International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Gender and journalism became a popular area of study in the mid-1990s when gender in media studies gained recognition as a powerful variable defining feminine and masculine roles and behavior and structuring everyday life and work. Earlier feminist media studies had paid attention to women in journalism and their peculiar position in a male-dominated professional world with strong preconceptions about women journalists ( Van Zoonen 1994 ). The growing realization that culturally determined gender role expectations exert influence led to the conceptual shift that added a gender perspective to journalism studies. Despite being common for years in gender studies (→ Feminist and Gender Studies ), this perspective had not fully entered some fields such as media studies or organizational studies. In media studies this insight begins from the premise that gender notions color what journalists consider appropriate professional behavior for women and for men. Such notions may structure power relations in media work, influence the division of labor, determine access to promotion and status in media organizations, and affect journalists' interaction and communication with sources, colleagues, and supervisors. Earlier accounts of women in the media were autobiographies of female pioneers , who related their survival strategies in an overwhelmingly male world. In the late 1970s and early ... log in or subscribe to read full text