June 2007
By Becky Atkinson
Feminist Media Project
Cranium Cadoo is a children’s board game that my four-year-old
daughter played recently. In order to advance, she and her girlfriends
had to use a Secret Decoder Mask to reveal hidden code words
printed on small paper cards. Without the purple plastic Decoder
Mask these code words were invisible.
Feminist journalism - and feminist activism, for that matter
- relies upon the same kind of assistance. Like the Secret Decoder
Mask, gender analysis reveals and names what may be hidden but
is right before our eyes. Traditional mainstream journalism,
on the other hand, obscures gender issues.
Relying upon the traditional news value of ‘objectivity’
to achieve clarity, traditional journalism reports facts gained
from ‘legitimate’ patriarchal sources and authorities
without the gender analysis and context provided by feminists.
Because it diverts our attention away from gender, ‘objectivity’
obscures the social and political reality of patriarchy and
reflects and reinforces patriarchal values and institutions.
It is a red herring and it’s playing for the boy’s
team.
While they do not necessarily agree on the extent to which journalists
and media outlets do so consciously, some media theorists suggest
that the news reflects and perpetuates the status quo by supporting
current socio-political power structures. This interrelationship
between society and the media means that the same patriarchal
forces responsible for producing gender inequality also inform
press coverage of gender issues.
In his article, ‘The News Paradigm and the Ideology of
Objectivity: A Socialist at the Wall Street Journal’,
Stephen D. Reese describes the politics of the media:
“[Journalists] accept the frames
imposed on events by officials and marginalize and deligitimate
voices that fall outside the dominant elite circles. By
perpetuating as commonsensical notions of who ought to be
treated as authoritative, these routines help the system
maintain control without sacrificing legitimacy. Despite
journalism’s stated goal of depicting reality, the
news media – tightly interlocked at the top levels
with other powerful institutions – have an interest
in preserving the larger liberal, capitalist system by helping
maintain the boundaries of acceptable political discourse.”
(Reese, 1997, p.425)
According to traditional news values pertaining to the legitimacy
of sources, then, anybody identified as a ‘feminist’
would be considered an illegitimate source for a news story,
regardless of his or her level of expertise or experience.
This is because it is assumed that feminist academics, women’s
advocates and even feminist legal experts have a political
agenda, while stakeholders such as government officials, lawmakers
and law enforcement agencies are considered neutral, credible,
authoritative, and therefore legitimate.
What traditional journalism fails to recognize is that the
very sources it deems most objective espouse the values and
opinions of patriarchy, which makes them partisan. If the
goal of objectivity is to achieve a balance of opinion from
opposing sides then it is necessary to counter the views of
patriarchy’s representatives with those of feminists.
To demonstrate what hidden issues feminist sources might reveal
it will be useful to refer to an actual news article. The
following headline appeared in Nova Scotia’s daily newspaper,
The Chronicle Herald, on October 8, 2005:
“Man accused of killing pregnant wife granted bail:
Judge sets bail at $10,000 so man can see daughter, work to
pay bills.” (A7)
The only sources quoted in this article, written by a female
Canadian Press reporter, are the defense lawyer and a member
of the Freedom of God Church, which had been ministering to
the accused during his time in jail.
Had the reporter contacted an expert on spousal violence,
such as Education Wife Assault, or a feminist legal expert,
or even a feminist academic specializing in Feminist Legal
Studies or Gender Studies, that individual would have been
able to address the following issues, all of which are hidden
and all of which are far more relevant than the views of the
prison minister:
1. Why is it that a man accused of killed his pregnant wife
is permitted to have access to their child and granted bail
on those grounds?
2. Would he be permitted to have access to his daughter if
he were accused of killing someone other than the child’s
mother?
3. Why is violence against an intimate partner viewed differently
by the courts (criminal and family) than other violence?
4. What do feminist activists (legal and anti-violence advocates)
have to say about this issue, in terms of underlying policy
or legislative issues?
Because feminist legal and woman abuse authorities were not
used as sources of opinion or information for this news story,
it contains important omissions. Had they been consulted,
feminist activists would have explained that a significant
underlying policy issue is the fact that federal child custody
and access legislation does not consider abuse of the mother
by the father as a factor in determining the best interests
of the child. In other words, the news story reflects the
gender blindness of the legislation and thus mirrors and perpetuates
patriarchal values.
If traditional mainstream journalism relies upon ‘objectivity’
to produce gender neutral news reports, feminist journalism
(and feminist activism) begins instead from a gendered perspective
and uses gender analysis – the Secret Decoder Mask -
as its tool. By consulting with feminist authorities, feminist
journalists reject traditional news values about what constitutes
an acceptable and ‘objective’ source and opt instead
to look through a purple plastic lens that reveals the social
and political reality of patriarchy. By recording what they
see, feminist journalists are able to provide information
to the public that ultimately challenges the gender domination
that lies at the heart of patriarchy. They are playing for
the girls’ team.
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