Gender, Media and Development

ISBN-13: 9783639148329 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 264 str.

Jill Johannessen

Opis

The mass media sees social change through genderedspectacles, which often puts women at risk ofnegative representations. The author addresses howgender is constructed in Tanzanian newspapers andlocal television drama against the backdrop ofpolitical and economic reforms. The movement fromsocialist to capitalist principles, starting in themid 1980s, fueled public distress concerning theeffects of Western influence and commercialization onlocal culture and morality. This book shows thatconflicts and tensions arising from this processreverberate in the mass media, as can be seen in themassive coverage of women as victims of genderviolence and sexual abuse, recurring images of womenas prostitutes, as well as the gold-digger girls.This work offers an original contribution to researchon Tanzanian media and gender issues; linkingrepresentations of women to power, empowerment anddevelopment. With its explorative view andcomprehensive empirical analyses of culturalrepresentations, including examination of audiencesinterpretations, this book will be essential readingfor students and scholars of communications,development studies and womens studies.

O autorze

Jill Johannessen (born 1966) has a Doctorate in Sociology from
the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She is
currently working with popular research communication at the
Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Norway. The author has
previously published The Crossroads between the Woman s Movement
and the Media (in M. Mbilinyi 2003).