LUNAFEST (tomorrow)- film festival for a great cause

_gaia presents LUNAFEST JERSEY CITY 2010**

Short films by, for and about women (really incredible films from international selection!!)
Benefiting The Breast Cancer Fund & _gaia

When: Sunday, April 11, 2010 @ 5:00 p.m.
Tickets: $10 Available at door
Location: LITM
www.litm.com
140 Newark Avenue
Jersey City, NJ 07302
(201) 536-5557

From quirky animation to touching documentaries, the 10 selected films are incredibly diverse in both style and subject matter, united by a common thread of exceptional storytelling by…for…about women. For more information on The Breast Cancer Fund or _gaia visit www.breastcancerfund.org and www.gaiastudio.org.

Seeking for new media

Dr Donna Allen.

Seeking for alternative news organization I found this wonderful page which represents all the things that we are looking for in the media´s world.
The Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) is a nonprofit, tax-exempt research, education, and publishing organization. It was founded in 1972, by Dr. Donna Allen, to improve communication between womens and reach the public with our experience, perspectives, and opinions. Also seek to disseminate the media and women in various areas: culture, politics, human rights, etc.. as well as new areas where we can make known our voices The main goal of this organization is to try to democratize the media´s world to achieve freedom of press. Internet is the most useful tool to disseminate their message and this page is their contribution to try to get to this purpose. They want the women´s voice to be heard and more known in the world.
The Women´s Institute for freedom of the Press thinks that medias help us to democratize our society, and we can get our experiences, our problems and conflicts to be publically known. It also shows us the injustices and social inequalities of our diverse societies.
In this page you can find many things: all the places where they are now working,, their message, books, magazines, links, our rights, also they give people the opportunity to work with them in an intership to express your own ideas in the page.
I think that this organization makes a really interesting work, tries and also encourages you to change this acts of injustice.It is important that there is differents media´s places with a different message than the traditional message such as this page. New media tries to make people aware instead of alienating. Fight for these minorities (that the readings speaks has their own voice and their chance to participate in a equal world. The Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press believes and works to enable it.

The Invisible Majority

Women and race has been excluded in the mass media in every aspect from in front of the camera to behind the scenes. Women and Black Americans are the invisible majority in the media. The reasons why this exclusion happens in democratic society would be because the FCC hasn’t been able to protect small media outlets to have a stance in the mass media. The small media outlets aren’t producing change is because they aren’t able to compete with the major media conglomerates. There is to this day no stop to cross-ownership which enables these conglomerates to be as powerful as they are. These conglomerates are producing one view point in the media and that view point is only from white males less then half of our populations is instilling their view point on major social and political issues that media has informed us the consumers. “Thus, access to the media by the broadest sector of society is crucial to ensuring that diverse viewpoints are presented to the American people, that all sectors of society are accurately depicted.” (Why You Should Care About Media Diversity).

When there is women in media fields such as in our reading about “The Rise of the Female Anchor” depicts women both competing as cat fight between Katie Couric and Diana Sawyer which is ridiculous depiction of two professionals just completing to be the best anchor; this would only be allowed because both individuals are women. Society has allowed the conditions to create women to compete in such a way that it is a cat fight. When in real life women have profound long lifetime relationships with women personally and professionally.

In the mist of all this anti diversity in the mass media there is an organization called New York Women in Communication. This non-profit organization was created to promote New York Women in communications by offering scholarships to women who wanted to embark in Communications felid. The organization grew to not only scholarships but student’s news letters, career conferences for students, mentoring and internships as well. The reason why this organization is alternative is because this organization strictly promotes women in the Communications field. Which the communication field like every other aspect to media is a boy’s only club. This organization is trying to diversify the Communications field by enabling women to go in to this felid.

Women in media are the invisible majority and we see that everyday once we pick up a newspaper or go online for our news, turn on the TV or watch a movie we only see white males as the only point of view. There are very few organizations trying to allow for more then one view point and the New York Women in Communications is an enabling agency for women going in to the communications felid.

Women are seldom the faces you see on new stations, the voices heard on the radio, the words read in newspapers or even the images on Sunday morning cartoons. More scarce are women doing behind-the-scenes work, having only 15 percent being directors, producers, writers, cinematographer or editors. This is an extremely low number considering women take up more than half of the population here in the States. There are some well known names of women in the media, like Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer, but those exceptions are ultimately still under a superior white male ownership.

“Educate a woman – Educate the world!”

Women News Network is a corporation that focuses on international news on media that our mass media does not. It is about women and significantly enough, ran by a majority of women. The organization started as a single assignment for the UN Commission but the then director, and now Editor-at-large, Lys Anzia decided to create an on-going non profit organization that addresses the ongoing problems with women rights all over the world. WNN continues to be awarded for their journalism, but there ultimate goad is not to win awards, but to bring awareness and end women suffering and create a better world for all people to live in.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyG0Ruc-heFcsme-H_FC80i42w3D3BYGHpXfuC82Jcy0XzzIHsGp9Ou34tnuYyWz3LjXvYh_6GPf3T6edhrj59HtkwrSn8w0xvk5EyncXA417zgbDSNjuOYx68OhC7iy5Oc18YMuANw/s400/code-pink2.jpg

Women and Independent Media

Discussion about the independent media I should start by showing how much the media (in USA) is corporate world. There is an organization called Project Censored. They says that their mission is to “teach students and the public about the role of a free press in a free society – and to tell the News That Didn’t Make the News and Why.

