The mass media has become one of the most powerful instruments for the transmission of culture. Its role is crucial in the development of attitudes and values, and in the perpetuation of social aspirations. 

In a rapidly changing society, with the breakdown of close family and community ties, the media is perhaps the cheapest and the most accessible form of entertainment available. Moreover it is often the only means an individual has of keeping in touch with developments around the world. Yet unlike direct communication between individuals, the media offers a "one-way only" communication, rendering its readers or audience passive participants. It is this centrality of the media in the lives of individuals which makes it so influential.

It is not an exaggeration to say that there is no neutral media. Most of the news and information in the world is owned and controlled by the western transnational news agencies. Television programmes and films are massively imported from the USA and other western countries by others who cannot afford to make their own programmes or develop a film industry. Right across the globe, then, the media inevitably represents the interests and values of the dominant culture, which is both western and male

This Bulletin aims to show how the media is one of the most important tools in the subordination and oppression of women and how the international women's movement is organising to counter it. The articles chosen are startling in that they reveal the same treatment of women across geographical and cultural boundaries. The presentation of women by the media in films, the press, television and broadcasting is narrow and portrays images of women in subordinate positions, as mothers, wives  or sex objects. Women are rarely portrayed as rational, active or decisive. In addition, they are seriously under-represented both in fiction and as creators of news. Popular women's magazines are no exception, and play a major role in reinforcing traditional images of women

Treatment of the women's movement by the media, has itself been predictably negative  or at best highly limited. Although not dealt with fully in this Bulletin, this is an aspect of the media which clearly demonstrates control and bias. Women in developing countries have been erroneously led to believe that the women's movement in the
West consists of demands for sexual freedom and that feminists are ugly, male-hating shrews. Western women do not even hear of what women elsewhere are doing or saying. Yet as a result of the movement, the media now offers us the "liberated woman" who is an attractive, immaculately dressed business executive. By creating
this stereotype, the media has successfully distorted and even avoided the real issues being raised by the women's movement.

Studies have shown that women hold very few positions of control and decision making in the media industry. Thus with little real access to the media, women have almost no chance of voicing the emerging ideas, demands and developments of the women's movement

For the movement to grow it is absolutely vital that women should be able to communicate with each other and with the world at large. As a first step in overcoming the problem of the traditional media, women have started to create their own alternative media systems in different parts of the world — their own publishing and printing houses, newspapers, radio and television programmes. The ISIS Bulletin itself is one such initiative and we bring regular news of these developments. But without actually confronting the existing mass media, our efforts will be all in vain. Some groups are actively organised to monitor the media and protest all incidences of sexism and exploitation in the media. Others are attempting to fight the media from within, organising as pressure groups to influence its policies and lobby to legislate changes. All these attempts must expand if we are to make a fundamental impact on the media.

We hope this bulletin can serve as a tool in our attempts world wide to confront and deal with the media. 

March 1981