News Gender and Power

Newspaper and broadcast journalism occupies a central place in the modern mass media and although there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women working in journalism, women are still generally denied senior management positions. This book addresses the questions of how gender shapes the forms, practice, institutions and audiences of journalism, and draws on feminist theory and gender-sensitive critiques to explore the multiple interconnections between "news" , "gender" and "power". It examines a range of media issues: ownership and control, employment and occupation status, professional identity, news sources, the portrayal and representation of women, the "sexualisation" of news, and audience research. Within this framework the contributors explore media coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial, the BSE scandal, the horrific crimes of Fred and Rosemary West, child sexual abuse and "false memory syndrome", and the representation of women in life-style documentaries.