The organization researched Corporate Media Ownership and shows that main source of news for most Americans is owned by ten big media organizations, who also own “almost everything” (you can read more on here).

The Project Censored is great organization, but their goals are not releted directly to women’ or minorities’ issues. I mentioned them because when they show relations of news to politycs and big corporate world (“money”), they also list some independent news sources, and because the Project Censored operates for more than 30 years, they are good reference.

In their list I found link to Women’s E-News website. Their slogan is “Covering Women’s Issues – Changing Women’s Lives”. This is non-profit organization which is daily internet-based news service. They tries to cover hard to get news which concern women and their lives (about Women's eNews). The editors of Women’s E-News are freelance writers from around the world. The news are published or the website, but also can be subscribe (by e-mail). The organization is coming out from Barbara Lee Family foundation (1996) and became independent on January 1, 2002. Very positive is fact that Wonen’s eNews has its Arabic version. The organization have won 3127 award between 2004 and 2008.

They have a few interesting sections. One touches issue of marriage and divorce from women’s point of view. Going thru this section I found interesting article about fight against forced marriages, which are still practice in many countries in the world.

The other interesting section is Uncovering Gender. The topics of the articles are from all aspects of our lives, from politics to justice, from business to environment. For everyone who is interested in women’s issues should subscribe them.

There is one more organization I want to write about in a few words. The IWPR (Institute for War and Peace Reporting). This organization unite independent reporters in different part of the world, who fight for peace and democracy. This non-profit organization built whole network of for these reporters, and help them to develop skills and professionalism. Their website is great source of news from all places where war has place. I wrote about them, because right now they are building new media pipeline for reporters who works with them, and I am small part of it.

Islamic Women

In my research for an alternative media source I came across many articles for Islamic women, and I chose to speak about the articles pertaining to the Islamic women living in America. One article that stuck out to me was on this link http://www.islamfortoday.com/americanmuslimwomen.htm where they discuss the challenges and difficulties Islamic women face from Muslims and non-Muslims. Often you do not hear about the challenges they face from someone of their culture, but it is always someone of a different culture speaking for them. They are not represented on almost any type of media, and if they are it is usually the negative images that gets circulated worldwide. The more the public feeds into those images, the more they are not going to want to know the truth about Islamic women.

In this article there are different stories of specific Islamic women and their hardships of what they face in their lives. Surprisingly heart felt stories is what makes the news and appeals to the public, but I guess because these women come from a culture that is feared, hated, and misunderstood it is no wonder why there stories are not heard. For instance one of the challenges that Islamic people face are wanting to live under the Islamic law (while living as a U.S. citizen), but certain practices do not have them protected under the U.S. law. One practice is polygamy and the story of Fatima and Khadijah in this article is a perfect example. An Islamic man named Omar married his first wife Khadijah under the U.S. law, but Omar wanted to have a second wife named Fatima. Fatima and Omar could not marry under the U.S. law, but they did under the Islamic law. Both marriages failed and both wives had children that Omar refused to take care of. Luckily for Khadijah she was married under the U.S law and was able to take Omar to court to make him take care of his responsibilities toward supporting his children. Unfortunately for Fatima she could not take Omar to court and had no one to help her with her children, or help her with any other financial problems she faced from then on. Situations like this are very common and no one knows about it unless you lived it.

From reading the freepress.net article I see that it is not a coincidence of the absence of these women, and they claim they are trying to rewrite the rules for free press so that more diversity can be shown in the media. But why do not understand is how the rules can exclude minority women to begin with. In the beginning of this article it states, “Runaway consolidation of our country’s media outlets has eliminated media ownership opportunities for women and minorities and led to the decline of quality journalism and the loss of local and independent voices.” This quote stuck out to me because it shows that not many people cared that this happened and what makes peoples opinions different now than what they used to be? In this article it mentions that the FCC is working to create a more diverse media representation for minorities.

However, when reading the Media Ownership article it says other wise. It states, “To-date, the FCC has not done the requisite examination of the status of women in media ownership. According to recent review from Free Press, the FCC failed to identify 75 percent of stations owned by women, calling in to question their commitment to women’s role in the media.” This does not shock me. It is nothing new of someone in charge who is a man would say they would work to change things, but make as little effort as possible to make those changes. So the term “Invisible Majority” that represents all women and minorities that are not represented in the media is a perfect term, especially since those in charge ignore the fact that we are here and we need to be heard.

A Different Point of View

In "Media Ownership: Impact on Minority Ownership and Localism", Carol Jenkins writes, "I am speaking here on behalf of what we call the Invisible Majority, the women in this country who account for 51 percent of the population, yet own less than 5 percent of television stations and 6 percent of radio stations."

With these statistics and the ones from NOW's "Women in Media Fact Sheet" ("Only one in four communications/media jobs created between 1990 and 2005 were filled by women," "The premiere news program on network television...currently boasts 10 regular correspondents and contributors, of whom three are women. None are people of color,") it is easy to see how underrepresented women (and ethnic minorities) are in the news media.

One of the reasons for the lack of women and minorities in TV, radio, and newspapers is media consolidation. As discussed in "Media Ownership: Impact on Minority Ownership and Localism" and the Reel Grrls video, all media is essentially owned by one big conglomerate. For example, in radio, Clear Channel owns thousands of radio stations, and when one company owns everything, everything reflects that one company's policies. Jenkins writes, "that company’s hiring practices, editorial policies—and world view– can tilt an entire industry—if not an entire country." That is why it is important to have diversity in our media—so that we will have different points of views expressed in our news. It is so we can hear the opinions of women, women like us, and of minorities. If not, we're all being told to think the same thing by every source we have. Not all of us can relate to the "cantankerous old men" from both extremes of the political spectrum who have arguments that are presented to us as news, as Lisa Ling said in the video from my group's presentation. This is why alternative media becomes essential to have.

