Alternative World Communication
Marilee Karl
In the 1970s, the cry went up in development circles not only for a New International Economic Order but also for a New International Information Order, or, as it has come to be called in United Nations documents, a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). Behind this cry is the belated but important recognition of the role of information in development, considering development not only from an economic but from a social and cultural point of view as well. In the discussions currently taking place on NWICO, the one issue which is ignored or given a secondary place is that of women. Given the importance of the mass media's influence on the lives and images of women, this is a very serious omission
Looking at the present information and communication order, the one aspect which stands out most immediately and clearly is the virtual control of communication and information by transnational news agencies in the industrialized countries. These agencies determine the kinds of information to which people all over the world have access, what information becomes "news", the political and economic analyses and interpretation of events, and the images and value judgments passed on through the media. This dominance means that the flow of information is essentially from industrialized countries to the Third World, or from North to South.
To break this domination and to transform the present information structures was the first challenge taken up by the proponents of the New International Information Order.
Their first and most essential task was seen as that of giving Third World countries the possibility of building up their own news agencies and communication channels, thus breaking their dependence on the news and structures of the industrialized countries. Efforts were made, first, to establish and strengthen national news agencies and communications systems and, second, to increase the flow of information from South to North, from the Third World to industrialized countries. These efforts have begun to meet with some success, even though the overall domination of the industrialized countries' media system remains intact.
However, the problem is one of not only establishing a balanced flow of information among the various parts of the world, but among social groups and classes as well. In both North and South there are classes and social groups that have been excluded from decision-making, power or even participation in the media systems which wield so much influence over their lives, by determining which information and images will be given them. News agencies and communications systems controlled by ruling and economic elites do not serve the interests of people or of true development.
In analyzing the present information structures from this perspective, proponents of a new order have identified certain characteristics which must be transformed: present structures are vertical (information flows from above to the mass below), profit-oriented, controlled by transnational and other commercial interests, non-participatory and bureaucratic. At the same time a horizontal process of information-sharing must be encouraged, leading to self-education, consciousnessraising and, ultimately, to participation in decision-making, power and self-determination. Recognizing this has definite repercussions on a strategy for a new world information and communication order
The Forgotten Element: Male-Domination
The one characteristic of present information structures which is rarely mentioned, but which has far-reaching consequences, is that they are male-dominated.
The Final Report of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (the Sean McBride Report) mentions the specific issue of women and media once, in its recommendation nr. 60:
60. Attention should be paid to the communication needs of women. They should be assured adequate access to communications means and that images of them and
their activities are not distorted by the media or in advertizing.
That women are even mentioned in the report is due largely to the efforts made by women around the world to organize themselves into a force capable of making an impact on maledominated structures. However, token mention of women is useless if women continue to be excluded from fxjwer and participation in the task of transformation at hand.
Women, when they are active in the move for a New International Information Order, are often accepted and listened to only on male terms. Even where there is no conscious or unconscious desire, patriarchal attitudes and conditioning blind even the most progressive proponents of a new order to the fact that women are the most excluded and powerless in the area of information and communication as well as the most exploited. This often results in the attitude that issues of special concern to women are "secondary", less important and a diversion from the main issue and work.
Women must not be expected once again to wait until "after the revolution" to enjoy the benefits of equal participation and input. If women were to exercise real power in the creation of a new order, we could expect the outcome to be very different.
The Mass Media and Women
Women have always had their own informal communications systems whether it be exchanging news and information around a village well, or in a sewing circle, or through" "gossip" at the market, or handing down lore from mother to daughter. With the advent of mass communications and sophisticated technology, however, women have been left out. The control of the mass media - television, radio, cinema, the daily press, periodicals and advertizing - is solidly in the hands of men.
Whatever little research has been done on the participation of women in the media, helps to highlight the severe underrepresentation of women on all levels of media organization except for the very lowest (i.e., clerical and secretarial). Women are almost completely excluded from key decisionmaking posts. This research has turned up cases of flagrant discrimination in recruitment, training and pay in both the industrialized and developing world
Research on the image of women in the media is somewhat more extensive, although still not great. Much of this research has been initiated and carried out by feminist groups concerned with the impact of images of women in the media on attitudes towards women.
Some general findings of this research are true for almost every area of the world, both industrialized and developing, although their manifestations differ. They can be summarized as follows:
1. Women are virtually absent from the "important" news of the world whether transmitted by press, radio or television.
2. Very little media coverage is given to women's work, achievements, situations or needs.
3. The media are responsible for perpetuating and disseminating traditional stereotypes of women. While there are variations from society to society, from culture to culture, the basic images remain the same: women are portrayed as inferior, submissive, subordinate, emotional, irrational, confined to home and to roles assigned by a patriarchal
society. Women are also portrayed as sex objects and commodities.
4. When women are involved in organizing and action, and especially when they step out of their traditional roles, the media often distorts and ridicules. The transnational
news agencies have succeeded in portraying the women's movement in the industrialized countries as a lunatic fringe of middle-class "bra-burners", and as nonexistent in other parts of the world. The more progressive, but still male-dominated, media, on the other hand, often describe the women's movement as "bourgeois feminist" or as a
"diversion from the main issues".
5. Women lack access to information they need and to which they have a right, information which would help them answer questions affecting their daily lives, problems and needs
On the other hand, the mass media are replete with the kind of information a consumer, profit-oriented, male-dominated society wants women to have: the latest fashions, hairstyles, cosmetics, domestic appliances and household goods, cleaning tips, recipes for fancy meals. Even the poor are bombarded with the messages of the consumer society and instilled with aspirations for these things. Women's pages, magazines, radio, television, cinema all give women messages on how to behave.
