***apologies for cross posting***
Preliminary information on
International Symposium on Women and News:
Exploring Research and Social Change Agendas
Sponsor: Feminist Scholarship Division, International Communication Association
When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, June 18, 2006
Where: Conference Room, Art Hotel, Dresden, Germany
Cost: 50 Euros (includes lunch, coffee breaks and use of all equipment)
Rationale and goals for the Symposium:
Feminist media scholarship emerged in the 1970s out of a central concern
about the general absence of women in news, the misreporting of women’s
experiences and roles in society, and the barriers to women’s advancement in
news industries. All of these issues were understood to be associated with
public understanding about women’s inequality, and the political discourse
needed for women to advance within their societies. Such concerns about the
news, shared by women in all nations, also manifested themselves in women’s
liberation movements both within and across nations during the last three
decades, as women sought to expand the amount and quality of coverage on
women’s issues and social contributions, and to address discrimination in
employment. Thus, there has been a longstanding relationship between
feminist scholarship on news and political action carried on by women
working in popular fronts.
While a large, diverse scholarly and quite international literature examines
both the problems and the changes associated with these women-and-news
issues, there exists a number of gaps both in what is known and which paths
academic research should take to fill those gaps. For example, while the
women-and-news research has been international, the literature is weighted
toward western nations in Europe and North America and only a few developing
nations – India, southern Africa and Taiwan leading the second of these.
Therefore, we wish to assess what has been done, what is known, and what
should be undertaken to advance new projects within and across nations.
Second, the research has focused disproportionately on the content of news
(e.g., women’s absence or image), and, though to a lesser extent, on women’s
employment in the industries. Greatly under-investigated areas include
women’s relationship to financial structures of the news industry, media
policy (national and international), media globalization processes, news
audiences, or the relationship between women’s liberation movements and
changes in news (i.e., the dynamics of news and social change). Therefore,
we wish to encourage expanded women-and-news research agendas, using a range
of methodologies.
Third, feminist news scholarship has produced almost no new theory
specifically related to women-and-news. Instead, feminist scholars have
tended to draw on and extend existing theories, most of which were developed
by male scholars whose original formulations did not include concerns about
gender relations. Some research is not theorized at all. Therefore, we
wish to explore approaches to feminist theory-building for use in new
investigations of women and news issues.
Fourth, feminist scholars have increasingly undertaken collaborative
cross-national women-and-news research projects but language differences,
lack of funding, and other barriers inhibit these developments. Therefore,
we wish to explore how to strengthen the infrastructures needed for feminist
scholarship on women and news to expand internationally. The discussion
will include the identification of resources, existing mechanisms for
collaboration, development of new collaborative mechanisms, and the
translation of existing research into multiple languages.
Goals for participants attending:
We would like to assemble women and men with academic, journalistic and
other affiliations who have a background in women-and-news research or
political action, and/or who would like to become involved in such. The
goal is to bring participants from as many nations as possible. While the
day’s events will be conducted primarily in English, an effort will be made
to accommodate those of other languages (if such assistance is indicated on
the registration form for this event).
Structure of the symposium:
The day’s agenda will feature short keynotes, panels, and facilitated
working groups – the last of these having the goal of producing action
agendas for research and social change.
Symposium outcome:
In addition to working relationships that we expect to be established during
and following the symposium, the symposium planning committee will publish a
report of the day’s events for circulation to participants.
Symposium planning committee:
Dr. Carolyn M. Byerly, Howard University, USA (Contact person,
[log in to unmask])
Dr. Danna L. Walker, American University, USA
Ammu Joseph, independent journalist/scholar, Bangalore, India
Dr. Karen Ross, Coventry University, UK
Dr. Simone Bonnafous, University of Paris, France
Dr. Marlene Coulomb, Toulouse University, France
Dr. Gertrude J. Robinson, McGill University, Canada
Colleen Lowe Morna, Gender Links, South Africa
How to register for this symposium
Please register through the ICA conference website (www.icahdq.org)
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