An alternative news source that I found is called WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service, "a series of news and current affairs programs by and about women around the world". Its Audio Archive lists 299 clips about various topics ranging from violence against women to the origin of Western feminism. WINGS is important as a news source because it completely goes against the norms described in this week's readings. Women are not underrepresented because all 299 of the clips are by and about women! It also gives a global scope because the stories aren't just from North America, there are stories from and about Rwanda, India, Guam, Bolivia, etc.

Wings is based in Vancouver, Canada, and its Co-Founder and Series Producer, Frieda Werden actually got involved in women's news reporting when she heard of the 51% statistic, the invisible majority. In this interview with Werden, she states, "The one thing I’m trying to change is the invisibility of women and women’s actions, especially to ourselves and each other. It’s a big job, eh?"

Women in Prison

I must start by stating how much I enjoyed last class (03/27/2010) it was both informational and enlightening. I thanked Ms. Dahl for sharing those short films with the class. It is very sad that serious issues are not the forefront of the mass media. Short films such as "A girl like me" which made me very emotional should be at the forefront. it is sad that women issues around the world are put to the back burner while scandalous and meaningless topics are broad casted daily.

One group of women that interested me in Media are the Women that are Imprisoned. For many years imprisoned women have suffered being sexually and physically abuse. these rights to be safe despite being imprisoned violated. Women in prison are an invisible correctional population. The public is privy to very little information on this group of women. however, Hollywood and the Sex industry has found a way to turn imprisoned women ordeals of sexual and physical abuse into fantasy, pleasures and a money making business. Research has examined how Hollywood depicts female prisoners in babes-behind-bars films such as Caged Heat (1974) and The Big Bird Cage (1972). The highly sexuality images of women in prison presented in these films leave distinctive and potentially detrimental impressions in the minds of viewers. it is appalling that society has allowed such barbaric films to be acceptable. Caged heat and The Big Bird Cage sends a messages tho our women that it is okay and fun not only to be imprisoned but to used for sexually pleasures.

Posted below is an article taken from Wikipedia about women in prison films.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_prison_film

Women in prison film
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Caged HeatWomen in prison film (or WiP) is a subgenre of exploitation film that began in the late 1960s and continues to the present day.

Their stories feature imprisoned women who are subjected to sexual and physical abuse, typically by sadistic male or female prison wardens and guards. The genre also features many films in which imprisoned women engage in lesbian sex.

Before the '60s, films on women behind bars were serious, realistic dramas that depicted the miseries of prison life. They also carried an implied moralistic or cautionary message about the consequences of breaking the law.

The exploitation WiP films that followed discarded all moralistic pretentions. Instead, they are works of pure fantasy intended only to titillate the audience with a lurid mix of sex and violence. The flexible format, and the loosening of censorship laws, allowed filmmakers to choose from an extensive menu of misogynistic taboos. From voyeurism (strip searches, group shower scenes, cat-fights) to sexual fantasies (lesbianism, rape, sexual slavery), to fetishism (bondage, whipping, degradation), and outright sadism (beatings, torture, cruelty).

Prior to these films, the only expression of such fantasy material was found in the many "true adventure" men's magazines such as Argosy in the 1950s and 1960s, although a plausible case could be made that Denis Diderot's novel 'The Nun' anticipated the genre. Nazis tormenting damsels in distress were perennial favorite subjects for the lurid, sub-pornographic covers of these sensationalistic magazines which, by the end of the '60s, were in decline.

Occasionally the "new fish" inmate is an undercover reporter investigating corruption as in Bare Behind Bars or a government agent sent to rescue a political prisoner (Caged Heat 2, Love Camp 7).

History of the genre
Hollywood made movies set in women's prisons as early as the 1930s, such as Ladies They Talk About and Hold Your Man, but generally, only a small part of the action took place inside the prison. Women-in-prison films developed in the 1930s as melodramas in which young heroines were shown the way to a righteous life by way of the prison. Under the influence of pulp magazines and paperbacks, they became popular B movies in the 1950s. It was not until the 1950s, beginning with the release of Caged (1950), starring Eleanor Parker and Agnes Moorehead, So Young, So Bad (also 1950), and Women's Prison (1955) with Ida Lupino and Cleo Moore, that an entire film was set inside a women's correctional facility.

The film that kicked off the genre in a new direction was Jesus Franco's 99 Women, which was a big box office success in the U.S. in 1969. That year Love Camp 7 was also among the first pure exploitation films that influenced the women in prison and Nazi exploitation genres. Since the 1970s, women-in-prison films have become a specialty product that has more to do with sexual fantasies than with real prison life.

A number of the WiP films remain banned by the BBFC in the United Kingdom. Among them are Love Camp 7 (rejected in 2002) and Women in Cellblock 9 (rejected in 2004), on the grounds that they contain substantial scenes of sexual violence and in the case of the latter an actress who at 16 was under age at the time of production rendering it child pornography under U.K. law.[citation needed]

American tourists are incarcerated overseas in Chained Heat 2 with Brigitte Nielsen, Red Heat with Linda Blair, and Prison Heat, set in Turkey. Mainstream, non-exploitation prison films dealing with this theme include Bangkok Hilton (1998) starring Nicole Kidman and Brokedown Palace (1999) with Claire Danes, both set in Thailand, and Return to Paradise, (1998), set in Malaysia.

