Minna Aslama and Johanna Jääsaari:Women Audiences and Gender Portrayal on TV
A Finnish Case Study
Finnish Broadcasting Company, Audience Research, Helsinki
In today's commercial media environment broadcasting decision-makers and programme-makers must be increasingly responsive to their audiences. Existing standard quantitative television audience measures describe what women watch in general, but do not explain or investigate what – given a choice – women would prefer to see and hear in the media. Existing research does not give many hints about alternative ways of making programmes which will result in television that appeals to a variety of female audiences.
The case study described here explains the patterns of gendered viewing in Finland – patterns that are similar to those elsewhere in Europe. It shows that Finnish women's experience of current media content is that it is mainly male-oriented, and that it allows few chances for identification. Women viewers are aware of an imbalance, but recognise also that simplistic solutions to correct this situation can be very unsatisfactory. They do not reject the idea of programmes targeted to women, partly because viewers already recognise certain genres as made for women. However, they seem to favour a kind of integrated approach, which is not to say that they don’t think women as viewers need "special treatment".
To these women the concept of "women’s programmes" seems rooted in a perception of "all women" which is overly narrow. There is an element of resentment about among female viewers about the idea that women form a unified group which is differentiated from men as a group, but in which individual differences between women are ignored. The viewers react quite strongly to what they see as new stereotypes: either a superwoman (an image which none of the discussants believes in) or a relatively passive ordinary woman, living mostly according to the rules set by "her" man, and reflecting a traditional and romantic ideal of relationships. There’s very little variety or "realism" to be found.
Genres do not matter as such. Rather women choose specific programmes which attract them in terms of content, style and approach, and in which they find connections to their own realities of everyday life. At present, these programmes seem to be predominantly fiction or entertainment-oriented. This is partly because programming policies rely very much on basic audience ratings and take for granted the underlying, traditional gender division by genres. Women are targeted with and offered "feminine" genres, and that is one reason why they tend to watch them. However, there are clear signs of boredom with the increased "lightening" of current television output. In this regard, women seem to make no distinction between public and commercial television, or between different programme types.
European View. In Europe the debate about gender images on television is a fairly recent one. Gender portrayal has briefly been considered in the context of violence and explicit sex on screen, and of stereotypes in TV-commercials. But as a topic in its own right it has not much interested either media policy makers, journalists or television audience themselves. Because of this association with the sex-and-violence genre and with stereotypical advertising, discussion of the images of women has been linked to commercial television in particular, and has not been perceived as a major concern for European public television.
Changing Media Landscape. Today, due to the recent changes in European media, issues of gender representation in relation to audience perceptions are attracting more attention. These changes are resulting in new media policies and new questions for research. Deregulation and the advent of new transmission technologies have increased the number of channels which viewers can choose from. Audience targeting, long since standard practice in the United States, has become a crucial part of survival also within the European context.
For public broadcasting companies, increased competition has posed many difficulties. Formerly, the operation of a public broadcasting company destined to serve the public was guaranteed merely by saying so. Today public radio and television are under the same pressure as commercial companies to prove that large numbers tune in or watch their programmes. Now that numbers matter, women as members of the audience have also begun to matter.
We Know Little. A recent state-of-the-art review of research on images of women in European media initiated by the European Commission (Kivikuru et al. 1999) claims that, although inadequate in many ways, standard quantitative audience measurement provides the only systematic data gathered on audiences – male or female. However, this research has not satisfactorily dealt with the question of audience choice, or the role of gender portrayal in making these choices. Thus it has been relatively unhelpful in formulating media policies intended to serve women audiences.
Although there has been little comprehensive research on gendered audiences, studies throughout Europe can be said to show a fairly predictable pattern of gender differences in the media preferences of women and men. Although there is not much difference in time spent watching television, women tend to prefer drama (including serials and soap operas), talk shows and certain comedy programmes, while men prefer sports, action-oriented series and information programmes, including news and current affairs. These patterns have been confirmed for several countries such as Sweden (Abrahamsson 1990) and the United Kingdom (Livingstone 1994), and they apply also to Finland (Jääsaari & Sarkkinen 1995 & 1998).
SHOULD THERE BE A SPECIAL "WOMEN’S PROGRAMME" ON TV?
– It was good that it (=the pilot) was different, a new angle, that was positive. But it also evoked many contradictory feelings.
Group 5
The Case In Point. In 1998 YLE TV2 created a new concept for a late-evening programme specifically targeted to "young-minded women". A pilot was produced to test the concept and its various content segments. The approach was to offer a format and themes which would appeal especially to women, but would also attract male viewers– and would encourage discussions between the sexes. The programme was to combine both entertaining and "in-depth" elements – from music to interviews to performances. The two hosts, female and male, were to deviate from the traditional "talk show" format and provide stylish and humorous links between the various programme elements. The theme of the pilot was "romantic love".
