Female War Correspondence - Essay Example

?2. Literature Review   2 Introduction  Since the first female war correspondent covered conflicts in World War I, there has always been controversy over whether ‘feminine’ writing styles should be encouraged in reporting news from dangerous places, especially when the writers are mothers of young children (Chambers et al, 2004: 198). Chambers et al (2004: 2) demonstrate that “women remain a minority in the top management jobs in news organization, where a glass ceiling continues to limit women's promotion to key decision-making positions”. However, television stations still need the participation of female correspondents in news reporting to meet consumer demand. This is due to the agendas, styles and topics of news that female correspondents demonstrate; this is referred to by many scholars as ‘feminine’ news (Chambers et al, 2004: 2). Chambers et al (2004: 2) indicate that women’s reports “adopted a human-interest approach and were labelled as having a women’s angle”. Nevertheless, Akers (1988: 2) argued that male and female reporters write similar stories. Male correspondents also wrote ‘human interest’ stories. In the field of broadcasting, a growing number of women are being sent to war zones to cover conflicts so as to highlight the “drama of reporting in a market-driven profession” (Chambers et al, 2004: 197). For example, in 2011 Lara Logan was sexually assaulted in Cairo by violent mobs when she was conducting a live interview in front of the camera. Logan commented: “I was more afraid of being raped than shot” (quoted in Eagar, 2011). Manyon (2001: 16) suggests that the physical charms of Lara Logan are to her advantage, but these physical features would not help her when reporting in a war zone; professional skills (self-protection and journalistic skills) are the key advantages when doing reporting during a war. Therefore, there are some differences between female and male correspondents in terms of news writing style, gathering news and also in physiology in a war zone. The aim of the research is to investigate the difference of news writing styles (content) and news gathering between female and male war correspondents to do with war coverage. I will also explore the advantages and disadvantages of female correspondents on news writing and gathering news in war zones. I will explore the benefits and drawbacks of the female war correspondents so as to give a clear view for female correspondents to maximize their goodness and minimize their abuse and create higher quality reporting on war coverage. I will also make contributions for news agencies to hunt the appropriate journalists in a suitable place. Moreover, this also helps to the public to pay more attention to female war correspondents. In addition, the research is going to study the efforts of the media. Gender aspects play an important role in journalism studies, no matter whether from a positive or negative perspective. 2.2 Significance  Journalism should always be faithful and objective when expressing the nature of delicate matters. However, can journalists and news editors really conduct news editing without becoming emotionally involved? Everyone has a different writing style that is unique to them. News writing by nature is very personalized. Journalism writing is related to character, race and gender factors. This research believes that journalism has been combined with ideology. Nowadays, post-modern feminists claim that women and men should be seen equally in all aspects of society. They that believe woman can take all kinds of responsibilities that were usually taken by men. They also claim that the payment for work shall be same between men and women. However, in journalism there are some differences between men and women, particularly in news writing and news gathering procedures. This research retorts the viewpoint of the average post-modern female. For the literature review, I will give a brief introduction and background about the topic in general. Secondly, I will give a critical view of female correspondents in terms of news writing and news gathering styles. Thirdly, I state the positives and negatives of female correspondents to relate to my research on female war correspondents. 2.3 Concepts Before beginning further discussion of the differences between female and male war correspondents, there are two essential concepts that need to be known: war correspondents and the history of female war correspondents. This is conducive to deepening the knowledge of the special professions of war correspondents and the abundance of female war correspondents’ characteristics, development and traditional reporting styles.  2.3.1 War Correspondent  2.3.1.1 Definition of a War Correspondent  According to the Collins English Dictionary (2000), a war correspondent is defined as “a journalist who reports on a war from the scene of action”. Some scholars briefly state that the definition is “some persons who have been sent to a war zone for covering news” (Jiang, 1999: 32). Jiang was engaged in naval service for nine years and worked as a journalist for 8 years. He gave further opinions of war correspondents in the book Zhen Yi Yu Yong Qi: “a war correspondent is a journalism worker who gets news and reports news in a war zone. War correspondents consist of print journalists, painters, photographers as well as television cameramen” (Jiang, 2000: 1). As stated in War Correspondent Theory, Zhao Xuebo writes “a war correspondent is sent to the battlefield by a news organization for gathering news and interviewing witnesses” (Zhao, 2007: 30). This definition is to specify and prescribe the concept of a war correspondent. First, there is an employment relationship between the war correspondent and a news agency, which has distinguished between war correspondents and military news providers. Furthermore, to deliver valuable information regarding what happened in a war zone to the public, a war correspondent must work in the battlefield or in a conflict environment. However, this conflict environment not only occurs at the war front but also includes the enemy’s rear area and command centre. Thus, although some female war correspondents’ reports are not about fighting from a war zone, female reporters are still contributing to war coverage. Moreover, the definition of a war correspondent has emphasized the importance of firsthand news. Therefore, war correspondents need more courage and insight to be situated in a war zone and resist the threat of death. Female war correspondents especially face more challenge in war zone. 2.3.2 History of Female War Correspondents  Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) was the first female foreign war correspondent in the United States. She had been working for the New York Tribune in Europe as a writer and literary critic between 1846 and 1850. Fuller interviewed several Italian politicians and made in-depth reports on the Italian revolution from 1846 to 1849 (Chambers et al, 2004: 199).  