Caged Heat 3000 (1995) stars Lisa Boyle (aka Cassandra Leigh) as an inmate on an asteroid prison. Includes futuristic touches such as electric bra torment and cattle prod-like sticks.

Women Make Movies

"Courtesy of Women Make Movies, www.wmm.com." 

Its amazing when researching for this post how many searches and pages I had to skim through to find something about women creating their own media. Instead the top searches were not even for women rather for men. We live in a society where no matter how much progress we make, there always seems to be a step taken backwards. I came across this organization called Women Make Movies these are films by and about women. An amazing notion, which I thought deserved to be further looked into. 

Women Make Movies was established in 1972 to address the under representation and misrepresentation of women in the media industry. Women Make Movies is a multicultural, multiracial, non-profit media arts organization which aids in production, promotion, distribution and exhibition of independent films and videotapes by and about women. The organization provides services to both users and makers of film and video programs, with a special emphasis on supporting work by women of color. 

Women Make Movies distribution service seeks to expand the public exposure to independent film and videos that are directed by women, and whose content is about women and the issues that affect their lives. Their collection of more than 500 films includes award-winning works by both established and emerging independent media makers all over the world. They cover incredible and moving topics. 

Why is it important for this organization to show these films that are of women and by women, you might ask? It is because they believe that women's media, in both traditional and non-traditional forms, presents social, political, and aesthetic visions of women that are not generally available in mainstream media. By having these media films out there, they are making others aware of what issues are out there, and these issues are being covered by WMM. 

The Women Make Movies' Distribution Service is their primary program. As the leading distributor of women's films and videotapes in North America, Women Make Movies works with organizations and institutions that utilize non-commercial, educational media in their programs. Which includes media arts centers, museums, galleries, colleges and universities, as well as other non-profit organizations and agencies, ranging from hospitals to prisons to labor unions to the U.S. Army.  In the last three years, WMM has returned more than $1.5 million to women producers in royalty payments

In 1984, Women Make Movies exhibited a ground-breaking program of media by Latin American women, Punto de Vista: Latina, and the next year co‑sponsored the conference Viewpoints: Women, Culture and Public Media with Hunter College, which was attended by more than 700 artists, practitioners, theorists, and community activists. In 1988, a new production assistance program was initiated, which included artist‑in‑residencies, a technical assistance program and workshops. The following year, Women Make Movies launched two international touring programs, Changing the Subject: An International Exhibition of Films by Women of Color and The Feminist I, a survey of contemporary women’s video.

WMM has also worked with dozens of local women's organizations in Asia, Latin America and in the Middle East to support new International Women's Film Festivals. In the coming years, Women Make Movies looks forward to continuing to increase the visibility of women both in front of and behind the camera. 

This organization is remarkable for the work that they do, and the awareness they are putting out their in this world. Everyone should take the time to further look into the website, and read all the things they offer, including programs, and sign up for their newsletter, in which you will be informed about new films which have been made. The only thing I wish the website did have were short clips on these films, to show others who visit the kind of moving work that is being done. 

After reading the readings for this week, as well as doing the research for this assignment, I never fully realized in numbers the little amount of women holding high positions in today's society. In the "National Organization for Women" fact sheet it stated in the very first line, "Women will not be truly equal until we have full and fair representation in the media." It took me a few times after reading that for it to fully sink in and accept that I didn't want to accept the notion of something so bogus but true. "In television for kids, male characters appear at about twice the rate of female characters." The line that totally caught me off guard especially since I am a mother was, "Animated programs in particular are more likely to be presented in sexy attire and twice as likely to be shown with a diminutive waist." After reading that line I was bothered because we were talking about cartoons. Even cartoons are depicting female characters as sexy! Pure Disgust!!!

WMC states it very clear, "Almost everything we know about our country, and our world is dictated by media." This is very true and sad, many people seek the media for the latest news and they believe every word that is said and every image that is shown. I mean why not? Why wouldn't we believe the people who are feeding us the news every morning and for the cable we are paying for to have them feed us the news? We all do it.

Post #4: News Media Industries

On November 09, 2007, the public testified to the Federal Communications Commission at Seattle’s Town Hall on a hearing regarding media ownership. Although most American media companies advocate limiting or eliminating media consolidation restrictions, the crowd at the hearing and all that they represent did not; in fact, “almost all of them [were] opposed to the [FCC’s] proposed rules” according to Seattle Times staff reporter Eric Pryne and Stuart Eskenazi in their article “Seattle Crowd Blasts FCC on Big Media.” Huge conglomerates that seek media domination are eliminating the chance for local independent voices, women and minorities to thrive in American media; thus limiting the public to less diverse, low quality media content.

According to www.freepress.net, the reason why female and minority views and opinions are disappearing is because they “have been systematically shut out of ownership of our country's broadcast media.” While organizations such as Free Press continue to advocate and fight for media diversity, big businesses are instigating the elimination of media rules such as cross ownership-- which serves to protect media diversity and create competition among the media market-- to the FCC. Specifically, women in the news media carry the heaviest burden, most especially those who are not white skinned.

