Vol. 37, No. 4, Fall 2009

Burnout, Departures More Likely Among Newspaperwomen

In a study published in the Newspaper Research Journal (Summer 2009), we learn the dispiriting news that a survey of 715 U.S. newspaper journalists reveals women report higher levels of exhaustion and lower levels of professional efficacy than men. Among women 27 and younger, 37% say they intend to leave the field. Surveys that have shown attrition among female journalists have been published before now, but the degree of discouragement among women journalists who are still in their twenties is shocking. Full study can be found at http://aejmc.org/topics/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Reinardy.pdf

Debate Over ‘Confessional Journalism’; Bad for Women? Bad for Journalism?

Hadley Freeman, writing in The Guardian (“The new confessional journalism turns female writers in tedious, self-hating semi-celebrities,” July 1, 2009),critiqued a type of personal journalism that she says “sets feminism back by about 50 years.”

Amanda Fortini, responding to Freeman on Salon.com )”Boobs, bulimia and breakups: Does female confessional journalism really harm women?”, July 3, 2009) begs to differ: “In what universe is the phenomenon of women writing about themselves a new genre?” and besides, “Confessional writing has never been the exclusive province of women.”

The two make important points in lively essays, but when confessional journalism is seen as an element of a larger diet of “reality-based” media offerings, in which programs such as “The Biggest Loser” spawn offspring with more sensational and extreme offerings, perhaps Freeman has a point” “This genre of journalism has become so popular among newspaper and women’s magazine editors that it has suffered the same problem as reality TV, with the participants having to confess to ever-escalating insecurities, and post for increasingly humiliating photos in order to maintain editors’ interests.”

Thin Yet ‘Too Fat’; Body Image Issues Continue to Plague Fashion Industry

Filippa Hamilton, 23, has been modeling for Ralph Lauren since she was 15. At 5’10” tall and 120 pounds, she would be considered underweight by any doctor she visited. Yet the Ralph Lauren label fired her for not being able to fit into their sample clothes, typically size 2 or 4. To add insult to injury, the Lauren company also digitally altered an image of Hamilton in an ad that grotesquely distorted her body to make it appear emaciated, with her head larger than her hips.

The National Organization for Women protested and the blogosphere lit up with indignation over the digital manipulation and the harmful message it sent. NOW Action Vice President Erin Matson recalled her own hospitalization for anorexia when she was a teen. On the “Today Show, Cosmopolitan editor blamed the tiny sample clothes generated by fashion design houses and said women need to protest and back it up “with their pocketbooks.” Of course, that action could include not buying magazines with the offending images, probably not something White has in mind.

McCormick Foundation Renews J-Lab’s New Media Initiative for Women

J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism at American University has received a $200,000 grant from the McCormick Foundation to fund eight women-led startups over the next two years that will generate new ideas in the world of news and information and model a spirit of journalist entrepreneurship. The funding is part of an initiative to address issues of opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism. More at www.newmediawomen.org

Research in Depth: The Medicalization of Menopause – Framing Media Messages in the 20th Century by Marlene Cimons. A condensed version of a study of print media language in three newspapers (the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times) and five magazines (McCall’s, Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal, Reader’s Digest and Time) during the 20th century to determine how menopause was “framed” and to what extent these news media contributed to its medicalization.

Research in Depth: How National Media Framed Coverage of Missing Black and White Women by Mia Moody, Bruce Dorries and Harriet Blackwell. An analysis of four cases from 2002 to 2005 that drew national coverage that exhibited clear differences in coverage content and prominence based on the race of the victims.

MRTW Interview: Why Everyman News Can Be Good for Every Women with Michele Weldon of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism

Plus News Briefs!

Media Report to Women has hard copies of back issues dating to its founding in 1972. Indispensable for research!