Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1219206
You have just launched an NGO, Mediating Women, specifically to address gender-related is- sues in the media. How much of a role does female media representation play in our per- ceptions of women? When there is a male-domi- nated industry – no matter what the industry is – its outlook on the world is going to be framed through a male lens. This is un- derstandable, because we see the world through our own gen- dered space. So when it comes to the me- dia industry, and the output it produces: for instance, the deci- sion-making process about what sort of programming gets sched- uled; who's speaking, and who's not speaking; and what appears within the programming frame- work, and so on… then the same lens is going to be in place for those processes as well and what gets shown or not shown will come from the perspective of those making the decisions. When a newsroom is dominated by men, they are more likely to refer to or invite men from their own social circles, excluding po- tentially more qualified experts or more relevant case studies. And we're not talking about an industry that produces some- thing inanimate like burgers, or cars, or some other gender-neu- tral commodity: the output, in this case, is media content, which has an impact on public perception. So the public is be- ing informed, and framed, with- in the context of a 'male space' – and through a male-biased lens. Let's look at a recent example: when Chantelle Chetcuti was murdered, most news items referred to her as a 'mother of two'… suggesting that the media tend to portray women only in terms of their perceived 'role' in society (in this case, motherhood). Do you see this as an issue? It is a huge issue, yes. I am the national coordinator for the Global Media Monitoring Pro- ject (GMMP), which has been analysing Maltese media con- tent every five years since 1995. What we have seen in the past 25 years suggests that very little has actually changed over that time. One of things we look at is the percentage of airtime/newspa- per space devoted to female par- ticipation. In 2000, for instance, only 18% of the people who spoke, or were heard, in the lo- cal media were women. In 2015, this had risen to 24%... but it still means that 76% of the time, the people who appeared, spoke or were heard in the media were men. Between 2010 and 2015, these stats didn't change; they remained exactly the same. Meanwhile, when women do appear in that 24% of the time, they are more likely to be report- ed either as 'victims'… or speak- ing only about 'soft news'. This is especially true of reporting by female journalists, because of the way the industry is shaped: women tend to get sent to cov- er the 'light' issues, while the 'hard news' is entrusted mostly to men. There are reasons for this: me- dia industries are shaped around a traditional expectation of staff availability that sometimes ex- tend to a '24/7 commitment', so female journalists may appear to prefer to cover 'soft topics', because of their other respon- sibilities at home – such as the 'second shift' and caring respon- sibilities. In different ways, the media in- dustry forces women into certain spaces, as practitioners… and then, when it comes to the pro- duction side of news, the most- ly-male driven industry is fram- ing the world through that same patriarchal lens. So when we are faced with femicide – such as Chantelle Chetcuti's murder – it is presented or styled using 'vic- tim-framing' discourse. But surely that's inevitable, giv- en that Chantelle Chetcuti was, in fact, a victim… It isn't inevitable. There are so many other ways this could be written about. It's always reported that 'the victim was murdered' as opposed to 'the perpetrator murdered the victim'. So the perpetrator be- comes almost invisible… as if he is not the main actor in the story. And this 'subject-verb-ob- ject' turnaround is a very typi- cal marker of the way domestic violence gets reported. In fact you framed your question to me earlier using the same struc- ture when you asked me about "when Chantelle Chetcuti was murdered" when we could have talked about "when Justin Borg [allegedly] murdered Chantelle Chetcuti". In 2018, we published guide- lines for journalists reporting domestic violence for the Com- mission of Domestic Violence, and I have seen some positive changes in reporting styles in relation to this case. This may be because more female report- ers are covering these stories; or maybe it's because journalists are thinking more about how they're reporting… but there has been more of an effort to look at the wider picture – for example, focusing on and raising aware- ness around DV and its impact on the children in the relation- ship, and an effort to frame the perpetrator in a more visible way. But I am still seeing use of the passive voice when writing around the perpetrator. So one of the main reasons we set up our NGO, 'Mediating Women', is to support people in the media industry and remind them that there are other ways of doing things. But it's not a 'shaming' scenario; we're not out to demonise the media as 'the baddies'. What we're saying to the media industry, in general, is: 'if you are struggling with the template you have always used in the past, let us help'. Let's work together to change things. Our aim is not just to raise awareness, but also to provide as much support as possible to media practitioners: including training. In fact, later this year we'll be working on a UNES- CO training project, which will be running a 2-3 day workshop to 'do curriculum development' and help the participants pro- duce 'Media and Gender' cours- es. Given that so much of our out- look is framed, consciously or subconsciously, by the media… do you see any form of correla- tion between the media's por- trayal of women, and domestic violence? No, I don't think there is any correlation with 'just' the media. And I stress the word 'just', be- cause… domestic violence is the result of gender inequality; and gender inequality does not ex- ist only in the media. It's every- where. As I repeatedly remind my students, the media is one of the main pillars that holds up ideology… along with family, education, politics/law, and re- ligion. And for me, patriarchy is Malta's media landscape may remain a largely male- dominated affair, but a newly-launched NGO aims to make a difference. Prof BRENDA MURPHY explains Why media portrayal of women matters Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt 8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 MARCH 2020 INTERVIEW