Though women take up about 51% of America’s population, they only own 5% of television stations and 6% of radio stations. Women like Carol Jenkins, President of The Women’s Media Center in New York City, are doing their best to “make sure women participate in all media at all levels—at the top as owners, inside as professionals, and outside as experts and informed consumers.” Still, only one out of four positions in communications/media jobs are given to women; and even then, they are unequally paid compared to men who receive about 29% more in salary—46% more if compared to women who are not white.

Similar to other forms of media, the news is a realm where women are unrepresented and mistreated: “Nearly 90 percent of reporters/writers and newsroom supervisors are white and about two-thirds are male” according to www.now.org. Also, about 33% of the top 100 syndicated opinion columnist in the United States are women. For those reasons and more, many are taking action. In other countries, women are experiencing similar situations but in a much more extreme magnitude. In Kabul, Afghanistan, under the Taliban rule, “women had been squeezed out of nearly all visible roles in society” says Peggy Simpson, an International Women’s Media Foundation writer as she reports about Farida Nekzad; there were no independent news agency until Nekzad’s work for the IWPR led to the creation of one—the Pajhwok Afgan News.

Nekzad’s passion for reporting was realized in high school before the Taliban rule; she wanted to be “a window for other women” in Afghanistan. As a teenager, she participated in the production of school papers and volunteered in other various publications. Her sole influence in reporting, a neighbor who was a reporter, further encouraged her to go into the field. Even when she had to withdraw from studying journalism at Kabul University to take refuge with her family in Pakistan, Nekzad pushed through and continued her study at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi where she wrote articles for Pakistani and Afghan publications.

Her return to Afghanistan in late 2001 surprised and encouraged her greatly; women were working once again, they were out in the public without burkas, some were even going into the journalism profession. The kind of freedom which she saw gave her opportunity to report and further train in media among other Afghans. She started freelancing for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, moved on to AINA radio which she hosted, edited and reported on problems in an array from sports to women’s issues and politics; she furthered her reporting with publications aimed for women until she returned to IWPR working as a part time editor and trainer. Throughout her career, never once did she stop encouraging women to fight for their rights.

Along with five other colleagues, Nekzad was inspired to publish stories written by IWPR writers, especially the women. Since there were not any independent news agencies in Kabul they can count on for an outlet to these stories, they themselves went and published them. In 2004, the Pajhwok Afghan News of Kabul published news in Dari, Pashto and English. At the time, they only had “35 reporters and photographers, including eight women” according to Simpson; now, they are working with a network of reporters nation-wide and overseas.

The Pajhwok Afghan News is a web based news archive that ranges in the disciplines it reports on: politics & government; business, economics & reconstruction; education & culture; society, health & environment; security, crime & accidents; sports & entertainment. On their website, www.pajhwok.com is a bar that features a real time feed of the latest news. Along with their photo service, which features young talented Afghan photojournalists, is an up and coming audio service. Their publications are very straight forward, user friendly, and not surrounded by much advertisements or imagery.

Since their subscribers do not only include daily and weekly publications, but Afghanistan’s major television and radio stations as well, it is obvious how impactful their coverage really is and the importance of independent journalism. The Pajhwok Afghan News remains to be a successful and necessary media source since it is not afraid to report on corruption, even within death threats of those who they report on. With women not accepted as journalists and are threaten with guns, it is especially difficult to thrive; but it does not mean they are going to be weak and shrink away passively about it. The women of the Pajhwok Afghan News are especially brave and unwilling to give up their rights, even when more and more of them are being murdered and continuously threatened.

Women and Alternative Media

Image found at www.justfocus.org.nz/projects/mtm/

It is difficult to come across alternative media, in an industry that makes a living from saturating sexist and racist messages and images. It is even more difficult for minorities of the groups being discriminated in the media to enter the industry. Arts Engine is a corporation that was established by social activists Katy Chevigny and Julia Pimsleur in 1997. Arts Engine is a local corporation whose office is located in New York City. The purpose of the Arts Engine Corporation was to create documentaries on social issues. The Arts Engine has also created another production company named Big Mouth, which has been very successful. Big Mouth has gained national recognition, winning prominent awards. One of their documentary films Deadline was nominated for an Emmy. Some of Big Mouth’s films include, Arctic Son and Election Day, which were broadcasted by P.O.V. Katy Chevigny and Julia Pimsleur also established an online organization called MediaRights.org that has connected thousands of activists and filmmakers worldwide. MediaRights.org aids makers of media, educators, activists, and nonprofits produce short films and documentaries to influence action and impact discussion on present social issues. Media That Matters Film Festival derived from MediaRights.org, and it is one of the first online film festivals. Media That Matters Film Festival gathers strong impact short films and “Take Action” methods to reach viewers around the world throughout the year, via distribution of DVDs, web streaming, broadcasting, and local screenings.

Arts Engine’s powerful activism that began in the 1997 to present is definitely an example of alternative media organizations that have made a difference; by including minority figures, but also by including social issues that are neglected in popular media. The role of gender in this story is important because the founders of Arts Engine are both female social activists. And it is their passion and recognition of discrimination and hierarchy within the media industry that has allowed them to fight extremely hard to make way for social issues and minority filmmakers to be recognized.

