International Sociology

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Women and Media: A Critical Introduction

Shu-Ju Ada Cheng
International Sociology 2007; 22; 260
DOI: 10.1177/026858090702200234

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 International Sociology Review of Books Vol. 22 No. 2

Grinberg, Lev (2001) ‘Socio-Political Economy’, in Ephraim Ya’ar and Ze’ev Shavit
(eds) Trends in Israeli Society, pp. 585–610. Tel-Aviv: The Open University of
Israel (in Hebrew).
Maor, Anat (2004) ‘A Lacuna in the Legal Code: A Basic Law Proposal: Social and
Economic Rights – Chronicle of Legislation Failure’, in Yoram Rabin and Yuval
Shani (eds) Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Israel, pp. 195–232. Tel-Aviv:
Ramot (in Hebrew).
Nossek, Hillel and Adoni, Hanna (1996) ‘The Social Implications of Cable
Television: Restructuring Connections with Self and Social Groups’, International
Journal of Public Opinion Research 8(1): 54–68.

Miri Gal-Ezer is a lecturer in communication studies at the Max Stern Academic

College of Emek Yizrael. Her research focuses on Israeli art and culture, collec-
tive memory, visual communication and documentaries. She was the founder
and director of the Art Education Centre at the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art; and
founder and director of a two-year programme in communication studies for
high school teachers at the Oranim Academic College for Education. She serves
as a member of the Communication Programmes Committee, of the Israel
Ministry of Education.
Address: Hageula St. 11, Hod Hasharon 45272, Israel. [email: [email protected]]

Carolyn M. Byerly and Karen Ross, Women and Media: A Critical

Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006, 293 pp., ISBN
9781405116060 (hbk), US$84.95, 9781405116077 (pbk), US$34.95.

keywords: entertainment ✦ film ✦ gender and media ✦ mass media ✦

psychoanalysis

Since the mid-1960s, thanks to the emergence of feminist movements, there has
been a concerted effort among feminist scholars, media change advocates and
women media professionals to critically examine the androcentrism and sexism
embedded in the institution of media. This collective effort is both national and
global in nature, encompassing intellectual and political developments in other
countries as well as in the US. Critiques have focused on the misogynistic repre-
sentation of women in different genres of entertainment media, the lack of female
representation working in newsrooms, the exclusion of women in decision-making
positions and women’s limited access to media ownership, etc. In addition to cri-
tiques, this concerted effort has also generated activism on multiple fronts. Women
and Media: A Critical Introduction provides an overview of the historical develop-
ment of research and activism on media since the 1960s.
This book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with a plethora of fem-
inist scholarship on media as an institution. The second part documents activism
that has been engendered for the past few decades for media transformations,
drawing examples from all over the world. This book is important in various

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 Reviews: Sociologists Examine Art and Media Matters Cheng

aspects. First, Byerly and Ross synthesize critical work and activist projects for the
past few decades, thus providing a historical overview of the fruit of global femi-
nist movements in media changes. Second, the authors do not simply focus on the
developments in the US. They draw extensively on examples of research and
activist projects from all over the world, thus providing a comparative perspective
on local and global changes. This comparative approach is central in that it
demonstrates the similar experiences shared by women globally. Third, the
authors connect scholarship and activism and point out the importance of the con-
nection between these two spheres, thus treating both scholarship and activism as
integral to social change. This approach provides a holistic view of the feminist
movement toward media transformations. Fourth, while women constitute the
major point of analysis, the authors demonstrate the parallel experiences of
women and marginalized groups. This intersectional analysis is important since
one cannot separate women’s experiences of marginalization from those of other
groups, such as lesbians, racial-ethnic minorities, immigrant communities and the
working class.
In the first part of the text, Byerly and Ross examine the relationship between
women and media from various points of view, including women in/as enter-
tainment, images of women in news and magazines, women as audience and
women and production. For example, in women in/as entertainment, they exam-
ine the representation of women in various genres, such as soaps, crime-related
themes, action movies and fantasy genres. As feminist scholars point out, one of
the major critiques of soaps is that, through a particular metanarrative, women are
represented to conform to traditional norms of femininity. Therefore, ‘women
reviewers are encouraged to empathize with characters who are rarely allowed to
live a transgressive life outside the normative expectations of patriarchy’ (p. 23).
As for women in news and magazines, the authors argue that, through male-
centered frames, the structure and content of news helps maintain traditional gender
roles in societies. For example, the Global Media Monitoring Project conducted a
simultaneous monitoring of news media in 71 countries on one day. They found that
women were only 19 percent of the individuals featured in the news. Furthermore,
they were mostly represented as victims, mothers and wives. News reporters
rarely portrayed women as leaders and change agents.
In women and production, it is pointed out that women are often excluded from
media ownership and from decision-making processes. In addition, women often
face sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. In other words, to
transform the media, it is of the greatest importance to address media as a patri-
archal institution, as a political mechanism for social regulation and as an instru-
ment to maintain male privilege.
One centrally significant aspect of the book lies in the discussion of local and
global feminist activisms. Insisting that scholarship and activism are inseparable,
Byerly and Ross propose a new Model of Women’s Media Action to serve ‘as an
analytic framework for interpreting the responses of those in our study, as well as
[for] explaining the role of that activism in feminist political work’ (p. 100). The
authors argue that feminist media scholars and activists have created a public
sphere that allows women’s voices to be heard. Studying examples of media
activists from all over the world, they conceptualize the activists’ experiences to

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 International Sociology Review of Books Vol. 22 No. 2

include four paths toward social change and social justice. These four paths
include politics to media; media profession to politics; advocate for social change;
and women’s media enterprises.
Women in the first path share various characteristics. They are usually not
trained as media professionals and they enter media activism through their femi-
nist political work. They usually acquire skills to write news stories, publish
newsletters, produce radio or television programs, make films, construct Internet
websites and so on. The authors use the example of Sargi Sen in India, who along
with two friends founded the Magic Lantern Foundation in 1989 to produce their
own films. The films they have produced dealt with difficult subjects in order to
provoke public debates, thus drawing attention to the exclusion and relegation of
women in media. Women who follow the fourth path are those who understand
the gendered nature of media and adopt strategies to address the sexism preva-
lent in the media industry. They usually already have experiences working in the
media professions. Rather than working with the establishment, they have pur-
sued the alternative route. Establishing their own media enterprises has helped
create a feminist public space that pays attention to women’s interests as well as
those of other marginalized groups. In light of these feminist media activisms, the
authors call for a theory-building reading of women’s activism in the media for
constructing a future research agenda.
This book, with its depth and breadth, is an important survey and an introduc-
tion to feminist scholarship and activism in media. This text is suitable for upper-
division undergraduate students and graduate students. It is a must read for
students and scholars who are interested in feminism, feminist scholarship in the
media, media as an institution, and media activism.

Shu-Ju Ada Cheng is currently an associate professor at DePaul University in

Chicago. Her areas of interest include immigration/migration, globalization,
work and ethnography. Her article ‘Rethinking the Globalization of Domestic
Service: Foreign Domestics, State Control, and the Politics of Identity in Taiwan’
won the 2005 American Sociological Association Sex and Gender Section
Distinguished Article Award.
Address: Department of Sociology, DePaul University, 990 W. Fullerton Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60614, USA. [email: [email protected]]

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