This pilot was tested with six focus groups, amounting altogether to 45 participants of different educational, age and geographical backgrounds. The case in question was a pilot which never materialised into a programme. So the emphasis here is not on the actual and detailed comments by the focus group participants on the pilot’s form and content, but rather on the discussion generated around the discussants’ expectations of and ideas about television programmes, and on the concept of "women’s programming" in general.
Main Finding: Not A Programme of One’s Own. A general feeling in the focus groups was that the pilot included new and interesting elements for women. However, the focus groups seemed to view the issue of a women’s programme in very similar terms to those expressed in an earlier piece of research into viewers’ assessments of the image of people in television news, and of the need for special "women’s news" (Aslama 1995). Although in the news research the focus group discussants (three groups of women, one group of men) were very able to analyse and criticise images in the news and to propose alternatives, they quite unanimously rejected the idea of separate news for women. This view was defended mainly on the grounds that they couldn’t understand what kind of content the women’s news could possibly have.
The focus groups in this study reasoned along the same lines. The women did not specifically want a "programme of their own" but rather wondered if their family would be interested enough to watch a programme like the pilot, and what elements could bring both men and women together in front of the screen. On the other hand, the idea that a programme would be mainly targeted to women didn’t sound strange to them either, probably because audiences are also becoming conscious of and used to segment targeting, and have detected implicit "women’s programmes" especially in entertainment and drama programming.
– WHAT THEMES WOULD INTEREST YOU REGARDING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN OR BEING A WOMAN...
– (...) I would really like to see things like... women being friends, encouraging each other, not being jealous, because many times that’s the phrase used. (...) It would be really nice to see on TV, these kind of positive things. (...) and it irritates me that in various kinds of programmes there are these super-woman types, they have a family and house in perfect order and a fabulous career, several academic degrees, and one gets the feeling that it’s just a question of organisation, but I personally don’t believe it. So I would like to see like... well, perhaps someone like that could be there and then someone completely the opposite (...)
– They ["superwomen"] have support teams...
– But that’s not told in the media!
– No, it’s not told...
– But they would tell if they were asked...
Group 3
– First I thought about what kind of structure it could have (=on possible themes in a "women’s programme") and that it could of course be the kind about women’s different roles, that a woman is also a wife, a mother, a professional in the working world and so on. But then there’s the general point that we always talk about women and men, but there are also individual differences which are really big (...)
Group 2
Awareness Is There. The main finding of the focus groups’ discussion regarding "special topics for women" or "issues about women’s roles" was twofold. The greatest emphasis was given to women’s multiple roles in reality – a reality which is not reflected in standard media portrayal This criticism was repeated in various forms in all the focus groups, and was found in the Finnish focus groups discussing portrayal of women and men in the news (Aslama 1995). Viewers are obviously aware of this imbalance between their experience of reality and what they see on television, yet do not articulate their awareness or criticise gender portrayal until asked.
Are The Media Old-fashioned? The theme of "women’s programmes" provoked quite a debate on portrayal of women. This was perceived to be quite "thin" and even outmoded. The other variant of the issue of "narrowness" in gender portrayal related to the importance of individual differences between people. There was implicit criticism of the view offered by "old-fashioned feminism", namely that women form a unified group which is very different from the unified group of men. The discussants stated again and again that today’s womanhood is multifaceted, but that the media do not seem to reflect that.
Multi-dimensional Womanhood Is Called For. The focus groups noted unanimously that when the media present "women’s issues" or a "woman’s story", two archetypes tend to emerge. The stereotype is either a quite young, professional "bold and beautiful" superwoman (an image which none of the discussants believed in), or a relatively passive and traditional woman, living mostly according to the rules set by "her" man (an image that projects a rather simplistic and romantic ideal of male-female relationships). There’s very little variety or "realism" to be found:
– (...) It’s so traditional and typical, these roles for women and men [=in programmes], the man is always working but today most of us are working, we are not dependent on what the man does and are not waiting for him all the time. I think it would be more fun (...) that decisions and choices people make in their lives would be presented (...) that women can be busy and have a lot to do, (programmes) could encourage women to do something fun.
Group 1
4. Do Programme Types Matter?
– (...) It would be good when talking about relationships if both views were present, the man’s and the woman’s... It would concretely bring out that women and men are different [when talking] about the same issue. That’s always said but not so ... because I don’t believe it sometimes - that how can he think that way since it’s so clear to me (...)
– (...) Well I would be interested, I guess, in relationships or in the status of women or women’s role in the society ... But more in a factual manner, there could be some light elements also ...
– (...)
Group 2
– I like talk shows... the kind you can relate to, agree with the opinions or come up with a critique of what’s been said... Although one would watch alone or then in a little group... But then the discussion starts about if one thinks this way or that way. And especially important is that the hosts would be those kinds of persons who make people think about what they say, not what or who they are... So that in a way I like to listen to different people’s viewpoints.
