FCC's EEO Hiring Rules Thrown Out by Federal Appeals Court: Now What?

Rules that forced the broadcasting industry to drop its resistance to hiring women and minorities have been thrown out by the D.C. Court of Appeals, saying the FCC had failed to prove they served the public interest.

Prime-Time Stereotyping of Women Persists on All Networks

An analysis of prime-time promotional announcements broadcast on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and UPN in 1995 showed that women are underrepresented in all TV network promotional announcements and that stereotypical portrayals of women in these announcements varied according to the network's target audience. For example, television program promotional annuncements on networks that sought a younger male audience contained more stereotypical female characters than netowrk programming produced for a more general audience. Furthermore, 96% of the voiceovers for the promotional announcements were male. Study director: B. Carol Eaton, Syracuse University.

Cable-Sponsored Study Finds TV Programming Still Very Violent

The National Television Violence Study, sponsored by the cable TV industry and released in April, has found that TV programming continues to be dominated by violence and that the amount of violence in prime time has steadily increased during the last three years. Researchers at four universities contributed to the study.

Minnesota Women's Press Finds Women Only 25% of Names in News

This study of the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press, Minnesota's two largest newspapers, has found that while the number of women's names in news stories is rising, it is moving at a snail's pace. The women's newspaper has been monitoring names in the news for 10 years. In that time, the combined total of women's names in the newspaper has gone from 17% to 24%. At this rate, the monitors say, it will be nearly four decades into the 21st century before women reach parity with men in the news.

Long Hours, Low Salaries Discourage Young Journalists

Among new journalists aged 25 and younger, 57% earn less than $20,000 a year, including 22% who earn $15,000 a year.

Internet Sex Sites Capitalizing on Unauthorized Celebrity Photos

Hollywood celebrities are crying "Foul!" as they see their images appropriated for use on Internet sex sites. Recently-filed lawsuits by "Melrose Place" star Alyssa Milano against several online firms accused of selling nude pictures of her and other stars over the Internet are the first of their kind, according to Greg Miller's report in the Los Angeles Times, highlighted here. Some of the photos are fakes.

Men's Magazines Now Following Women's Magazines' Formula

The emergence of men's magazines that encourage their readers to obsess about their body image and sexual attractiveness -- as women's magazine's do -- is probably now what anyone had in mind when women began pressuring for equal opportunity with men in all areas of society. But that's precisely what our consumer culture has brought about, accorading to Michelle Cottle's report in The Washington Monthly, highlighted here.

Speculation About White House Sex Lowered Reporting Standards

According to a survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates, as allegations of Monica Lewinsky's alleged involvement with President Clinton began to surface, the presss was overly reliant on opinion and speculation. The survey found that during the first three days of the story, 40% of reporting was based on a single source who was not identified. Furthermore, 41% of the story consisted of analysis, speculation, judgmental statements or blatant opinion.

Why Women Are Giving Up on Newspapers

Veteran newspaper publisher Susan Miller provides her analysis about the woman newspaper reader's disenchantment with her daily newspaper. From Presstime, highlighted here.

Principal Bans Teen Magazines From School for Sex Content

Long Island's Hauppauge Middle School has removed Seventeen, YM and Teen magazines from its library after complaints from a parent and a Catholic priest. The school superintendent said the matter-of-fact tone of the magazine's columns on sex, birth control and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases conflicted with school teaching that says the best way of preventing disease transmission is abstinence.

Peruvian Women Call for Full Access to Media

A conference of organizations concerned with women and communication called for legislation that promotes the democratization of communication and prevents unrestricted growth of global telecommunications monopolies. They also recommended stronger punishment for those found responsible for the murders of female and male journalists.

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