The first female war correspondent at home appeared in the American-Spanish War in 1898. The representative female war correspondents during the nineteenth century were Anna Northend Benjamin and Katherine White, who worked for Outlook, Atlantic Monthly and Chicago Record. In the nineteenth century, female war correspondents were told to concentrate on non-violent news stories, such as soldiers’ living conditions and the circumstances of refugees. However, there were a growing number of male war correspondents who attacked their female counterparts; some male war correspondents believed that ‘feminine features’ were inappropriate for conflict reporting and women should pay more attention on negative and emotional news. In addition, some male correspondents considered that women journalists obtained news sources solely due to their gender. During World War I, there were very few female war correspondents working on the battlefield. Peggy Hull was the only American female war correspondent who was accredited to cover news in war zones. Although some female correspondent had opportunities for covering news in war zones, female war correspondents were still quite rare until World War II. All of a sudden there was an increase in the population of female war correspondents. According to population statistics during the World War II, 127 female correspondents had been permitted into the different battlefields of the world; most were from America, including several remarkable female correspondents in the twentieth century, such as Dickey Chapelle, Marguerite Higgins, Martha Gellhorn, Ann O’Hare McCormick and Margaret Bourke-White (Cristina and Bill, 2000). McCormick was the first female war correspondent who won a Pulitzer Prize in journalism by virtue of her battlefield news reports from Italy during World War II. Higgins and Gellhorn became the main reporters for the Korean and Vietnam Wars because of the affluent experiences of female war correspondents during World War II. According to female war correspondents’ writing trends during that era, the writing content was more concentrated on the impact of war rather that directly reporting the fighting scenes. After World War II, conflicts erupted continually in different parts of the world. A growing number of female correspondents acquired opportunities to cover the news on the battle front between the 1970s and 1990s, “with the Eastern European revolutions, the demise of the Soviet Union, the collapse of Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Chechnya, as well as two Gulf wars and the war in Afghanistan” (Chambers et al, 2004: 208). However, there were still plenty of difficulties and limitations on the number of female war correspondents, the coverage they received and the content they could cover. Up until the period of the Vietnam War, with the development of new policies and reforms, an increasing number of women began to have a platform from which to deliver war coverage. 2.4 Differences between Female and Male Correspondents in News Writing Styles (content) or News Gathering    In the book Women and Journalism, written by Deborah Chambers, Carole Fleming and Linda Steiner, the women state that in print journalism, male journalists are considered adiaphorous and male correspondents view their job as a profession. However, female journalists are treated based on their gendered; female correspondents are routinely determined and decided by female traits such as femininity. Chambers et al (2004: 1) discovered that female journalists are faced with inequality in some serious fields of news, such as politics and business, and in the highly popular and lucrative area of sports news. Women are still restricted to so-called “soft” news, which concentrates on ‘human interest’ content’. In television journalism, women correspondents are emphasized by their appearance and it is obviously that women correspondents are sexualized. According to Women and Journalism, the spectacle of television places more emphasis on female news presenters and journalists’ appearances rather than those of their male colleagues (Chambers et al, 2004: 1). Patricia Holland (1987: 133) indicates that “the imposed limits of femininity, it seems, cannot easily be cast off, particularly in the hard world of news reporting”. Female correspondents’ personal lives and bodies are discussed and analyzed controversially within media corporations. This phenomenon comes from the top of media corporation management. Chambers et al (2004: 1) go further by saying that “the high social visibility of women journalists in popular discourses contrasts with their relative invisibility in boardrooms and at other senior management meetings”. Chambers et al (2004: 2) express that a ‘glass ceiling’ has restricted female correspondent from being promoted and being included in decision-making processes in media corporations. Women still face sexism on a daily basis within news media. Working mothers face the similar issues of a shortage of childcare facilities and long working hours in the newsroom. Females have faced challenges of sexism in the newsroom while the demand of young and fascinating women is still increasing. Female news correspondents have their own stereotype known as ‘feminine’ news (Chambers et al, 2004: 2). This so called femininity has caught the attention of the public easily. In News, Gender and Power, Stuart Allan (1998: 2) illustrates gender biases and analyzes the three different modes of investigation. According to Stuart’s expressions in News, Gender and Power, he states that ‘truth’ is the key dictum for journalists, no matter what gender they are. However, within current investigations, they still have the problems of truth which is known as objectivity and bias. To put it another way, journalists present the truth of fact to the public mixed with some personal emotions. References Carter, C., Branston, G. and Allan, S. (1998) News, Gender and Power. London: Routledge. p. 2.  Chambers, D., Steiner, L. and Fleming, C. (2004) Women and Journalism. London: Routledge, p. 1-2, 197-198.  Cristina, R. and Bill, S. (2000). “Women Covering War,” Post-Gazette on the Web, viewed 3 August 2012,   Holland, P. (1987) ‘When a Woman Reads the News’, in H. Baehr and G. Dyer (eds) Boxed in: Women and Television, London: Pandora, p. 133-150. Jiang, Z. (1999) ‘zhandijizhe: meijieshidai de mingxing (War correspondent: the star in media era), Zhong guo she hui daokan (China society), vol. 11, pp. 32. Jiang, Z. (2000) Zhenyi yu Yongqi: shijie baiming jiechu zhandijizhe liezhuan (Justice and Courage: Biography of hundreds of war correspondent in the world), Haikou: Hainan chuban she, p. 1.  Jordan, E. (1938) Three Rousing Cheers, New York: D. Appleton-Century, p. 128.   “War Correspondent.” (2000) Collins English Dictionary, Collins, London, United Kingdom, viewed 20 August 2012, http://0www.credoreference.com.wam.city.ac.uk/entry/hcengdict/war_correspondent.  ,Xuebo, Z. (2007) Zhandijizhe lunsu (War correspondent theory), Beijing: zhongguo guangbo dianshi chu ban she, p. 30.  . London: Rouledge. London: Routledge. p  , New York: D. Applet Read More