Women and the Risky Business of Reporting the News

The beating and sexual assault of CBS News Correspondent Lara Logan in Cairo generated thousands of comments, ranging from sympathetic to the truly awful "she-asked-for-it" variety.  Comments in the latter category said women shouldn't be handling journalistic assignments in international flashpoints; that her good looks were a temptation; that her western clothing was an affront to a culture where many (though by no means all) women cover themselves; and on and on.  The fact that Logan has years of experience reporting from extremely dangerous environments seemed to be lost on those who posted comments like these.

The discussion did have an upside:  bringing attention to the fact that assaults on journalists, male and female, actually happen and the profession needs to respond intelligently to these events.  No one has precise numbers about physical and sexual assaults, especially for women, who often don't report attacks for fear of losing out on important assignments if their editors feel they are going to be in more danger than a male colleague.  Kim Barker, writing in The New York Times, discusses her own experience and makes a powerful argument for the importance of keeping female journalists out in the field everywhere.  Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20barker.html

Today Is Love Your Body Day, But Every Day Should Be

The NOW Foundation has declared today, Oct. 20, "Love Your Body Day" and has made visuals and discussion materials available on its web site.  These are terrific for classroom discussions in a range of high school and college courses.  The package describes how advertisers and the media perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards, sexual ideals and gender stereotypes that girls internalize at younger and younger ages, and that influence their behavior throughout their adult lives, sometimes with devastating physical and mental results.  Read more about the program and see the slide show at:

http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/presentations/SexStereotypesBeauty/index.html

Girl Scouts Leading New Campaign for Healthy Media Images for Girls and Women

Today at the U.S. Capitol: The Girl Scouts of America convened a conference on how to urge the media to offer healthy images of girls and women. GSA also previewed a new public service annnouncement urging girls to be the best versions of themselves, not imitators of celebrities or ultra-thin models. Watch it here and pass it on:

www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/advocacy/watchwhatyouwatch/default.asp

Updated Industry Statistics Posted on Media Report to Women's Web Site

Looking for the latest research on how women are portrayed by media? How they are used, or not used, as sources of news and expertise? What advertising and entertainment media convey about women's bodies and spirits? How women are advancing in media professions? Video presentations that illustrate media's power to influence?

Click here for data drawn from multiple sources by Media Report to Women Editor Sheila Gibbons, posted today, with links to research sources:

http://www.mediareporttowomen.com/statistics.htm

Fashion, Race and Essence Magazine

Essence magazine’s hiring of a white fashion director has touched off a discussion of whether it makes sense for a magazine started at a time when black women were largely ignored by American women’s magazines (and when many of these magazines had, for years, been edited by men) should have given the job to a white woman. The new hire, Elliana Placas, has freelanced in fashion for Essence for half a year. Essence's editor, Angela Burt-Murray, decided to bring Placas on fulltime and is defending the decision. Placas has experience at O Magazine and House Beautiful, among others. “I got to see firsthand her creativity, her vision, the positive reader response to her work, and her enthusiasm and respect for the audience and our brand,” Burt-Murray said.

Comments from readers have touched on disbelief that a qualified black fashion editor couldn’t be found; that black fashion sense and style are both special and specialized and that someone outside the culture wouldn’t be as attuned to it; and that a position that could have advanced a black female magazine staffer’s career was handed to a white woman instead.

Hurt feelings and confusion abound in the early comments, though I’ve also read sentiments that say qualifications and experience should count most in this economically competitive magazine environment, in which many titles are struggling – and if Placas has the right resume, so be it. But does she have the right race, ask others? And how much should that matter?

I’m inclined to think that Essence, which began publishing in 1970, has matured to the point where it, too, can diversify its ranks and benefit from the mix. Burt-Murray seems to think so. Placas will need to be persuasive to win over the skeptics. But the proof will be in the pages.

Read Burt-Murray’s comments on the Placas hiring, and Essence's mission, at http://www.thegrio.com/opinion/essence-one-white-editor-wont-diminish-our-love-of-black-women.php

Sunday Morning TV Talk Shows: It's a Guy Thing

American University's Women and Politics Institute has released a study that confirms with percentages what most of us know in our guts: Newsmakers on Sunday morning are mostly of the testosterone variety. Only 13.5 percent of guests being chatted up by David Gregory, Wolf Blitzer, Candy Crowley and the like are members of what used to be called the fairer sex. The long-standing excuses of TV bookers persist: the most influential players in politics and corporations continue to be men; women don't make themselves as readily available, don't seem as eager to be in the limelight; Sunday morning is a bad time for women who are protective of their personal time. However, I believe there's more to it than that. I think bookers are pressured to land the big "gets," the guests who in the eyes of the producers and their bosses lend gloss and stature to their programs. That approach naturally favors incumbency, longevity and seniority, factors that, at least to this point, haven't favored women. Details at
http://politico.com/news/stories/0601/38483

Controversy Brings Down Veteran Correspondent Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas, veteran Hearst opinion columnist and before that, White House bureau chief for UPI, resigned today amid the furor caused by her May 27 comments about Jews, Palestinians and Israel. In an interview, Thomas said Israel "should get the hell out of Palestine" and suggested that Israel's Jewish citizens return to the European nations where they had lived prior to, and during, their persecution in World War II. These intemperate comments have cost Thomas a graceful exit from a remarkable, 67-year career during which she blazed trails for women journalists and aspiring political correspondents. Frustration among long-time observers of the endless Israeli and Palestinian negotiations -- and Thomas has had a front-row seat at the White House since the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s and has met many of the players-- is undoubtedly rising. But comments such as these, coming from a journalist of Thomas's stature, are no help whatsoever, least of all to Thomas herself. It's a sad day.