against the women (Punyanunt-Carter, 2008). From an historical perspective, it has been stated in this regard that the principal manner, by which the media has been believed to misrepresent actuality, were by under-representing the role of women within the society. For instance, majority of the programs aired on television have been found to entail increasing numbers of men in comparison to women. Even in the case of ascertaining the role of gender in the media itself, it was observed that majority of the newscasters are men whereas women are mostly entitled with the role to just represent. Men were also found to make the news headlines more in contrast to the women populace. Stories regarding men are primarily included in the news more in comparison. Thus, it could be well understood that media refrains from depicting the appropriate proportions in relation to the populace of men along with women by a certain degree (Wood, 1994). The other aspect observed in the depiction of gender role in media has been stated as the increasing misrepresentation of elderly women. The older individuals or population not only remain under-represented, but also engages improper representation at instances. In comparison to the demographic actualities, media is found to restrict the role of experienced older women against men, most likely owing to the fact that every culture respects and admires beauty as well as youth in women. Additionally, the old aged individuals are commonly depicted as dependent, passive, sick and fumbling. In mass communication, these are the images which cannot be expected to be customary with regard to the actual life. Untrue representations of the elderly individuals and particularly the older women by the media could possibly mislead the general people into developing an idea that these elderly women are a weak, insignificant and small part of the population (Wood, 1994). The state of deficiency in terms of number of women in relation to media is learnt to appear similar to the fact relating with the dearth of women working or holding significant positions in the mass communication field. It has been affirmed that only 5 percent women are found to work as managers, producers or show makers and television writers in the mass media. Among the overall number of graduates in the field of journalism, two-thirds are stated to be women. Proportionately, these women were hardly found to represent even 2 percent of such individuals in the field of corporate management with regard to the newspapers and nearly 5 percent of the overall newspaper editors. It is worth mentioning in this regards that it was, in traditional period, considered to be even harder to find film directors who are female. The assumption considered behind such as attitude towards gender role depicted that such lesser amount of women is found to be working in such an industry which so constantly depicts women in a negative way (Wood, 1994). It has been additionally supposed by few of the media analysts that if higher number of women were provided with powerful positions in terms of executive levels, media would have put forward increasing instances concerning the favourable illustration of women. Therefore, it can be comprehended from the stated actualities that media fails to play a fair part in depicting the gender role in media in the 21st century (Ruggiero, 2000). Literature Review The Impact of Advertising Advertising is known to evidently play a vital part in both reflecting as well as shaping culture. It has been stated in this regard that while the advertisements as well as the commercials are generally observed to represent the identifiable along with the socially satisfactory scenarios where the media is known to underpin the notions related to role-appropriate behaviors. In general, it has been observed in this regard that both men as well as women are being constantly represented in stereotyped manners which is further learnt to restrict the viewpoints of the individuals in relation to human potentials. In the advertising commercials it has been found that men are typically represented as courageous, sexually hostile, active, and mostly detached in case of human relationships and power hierarchy of the society. Conversely, women, in majority of the advertisements, are being represented as mere ‘sex objects’ as they are represented to be thin, passive, frequently lacking ability and simultaneously as young, beautiful, dependent as well as dumb. Precisely, the female characters in the advertisements or the commercials are observed to be represented as dedicating their energies towards enhancing their respective exterior looks and looking after individuals and homes. As media is believed to pervade the regular way of lives of the individuals, the manner in which they tend to represent the genders creates a deep influence on the general perceptions of the viewers that are usual and desirable with regard to men as well as women (Wood, 1994). Few of the research studies made recently revealed and substantiated the fact that most of the males were depicted as somber, competent, possessing positions of high-status in the society, confident as well as quite powerful (Ruggiero, 2000). During the period of 1970, gentleness in the characteristics of men was evidently presented in the advertisements for quite a shorter span of time. However, in the later years, this particular stated portrayal took a rear seat as the recognised male characters were restructured as being increasingly strong and aloof from the other individuals (Boyer, 1986). Even in case of movies, men who were believed to exemplify the typecast of tremendous form of masculinity were chosen. Therefore, it could be well understood that men are represented in a certain way in the advertisements which is no way similar to the feminine aspects (Christopherson, 2008). The images of women by the media or rather the advertisements also imitate cultural stereotypes that are believed to differ significantly from the actuality. It has already been mentioned in this context that the female gender entailing adolescent girls as well as women are learnt to be radically under-represented (Faludi, 2010). It was found that during the year 1987, the prime-time shows of television entailed men for nearly all the speaking roles. Women are being represented as considerably thinner as well as younger with regard to their overall population where majority of the females were pictured as passive, entangled in housework or relationships and reliant on men (Wood, 1994). The pre-requisites of beauty as well as youth were also learnt to create an effect on the news shows. Even in such shows, the female broadcasters were likely to be comparatively physically attractive, much younger and most importantly less outspoken in comparison to the males (Christopherson, 2008; Sanders & Rock, 