Before conducting my research for this post, I completed the readings first, I felt that I comprehended the importance and issues behind media consolidation. Minorities and women are underrepresented in the media industry, a fact that is disturbing because half of our population is comprised of women, and more than half of our population is minority. Yet only “one in four communications/media jobs created were filled by women” (Women in Media Fact Sheet). Nonetheless, it wasn’t until I completed my research on the Arts Engine that I was truly outraged. In order to find Arts Engine Corporation I had to dig thru all the garbage on the internet. I needed to search for “Alternative Media” to find real news, and issues I could truly empathize with. And now media consolidation wants to amend the media policies so that large companies can get larger, which will result in the elimination of opportunities and corporations for women and minorities. Media consolidation will result in the wipe out of organizations such as, Arts Engine that give opportunities to independent filmmakers, which for the most part are women and minorities. Organizations that educate audiences around the world and influence normal people to take action should be more important than conglomerates who are only concerned with earning more money from Us. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I rather indulge in media that empowers me and educates me, rather than media that creates messages that discourages me and preys on my insecurities, in order to gain more money for the White men on top. Image found at www.drexel.edu/.../img/news/WPMCFlyerStrip.jpg

The following is a link to a short documentary I found on the Media That Matters Film Festival website. The short film titled Exiled in America is about five American-Mexican siblings who struggle to support themselves after their mother was deported to Mexico. This short documentary is an example of the media being supported and produced by Arts Engine. http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/watch/9/exiled_in_america

Women's Voices in Broadcasting

ABC’s Lynn Scherr stated in 1977, “Think of the possibility of two women anchors on a networking news broadcast, and you’ll understand we’re still in the Ice Age” (Women In Broadcasting (U.S.), edited by Barbara Murray, pg.1). As of 2010, how far have women come and how much further do they have to go?

(The image is from http://www.fanpix.net/picture-gallery/278/82278-katie-couric-picture.htm )

Twenty-nine years later from the Ice Age, CBS finally took a challenging step to break the conventional format of “the all boys club in the evening news”. Katie Couric became the first female solo anchor on the networking evening news broadcast. However, what she drew the viewers’ attention to was mostly her gender and appearance rather than her job as an anchor. Emails about what she was wearing flooded into CBS during her first few weeks on air (Broadcast News: When Women Become Two out of Third by Michele Filgate), and her legs have been one of her trademarks. ABC’s Diane Sawyer took over World News’s chair from Charlie Gibson in December 2009, and as well as Couric, not her talent as a journalist and long-time experience as a co-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America” but her beauty and status as a teen beauty queen became the noteworthy fact for the viewers and other media. “She was accused of being too fetching to be a ‘serious’ journalist” (The Rise of the Female Anchor by Alessandra Stanley).

Such painful tendencies which judge the female broadcasters by their appearances or something which has nothing to do with their works -leaving behind how well they are doing- have been explicit. It is also obvious that most female news reporters and anchors are more likely to be attractive. Viewers demand the nice and acceptable “landscapes” to see not only on MTV but also on news. However, when the female broadcasters become too feminine and too beautiful, viewers cannot help to criticize those “too feminine and not serious broadcasters” as challengers against the traditional structure of broadcasting.

Back to the 70s again, a former NBC female producer of documentaries once said, “There is some visible progress in lower ranks, minimal in the middle ranks, significant progress in on-the-air reporters, and none in management” (Women In Broadcasting (U.S.), edited by Barbara Murray, pg.3). Surprisingly, her statement about women in the broadcasting industry which was made 30 years ago seems to still fit in the situation today. As stated above, the female anchors have achieved to the traditionally male dominant position in the evening news, although controversies and debates which stemmed from their gender have been still hanging around. However, the issue of ownership for women and a strikingly low number of women who are in the decision-making positions have been getting a serious concern in broadcasting, accompanying with the recent movement of media consolidation. An article from the Women’s Media Center says that women own “less that 5 percent of television stations and 6 percent of radio stations” and “compromise only 10 percent of general managers, only 15 percent of programmers, and only 15 percent of on-the-air talent” (Media Ownership: Impact on Minority Ownership and Localism by Carol Jenkins).

As we read through Women in Media Fact Sheet on National Organization for Women (http://www.now.org/issues/media/women_in_media_facts.html), it becomes clearer that women have been losing their places and opportunities to speak out their voices. According to Jonathan Lawson, Reclaim the Media cofounder, because of the media consolidation, 5 or 6 companies have the powerful controls over the whole broadcasting industry today (A Generation of Consolidation: part1 of 2 http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=reelgrrls#p/u/27/VZ01mj0IdTQ). Companies owned by men have cooperated with other companies owned by men, and they have had more power and control over media which influence people’s ways of thinking in many ways. Needless to say, as men gain more control over media, women have loosen it. Isn’t it so unnatural and unbalanced that women have scarce opportunity to express themselves in media when they account for more than half of the population in the U.S.?

(The image is from http://wnnbreakingnewsportal.wordpress.com/wnn-featured-news/)

Women News Network (WNN http://womennewsnetwork.net/ ) is the place where you can find a bunch of international women’s news. WNN is a non-profit news networking working as an NGO and aims to empower and amplify women’s voices internationally. It was lunched by Lys Anzia who is the director and a writer for the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2006 because she “saw the vital need to report the many times hard and suffering stories of women”. They provide in-depth international stories about women which we cannot find in the current mainstream media stream.

WNN offers not only in-depth feature writings about women’s issues but also videos, publications, activities and links, and they also accept writings and articles from the readers. What I was impressed by WNN beside their high-quality and real journalistic stories is the collection of videos and films. If you go to Women News Network Video Collection (http://vodpod.com/womennewsnetworkvideocollection/womennewsnetwork), you will find over 600 videos featuring women’s news. The overwhelming number of videos and their focus on the international issues not only within the U.S. made me realize again that issues related to women are global phenomena. They are happening all around the world. Also, another reason why I love the collection is it is easier for me to understand what’s going on the world when I see the issues and the real people with my eyes rather than reading difficult readings. When I can directly feel their feelings, confusions, angers, and emotions through their facial expressions and voices in videos, they make me think that we really need to do something with it.

