Abstract
Media Disparity: A Gender Battleground is a collection of writings examining contemporary media representations of women from a variety of perspectives, ranging from television news to social media. The book begins with a preface by Gaye Tuchman, coeditor of the seminal work Hearth and Home: Images of Women in the Mass Media (Tuchman, 1978). This provides an opportunity to consider how women have historically been represented in the media, and the change, or lack thereof, in representation. The introduction by Tuchman is a special touch that serves to draw the reader in and communicates why this topic is important. Tuchman introduces the concept of the symbolic annihilation of women in media, a term coined by Gerbner and Gross (1976), which refers to the ways that women are often underrepresented or represented in very limited and stereotyped ways in media. This thread is picked up in the following chapters, and it serves to weave the content together.
With the goal of offering a broad view on forms of female characterization in media, this book begins with more traditional media and then moves into new media. This method of organization is helpful, allowing the reader to understand the ways that representations of women have changed, grown, and formed in particular mediums. Most chapters provide a historical context for the issues they address, conclusions regarding current research, and suggestions for future research. This arrangement is particularly helpful for those who may be new to these issues. Readers who are knowledgeable about a particular concern may find it more useful to focus on the later sections of each chapter.
The book is divided into four parts. Part One: Traditional Media and Issues, covers topics such as news media, music lyrics and videos, health news and communication, politics, and sports. Part Two: Contemporary Media Platforms and Issues, includes discussions of the Internet and its interactive social media environment, reality television, and video games. Part Three: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Gender in Media, explores the impact that societal values and norms can have on media content. Topics include global issues of sex trafficking, trends of gender representation and targeting in international advertising, gender differences in covering public health crises in China, and news coverage of women in Uganda. Part Three is a bit uneven in tone and breadth, due to the fact that some chapters cover a specific study within one country, whereas others focus on a broad view of international issues in media. Finally, Part Four: Where are We Now? provides a summary of where media representations of women are today within the historical context built across the other three parts. The foci of the two chapters within this part are on considering not only the state of the representation of women in media but also areas that need additional research and suggestions for addressing misrepresentations.
Together these chapters eloquently build the case that existing practices and structures of traditional media make it difficult for the depiction of women to evolve and become more truly representative. Even in new media, women continue to be marginalized and stereotyped. However, there is promise in these mediums due to their lack of prevailing power structures that lead to misrepresentations. The authors provide examples of new media that are representing women fairly and suggestions for ways that others may do so. Chapter 14 was one of the most thought-provoking pieces because the author (Byerly) discusses the efforts of feminists in sharing their own interpretations of news, public events, and culture in public venues. These demonstrate the great progress that has been made in promoting feminist thought in the media. But there is still work to be done in promoting fair representations of women in media. In the concluding chapter, Armstrong asserts that even in instances of new media where women create media themselves, they continue to be symbolically annihilated and have failed to gain agency.
Media Disparity is a useful resource for both professional reading and for stimulating conversation in the classroom. Armstrong has met the book’s goal of examining the nuances of different media and identifying both the challenges and opportunities for more advantageous representations of women.