1994). It was found in the related context that writers were instructed by the producers to pen down scripts with softer versions of gender role concentrating on women populace, in most instances, rejecting those scripts which entailed strong characteristics of women (Faludi, 2010). Stereotypical Images of Relationship between Men & Women The relationships of men as well as women have been learnt to be represented in such manners which underpins the stereotypes which was usually portrayed in and by the media since the 20th century. Especially in films as well as television documentaries that were meant for children, an apparent depiction of the unbalanced association between men as well as women was observed. It was stated in this regard that this uneven relationship that was portrayed to be existing among men as well as women were expressed in a delicate manner with respect to the other prevailing media productions, especially those concentrating on children as targeted viewers (Faludi, 2010; Carter, 1991). It was also observed in this regard that women were casted in other roles inspite of the leading ones in case of both shows as well as commercials that were meant for the children (O’Connor, 1989). The results of an assessment made in relation to few of the shows revealed that women were represented as inert and interested in grabbing the attention of the men. In the similar context, men were depicted as exploiting, directing and ignoring women (Christopherson, 2008). All the television shows including the movies and the music videos seem to express the notion or perception which echoed the pattern of male supremacy and female subservience (Nigro & et. al., 1988; Turgeon, n.d). Although in the initial years of 1970s, the way of portraying women changed in the films as well as televisions documentaries, this trend was again put back or replaced with the typically gendered arrangements (Wood, 1994). Therefore, it is quite explicit that media plays a vital role in ascertaining the way through which, men along with women, were perceived by all the individuals and also by the society as a whole. This depiction can be attributed to the individual viewpoints possessed by those working in the media industry. The lack of presence of women in the media is also measured to persist owing to such bent of minds of the individuals working in the mass communication industry possessing an influential power over the operations (Turgeon, n.d). Segmenting The segmentation of the market is also found to be made on the basis of the roles portrayed in the media. It has been observed that the market have been majorly targeting the women populace to offer the beauty products. Based on these aspects, an invisible but apparent need have been developed with the way women are depicted in the media. It is owing to this actuality that women are expected to look young as well as beautiful which makes them an obvious target (Waters & Ellis, n.d). However, segmentation in the recent days have been witnessed to alter massively when concerning the media channels either treating women as targeted viewers or recruiting them as productive members. As stated by Christopherson (2008), since 1998 to the year 2007, the media channels have been promoting the gender role played by women involving them in influential positions of the industry. Moreover, an approximation depicts that a large number of women centric shows and news report have been increasingly gaining importance amid the worldwide media channels which certainly depicts the changing scenario in the gender role portrayed in the media in the 21st century context. However, the growth had been observed as stable to that compared to the involvement of male populace which indicates a certain degree of bias still prevailing within the industry (Christopherson, 2008). Conclusion From the above discussion it can be quite evidently identified that the depiction of gender role in media remains biased even in the 21st century. The role of women has been observed to change with time but the existence of the stereotyped illustration of gender is yet found to persist. The role of women in the media with respect to the present century in the form of newscasters or in other forms is also found to second the prevailing stereotyped concept. It is in this respect that the misrepresentation or rather the stereotyped representation of men as well as women is believed to entail the chances of grave consequences in terms of social segregations creating an unfair picture to the next generation. This can be further affirmed on the basis of the proven fact that media holds a significant influence over social perception. Furthermore, women are also depicted as younger as well as beautiful in comparison to the men. This creates an implication that the older women are in a way considered to be non-existent as well as capturing an insignificant part within the society. Hence, this distortion essentially requires to be altered at the earliest in order to prevent more damaging consequences. References Boyer, P. J. (1986). TV turns to the hard-boiled male. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/16/arts/tv-turns-to-the-hard-boiled-male.html?pagewanted=all Carter, B. (1991). Children’s TV, where boys are king. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/01/movies/children-s-tv-where-boys-are-king.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm Christopherson, S. (2008). Beyond the Self-expressive Creative Worker: An Industry Perspective on Entertainment Media. Theory Culture Society, Vol. 25, pp. 73-95. Faludi, S. (2010). Backlash: The undeclared war against women. United States: Random House. Nigro, G. N., Hill, D. E., Gelbein, M. E. & Clark, C. L. (1988). Changes in the facial prominence of women and men over the last decade. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 12(2), pp. 225-235. O’Connor, J. J. (1989). Review/Television: What are commercials selling to children? Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/06/arts/review-television-what-are-commercials-selling-to-children.html Punyanunt-Carter, N. M. (2008). The perceived realism of African American portrayals on television. The Howard Journal of Communications, 19, pp. 241-257. Ruggiero, T. E. (2000). Uses and Gratifications Theory in the 21st Century. Mass Communication & Society, Vol. 3(1), pp. 3–37. Sanders, M. & Rock, M. (1994). Waiting for prime time: The women of television news. United States: University of Illinois Press. Turgeon, W. C. (n.d). The persistence of gender stereotypes in the 21st century and what we can do about it. Analytic Teaching, 28 (1), pp. 18-27. Waters, J. & Ellis, G. (n.d). The selling of gender identity. Florida Gulf Coast University. Wood, J. T. (1994). Gendered media: The influence of media on views of gender. University of Delaware, 7, pp. 31-39. Read More