The problem is compounded by the presentation of partial or falsified information. A case in point is the advertisement of infant formula to convince woman that it is the best thing they can feed their babies. Another case is the selling of certain contraceptives without informing women of potentially dangerous side-effects
Feminist Publications and Networks
The way women are treated by and in the mass media partly explains the recent emergence of feminist publications and networks. Women have created what they cannot find in the mass media: tools for sharing information about their lives, for identification of themselves and their roles, for reflection and analysis of their situations and needs, for linking and organization. This Independent women's press has appeared in nearly every part of the world and women have begun to build up national and international networks through which to share their experiences and to organize
The upsurge in feminist publications and communications networks reflects the re-awakening and renewal of a militant feminist movement in many parts of the world. Although still young, these networks have already succeeded in carrying out some effective international actions. Some examples are the spread of information about the harmful side-effects of depo provera, an injectible contraceptive; the sharing of knowledge of alternative health measures, investigation and mobilization of support for woman in the textile and electronics industries in Southeast Asia. Women are beginning to share their experiences and knowledge without the distorting intermediaries
of the establishment mass media.
These feminist publications and networks suffer from lack of money and technological resources. However, since they are independent of male-dominated organizations, they do not have to compromise their positions or content. Their circulation and reach are as yet tiny compared to the transnational
media systems, but they are beginning to act as a leaven among women around the world.
However, it is clear that the mass media continue their damaging practices of neglecting and distorting news and information about women and women's roles, and keeping women from access to information and communication. While the media of the women's movement has had some impact, it is still easily marginalized and ghettoized. It does not reach the masses in the same way as the establishment media.
Women must devise an overall strategy for change in the information and communication order of the world. Our goals are clear: we want media which are responsive to our needs as women, which enable us to communicate with each other about our lives and experiences, which give us the information we need to make choices and decisions, which do not distort, belittle or demean women or confine us to stereotyped behavior and roles; media in which women participate and share in determining the content, in decisionmaking and control.
A Strategy for Change
How can we obtain these goals? Is it possible to obtain them through the reform of existing mass media structures or will we need to radically change these structures? Or should we try to create and strengthen alternative structures, such as independent women's networks and publications? Is It desirable and possible to work on several levels at once? Some voices are now calling for women's participation in the new international information order in what seems to be a process similar to that of "integrating women into development", i.e., integrating women into the information and communication systems of the world. This call has been raised mainly because of two interrelated factors: the pressure exerted by women and women's groups on the information and communication circles and the growing recognition of the need for women's participation if a new order is to succeed. The implications of integrating women into either present communication structures or a new order to be created must
be carefully analyzed. Otherwise woman may end up being "integrated" into a new international information order as detrimental to themselves as their "integration" into much of * "development" has been.
Any strategy calling for greater participation of women in the media must take into consideration the quality of that participation as well as the quantity. For instance the presence of more women in media positions is not in itself a guarantee that the media will no longer present stereotyped or distorted images of women. There is always the danger that a small number of women may use increased job opportunities in the media to make careers for themselves in a male world. On the other hand, women may also find themselves as "tokens" within the male-dominated media, isolated and powerless to bring about any real changes. The massive presence of women might be helpful in bringing about changes in the media's treatment of women. However, the "integration" or participation of women in a male-dominated system is not sufficient. Other basic changes are needed as well.
Another approach being taken is that of trying to get more media coverage about women, more stories and positive images of women, especially in the press. The goal is to help change attitudes about women among the public and the self-images of women themselves. This is certainly a goal to be pursued, but again, attention must be given to the quality of the coverage as well as to the quantity. The media could very easily increase the amount of information about women without becoming any more responsive to the needs of the vast majority of women. Even the increase of positive images of women in the news will not by itself be very helpful. A few success stories of women who have made It in a basically oppressive society will do nothing to change that society which keeps most women in chains. This approach must give careful consideration to the content of media coverage
Closely tied to efforts to increase women's participation in the media industries and media coverage of women, is the pressure being exerted from outside to influence or force the media to discontinue those practices most damaging to women. Here and there some small victories have already been won through the pressure and action of women's groups: sexist advertisements have been removed from a magazine, editorial policy changed in a local paper, guide-lines handed down on the use of non-sexist language in journalism, more attention given to women in programming. Yet, by and large, these represent only a small dent in the huge anti-women bias of the media.
Hand in hand with these efforts is the patient work of research and documentation of the anti-women bias of the media, the collection of data on the negative images of women in the media, on the lack of appropriate information, on the discrimination of women In media jobs. This is the new material for consciousness raising and changing public opinion. So often these images are taken for granted and accepted even by women themselves, who have incorporated these into their own self-image. Awareness of this is a first step for enlisting support and organizing to bring changes in the media's treatment of women
All of the approaches described here could be carried out within either a strategy for refornn of the present media structures, or in a strategy which aims at radical restructuring of the present media systems. If they remain at the level of reforms they could result in increased participation of women in the media and improved coverage of women without changing the basic structures. The very same reforms could be much more effective carried out within a long term strategy for basic change. Women currently organizing around these issues must give more thought to developing a long term strategy and to involving more women.
If we opt for strengthening the independent women's press and communication networks, great efforts will have to be made to move out of the "ghetto" and into wider circulation
We must try to avoid the dangers of becoming marginalized or restricted to a small circle, a new elite. We must find ways to make a greater impact on the rest of the mass media. There are no easy solutions to this. On the other hand, if we choose to work within existing media structures, we must be constantly vigilant to avoid all the dangers involved, not the least of which is cooptation.
Our history of the movements and struggles of women have shown us, however, that only when women form our own powerful organizations, whether inside or outside the institutions, whether working alone or with others, have we been able to achieve the erosion of patriarchal dominance and effect lasting changes beneficial to women.