The Feminist Media Project was started by a
group of concerned academics and journalists focused on a
feminist intervention in media depictions of missing and murdered
women, and the related trial of Robert Pickton in Vancouver,
British Columbia, for 26 charges of first-degree murder in
the slayings of women.
Details of the trial against Pickton, which begins in January
2007, are bound to generate the most salacious and disturbing
media coverage that reinforces stereotypes about women victims
of violence and their perpetrators. Recognition of these issues
and subsequent change in media representations can only occur
through informed public discourse.
The website, which launched in January 2007, is under the
direction of Dr. Mary Lynn Young, a faculty member at the
University of British Columbia School of Journalism.
Our Approach
We plan to intervene in media representations of the
case through research into news media, articles and online
discussion Our site offers analysis, commentary and news alerts
about the media coverage of the Missing Women from a feminist
perspective. It is a comprehensive resource of feminist analysis
on the Missing Women case from academic journal articles to
an annotated bibliography of recent relevant research involving
missing women and violence against women. There is also a
section with high-quality media training documents for women-centered
organizations.
The Web is providing a podium for new feminist media voices
from former sex trade workers who are reporting on the trial
for a Vancouver news site to the first Feminist talk-radio
station in the United States. Women’s groups in Vancouver
have pulled together to request that mainstream media not
name Pickton in their news reports; that they focus on the
material and emotional reality of missing women and not the
gory detail of the trial.
We all know that public discourse is a negotiation among unequal
voices. We believe that resistance to dominant understandings
of race, class, gender and the media is possible.
We are financially supported by Status of Women Canada and
the University of British Columbia.
Contributors
Dr. Yasmin Jiwani
Associate Professor
Concordia University
Dr. Yasmin Jiwani is a feminist activist and academic. Her
academic research is focused on race, gender and the media,
with a recent project on women in war. She is well-known in
Vancouver feminist organizations for her management of the
FREDA Centre, a feminist research organization funded by Simon
Fraser University.
Dr. Jiwani joined the project for 6 months and worked on the
annotated bibliography, content analysis of the Missing Women
and academic research, as well as the media training.
Dr. Minelle Mahtani
Assistant Professor
University of Toronto
Dr. Minelle Mahtani has been a television journalist with
the CBC and feminist academic, whose research interests include,
"Mixed race" identity, media and minority representation,
critical journalism, women of colour in geography mixed race,
diasporic media and issues surrounding media and diversity.
She
was one of the initial founders of the project.
Dr. Mary Lynn Young
Associate Professor
University of British Columbia
Dr. Mary Lynn Young has been a newspaper journalist at major
publications in North America, including a recent three-year
stint as a national business columnist at The Globe and Mail.
Her academic research interests include the relationship between
gender and media economics, newsroom sociology, developing
a new and more feminist model of news, and issues surrounding
trust and well being in the news.
Heather Peters
Research Assistant
Concordia University
Heather Peters is a Master's student in Concordia University's
Communications Department. Her research examines Canadian
press representations of women working in the Thai sex tourism
industry.
For more information, please contact:
Prof. Mary Lynn Young, PhD
Associate Professor, School of Journalism
UBC School of Journalism
Sing Tao Building, 6388 Crescent Road, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
V6T1Z2
Telephone: (604) 822-6682
E-mail: info@feministmediaproject.com
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