In 2008, WNN was honored with a internationally prestigious award called Every Human Has Rights Media Award and their work have been drawn people’s attention who care about the inequality of the sexes as WNN does. Such women-owned independent news resources like WNN are really important today because women need to be aware of the inequality of gender in media and proclaim that they won’t allow it. If the broadcasting industry which is dominated by men doesn’t care about women’s news and publish it, women have to take an action and do it by themselves.

The More Things Stay the Same, the More Things Change

While media consolidation is monopolizing mainstream media, many journalists and media makers are embarking upon new venues in which to foster the art of communication.

Latinitas Magazine is a non-profit organization based in Austin, Texas whose mission is to empower Latina youth through media and technology. They are one of the first bilingual digital magazines made for and by young Latinas. The young women are involved in the publication process and are encouraged to develop their own media. The organization features two magazines, one for teens and the other for girls. Additionally, the organization offers after school programs, fun-girl camps, mentor projects and workshops focused on media that are geared specifically for young girls and adolescents.

In developing new ways to expand the art of communication, women are capable of buffering the impact and effect that the commercially based media may have on young women. Awareness regarding the issues and differences in salary scales, caused by gender, may help young women to later develop into constituents who set in motion the changes that are required to balance out the discrepancies women face in the work force today.
The internet has provided us with ways to share information that allow for diversification. Because of this, many people today do not solely rely on the six major media conglomerates for information. As traditional media becomes less diversified and more exclusionary, the need for non-commercialized information and quality discourse increases exponentially. In this realm, women have the potential to change the historical disparities that women have had to contend with thus far.

The fact that women own less than five percent of television stations, six percent of radio stations and three percent of decision making positions within the media industry is quite disheartening; this is especially so if the ratio of women in the United States is 51 percent (Jenkins, February 2007, womensmediacenter.com). This fact lends itself to a bigger issue overall – the lack of women in decision making positions in all areas of business and government throughout the country. According to research conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, women only earn more than men in five out of more than 500 occupational categories tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (“Gender Pay, Discrepancy Down,” Mantell, April 2009, MarketWatch – WSJ.com). "Women in some highly paid professions--such as law--stand to lose $2 million or more in full-time careers." ("Wage Gap Study Arrives in Time for Equal Pay Day," Soquel, April 2009, WomensENews.org).

The battle between the sexes is a weary one, and one that may have to be approached from a different perspective. The growth of our economy and our development as a human race is contingent upon the fact that PEOPLE must work TOGETHER – both men and women alike and for salaries reflect their abilities to do their respective jobs.

Scavenging for Intriguing Media in a Chauvinist Society

A few years ago, I attended an event at The Paley Center for Media where a panel of prominent women in the field (including Gloria Steinem) discussed the challenges of working in a male-dominated profession. One of the women recounted how at her news station in the 1970s, the office she worked in didn’t even have a women’s bathroom! So to indicate that she was inside, a woman was expected to place her high heels outside the stall. This is so terribly sexist and degrading. A man would never be expected to leave his belt hanging on a bathroom doorknob as a way of notifying an entire office that he is inside. This type of treatment is just one way of singling out “the other”—to let everyone know that an intruder is inside, with alien parts, and possibly even unsightly weapons called TAMPAX.

Unfortunately, the situation of what The Women’s Media Center calls “The Invisible Majority,” has not improved much, even decades later. “The truly disturbing numbers are the percentages of women working for the 94 percent of companies owned and run by men: women comprise only 10 percent of general managers, only 15 percent of programmers, and only 15 percent of the on-air talent” (http://womensmediacenter.com/blog/2007/02/media-ownership-impact-on-minority-ownership-and-localism/).

What does it take for a woman to get a prominent position in the news industry? Katie Couric is probably better known for her legs and her $15 million/year salary at NBC (http://www.tunc.biz/couric_fan.htm) than for any of the stories she has reported on in the past year. It’s a similar situation with Diane Sawyer. I personally think Sawyer is a superb journalist, yet almost every article I’ve ever read about her mentions her ageless beauty or the fact that she is a former beauty queen (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/weekinreview/06stanley.html?_r=1).

I don’t hate these women because they are beautiful; I’m just wondering why it is relevant in the context of discussing their work as news anchors. I think it boils down to a number of things, including the fact that viewers expect to see good-looking people reporting the news, as well as that fact that physically attractive people sometimes are more likely to excel than those who are less attractive because they get preferential treatment (http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/who-knew-good-looking-people-get-better-jobs-14974.html).

Needless to say, I was excited when I came upon The Scavenger, a publication accessible at www.thescavenger.net which is described as “an online portal of features, commentary and news that you’re unlikely to find in mainstream media. It's a mix of original articles, aggregated content (republished blog posts) and author extracts” (http://www.thescavenger.net/about.html). The Scavenger separates its articles into categories (accessible in the sidebar) including: Music, Social Justice, Media & Technology, Feminism & Pop Culture and GLB(SGD)Q, which stands for: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, (Sex and/or Gender Diverse), Queer.
I found it refreshing that on The Scavenger’s staff page, 5 out of 6 employees listed are women.

