Stop viewing the media merely as the enemy...
Message from two recent communications workshops in Asia
I know it have a lot of women just like me Who might not be so well off financially, You need a job, and you really need it bad A man decide to help, you must feel glad
But if you value yourself as a woman. You will demand respect from the vagabonds Stand up to them and let them know the truth Is work you want, you ent no blinking prostitute
You have a mole on your back, they want to see They want to know if you have marks on your belly They want to hear how much man you had before And if you strong enough to take any more
I have my pride and I have my ambition I want to hold my head up high as a woman So tell them they could keep their money I will keep my honey And die with my dignity!
The banquet hall at the Ashok Hotel in India cheered, as Singing Sandra, a black working class woman from Trinidad, sang her lusty calypso on sexual exploitation by employers.
The message was on videotape; part of a 30-minute International Women's Day programme which used calypso, the popular song form of the Caribbean, as a focus for analysing the problems and achievements of women in present-day Trinidad and Tobago.
The videotape was presented as one example of how the mass media could be used to further the cause of women. It was an item at a workshop on Communication Strategies of women held as part of the two-day meeting on "Gender and Equity" which preceded the Society for International Development's conference on poverty and collective survival held in New Delhi in March.
Anita Anand, co-ordinator of the Women's Feature Service of Interpress service, who chaired the session focused the discussion by saying that at this juncture the women's movement needed to change tack with regard to the media.
Instead of continuing to view the media as a foe, she said, we should develop allies wthin it. There is elbow room for expressing our concerns and we should exploit this, she urged. This was supported by Mallijka Vrajasthan, whose long experience as a communications practitioner within the UN system suggested that what was needed was a subtle use of the situations which exist.
Kamla Bhasin, an Indian rural development officer attached to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, thrilled the audience with her samples of successful media-creation by women in India. She showed how songs, set to popular traditional folk tunes, are used by women in India to articulate their causes. She also described skits used by Pakistani women to poke fun at the repressive laws which have recently been imposed on them. The complete text of her presentation are featured in another part of this magazine.
Speakers also felt that an area which should receive attention was the training of journalists. Media practitioners need to be exposed to women's issues as part of their basic training, it was felt, so that when they approached events, this will be part of the analytical equipment which they will bring to bear.
These positive observations coincided exactly with the outcome of a conference on women and media held in the Philippines last December. At this meeting, it was recommended that an audio- visual festival of alternative media productions for and by women from Asia should be planned.
The eight-nation conference was part of the World Council of Christian Communication's global programme of consultations designed to assess and encourage women's communication work in Third World countries.
A programme of Action which came out of this meeting identified three areas of action: mainstream media, alternative media and awareness-raising.
They agreed to develop strategies to bring about changes in mainstream media by challenging abuse and exploitation of women n the media and lobbying for greater access for women especially from poor urban and rural areas.
Participants also agreed to make contact with women practitioners in mainstream media, to help deepen their understanding of women's issues.
Plans for action on alternative media include an audio-visual festiv2il to encourage women's productions throughout Asia. In addition, priority will be given to training dance and drama skills. Their productions will then be used to raise awareness on women's issues among other groups.
A proposed bank of alternative media resource materials such as audio visuals, print and art work will be translated and disseminated among women's organisations.
Finally, there will be campaigns to encourage more women to organise and to take part in education programmes. Both mainstream and alternative media will be used to stimulate action on specific issues such as migrant women workers, prostitution and sex tours.
The Manilla conference was organised by the Filipino collective. People in Communication. Participants came from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.The New Delhi workshop was organised by the Women's Feature Service of the InterPress Service and Isis International.
For more information, contact:
People in Communication Third Floor, Sonolux-Asia Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines
Upcoming Film Forum in Seoul
The Korean Women's Development Institute is organising the first Seoul Film Forum on women. It will be held in early September just before the Seoul Olympic Games to raise worldwide concerns relevant to women's problems.
The forum will present 16mm films, video tapes and synchronised soundslides which identify the concerns and define issues related to women. They can cover so broad a field as: women's participation in national development, education, employment, health, women's efforts toward equality, development and peace, and women with specific problems. It will also provide a discussion meeting for media experts, scholars in the women's studies field and the audience on the last day of the forum.
Further information on this event can be had by writing to:
Korean Women's Development Institute San 42 -4 Eunpyung-ku, Bulkwang-dong Seoul, Korea
Telex: MOHSAS K 23230