The site was launched in December 2009 and was created by journalist Katrina Fox, who has worked as an editor, sub-editor and writer for publications based in Sydney and London.

“Articles on The Scavenger are written by a mixture of professional journalists, bloggers, authors and talented emerging writers.” (http://www.thescavenger.net/about.html).

“The difference is that mainstream media content is often dictated by corporate concerns. Stories don’t make it into publications because they ‘may upset an advertiser’. Other ‘stories’ are blatant advertorial puff. You won’t find that on The Scavenger. Nor will you find the latest celebrity gossip or lifestyle fluff.” (http://www.thescavenger.net/about.html).



What struck me about The Scavenger is its collection of thought-provoking articles on sex, queer issues and feminist issues. You aren’t going to find articles like “Stop outsourcing your orgasms to technology”, “How Ethiopia is Reinventing the Condom” and “Feminist men: friends or foes?” in mainstream media. Not only are such topics taboo in the eyes of traditionalists, but those who may want to write about such topics may become derailed because they aren’t allowed the opportunity due to publications that don’t welcome the discussion of such issues.



While the future of journalism as we know it is unknown, online publications do have the advantage of interacting with their readers. The Scavenger encourages reader comments and interaction on their site and provides easily clickable icons so you can link their articles on social media sites such as Facebook, Delicious and Twitter.

In Search of Fair and Just Media Coverage

Women’s E-News (womensenews.org) is an independent news source that covers a broad amount of issues including the arts, reproductive health, religion, the environment, and many more. It is a site that is dedicated to covering women’s issues and providing as much information as possible to give women the opportunity to make their own free decisions. The site even gives recognition to the women leaders of today and pays tribute to their accomplishments. The site is successful due to its broad amount of information having to do with women and women’s rights. Women still must strive for equality and educate themselves about issues that may not be so mainstream. That is why an independent news source like Women’s E-News is important for women to read. Free Press is a group that is working towards more diverse media coverage like Women’s E-News, and recognizes the media’s downfalls. “Female and minority voices are vanishing from the public airwaves, and women and minorities have been systematically shut out of ownership of our country's broadcast media.” There is a tremendous need for more information outlets that include women and minorities in their coverage. Women will not be truly equal until there is a fair amount of sources that do not under represent them and that care about certain important issues that deal with feminism. The site called National Organization for Women gives the horrifying statistics about women in the media. The site dives deeper with such statistics like how, “at daily newspapers in the U.S., women and people of color remain under-represented. Nearly 90 percent of reporters/writers and newsroom supervisors are white and about two-thirds are male. Hundreds of newspapers in this country employ NO minorities as full-time staff.” According to the National Organization for Women, we need to speak up for the need for information that is fair and just for all. The media plays a strong role in influencing the public about many issues, it is only logical to fight for information that involves the ENTIRE public.

Invisible No More

In a post-women's lib/post-equal rights era, we still see an absence of what we need to have in media and news organizations: more representation and ownership for-and-of women and people of color. We see media and news organizations in the hands of mostly male-dominated corporations. Women news anchors give the idea that there is a female presence in the newsroom, but as for higher-up positions, the numbers do not give us anything to brag about; there are still very disproportionate ratios of men to women in corporate/executive positions in today's media and news agencies and nothing is really being done to level it out. Even with the stakes high, self-run and little media news sites are holding ground and being the underdog for voices that are cast aside by corporate machines mainly run and dominated by the white male figure.

A website making waves and holding its own footing, WomensEnews.org—which covers "issues of particular concern to women and [provides] women's perspectives on public policy," as per its mission statement (founded by Rita Henley Jensen in 2000)—seems to look into women's news both locally and internationally. Women's eNews covers everything from politics, to arts, national and international, labor, health, culture and a perspectives and views section; Women's eNews also has an Arabic site. There is no cooking section!

Women's eNews has gained recognition by being awarded the IPPIE Award, The Front Page Award, and was recognized by the South Asian Journalists Association. The site was also nominated for the Global Health Council Excellence in Media Award. Rita Henley, in 2006, was nominated Media Person of the Year by the New York State Women's Press Club. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency awarded the PASS Award to Angeli Rasbury in 2006 for writing a story on out-of-jail mothers trying to reclaim their children. In the Our Awards section, the list dates back to 2001, full of awards given to Women's eNews: Yes, it were recognized even in the early stages.

One hundred percent of Women's eNews success comes from the fact that Ms. Jensen's primary goal was to focus on all topics that general news and media organizations cover. Her twist, however, is that she turned the tables and has women covering stories, writing, and giving us strictly women's perspectives on topics such as politics, equal representation, life, culture, and the like. Kudos to Rita Henley Jensen and NO COOKING/RECIPE SECTION!!! Women's eNews gives disappointing statistics on percentages of women in media outlets. This is not to give Women's eNews a "see-I-told-you-so" air, but to let everybody know that women are perfectly capable of having a voce and writing and owning media and news outlets catering specifically to, and being run by, women.

The role of gender in this seems to play specifically for women and advocates for women in all forms of media and media ownership. Women's eNews is breaking all the traditional rules of corporate-owned, male-dominated news and media corporations by focusing on the invisible voices of the majority of women and ethnic peoples who are not being given a voice. Feminism is key in its success and Women's eNews is still pumping out stories to the masses about all topics related to women here and around the world. Women's eNews may seem an underdog in the United States when compared to any of our "popular" news stations, but it is paving the way for other silenced women and ethnic peoples to stand up and deliver what they believe in; to make their voices heard and their faces seen.