Group 6
Factual Programmes To Portray Alternatives. It has to be noted that among the focus groups in this study, the discussions were framed by the pilot. This provided various elements, but was clearly more an entertainment programme than a current affairs or other "factual" genre. That led the discussants to comment especially on drama, entertainment and "lighter" factual programming -- which often uses stereotypes in creating "dramatic story telling". However, if research has shown that women find entertainment, drama and talk shows especially interesting; and yet that they crave for a more diverse gender portrayal in these genres, these programme types may provide the most obvious and natural forum for portraying alternatives. The tendency to show "alternative gender portrayal" can be seen e.g. in commercial drama, talk shows and sitcoms, probably due to a realisation on the part of their producers that this indeed interests various audiences. However, these portrayals tend to follow the "mainstream stereotypes of alternatives", largely due the tradition of their genres which often depend on "caricatures". As one discussant cited above noted, if "women’s issues" or "relationships" were really to be given alternative portrayals, many women would prefer this in a more factual format. That may be the reason why quite factually-oriented and therapy-like talk shows are often favoured by women (see e.g. Aslama 1999) – as opposed to the shows which combine elements of entertainment and talk.
Genre Hierarchies Are Breaking Down. The conventional value hierarchy between "hard" and "soft" programming, or men’s and women’s favourites, seems to be breaking down. Finnish research from the beginning of 1990s showed that when viewers talked about programme preferences "masculine" genres were more highly valued than "feminine" ones (see e.g. Alasuutari 1991) However, at least in these focus groups, value assessments of this kind hardly surfaced. Part of the explanation may be that the discussants were all women. Yet in the discussions preferences for programme types and journalistic styles were openly expressed and related very much to each individual’s personal interests and life styles. Many viewers seem to have very broad tastes – revolving around individual programmes rather than programme types. This has also been a general finding in recent YLE audience appreciation studies, which show that educated and working women, in the same age groups as these focus group discussants, choose the programmes which please and satisfy them, regardless of genre.
Genres Do Not Matter – Quality And Identification Does. A key observation then, from these focus groups, is that genres do not matter as such. Women watch those specific programmes which attract them in terms of content, style and approach, in which they find connections to their own realities, and which they "fit" –very concretely -- into their everyday lives. At present, those programmes seem to be mainly fiction or entertainment-oriented.
– I think this (pilot) was positive because today one only sees these American entertainment series in television and all that’s offered is more or less the same, like American-style, either serials or movies, like here they were at least trying something else.
– (...)
– I think there definitively needs to be alternatives to what’s been offered currently. ... I’m fed up with television because there’s nothing else than American soaps, American movies, and then news and current affairs programming made in an American style.
Group 5
Challenge For Public Broadcasting. The assessment reported here can be seen as a challenge to public broadcasting: how to address and target a variety of female audiences in ways that differ from the commercial approach. Based on the focus groups and other research described here, following the commercial bandwagon might not be the only or the best solution. Viewers are becoming more and more "media literate" and choose according to their personal preferences. If there were "seriously made" and well-thought alternatives, planned with the help of careful research and testing, there is no reason why women (or rather, segments of women viewers) could not be target audiences for instance for certain kinds of factual programming. The current relatively uniform programming seems to make viewers hungry for these kinds of alternatives.
5. Survival Games? Suggestions For "Women’s Issues"
– WHAT TOPICS COULD IT [A WOMEN’S PROGRAMME] ENTAIL? IF THIS PILOT WOULD BECOME A SERIES AND THE TOPIC OF THIS PROGRAMME WAS "ROMANTIC LOVE", WHAT THEMES WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN THE FUTURE?
– Well, it’s not necessarily every woman’s dream to get married and get a husband... but I’d also like to hear about single women and their work or simply also how a woman can combine all housework and a profession and other parts of life, those kinds of things.
Group 6
– We (should not) once again squeeze all women into the same format (in a programme) , we should rather bring forth the rainbow, how today’s woman can live her life, that we have just left this one format behind, now we have many ways. That could be interesting.
Group 3
Help Us To Survive! A key issue raised by many discussants was the fact that they would like the media to present "survival stories" of women, or people in general, struggling between the many roles and obligations that today’s society imposes on them. The underlying idea seemed to be that the media should be a forum not only for information about "alternatives" but that programmes should also take consciously into account how to respond to people’s everyday lives and how to "support" viewers in their various life situations. Since the theme of the pilot was "romantic love", this was used as an example by many discussants in evaluating and brainstorming about alternative portrayals in television. The following discussion excerpt is an illustration:
– (...) They say that today half of the marriages end up in divorce... I’m sure everyone knows one (divorcee, one story presented in the pilot) with similar experiences. Of course these divorce stories are one of the top topics in women’s magazines and so on. But I also wonder why they always talk about divorces, on the other hand half of the marriages are happy (...)
– Yes, that they could present [in the media] more that ’this is how we got over the crisis’ and not always that ’we grew apart and the children were left with me and now I’m a single mother in crisis’ and so on. I mean more like ’our relationship works although we have gone through a lot’.
– I was thinking exactly the same, especially now in the times of all the Bill Clinton stories, that there are so few programmes that tell about good marriages. There should be other kind of stories, not just about that all the men and women are cheating on their partners, but that there are also good relationships and other things in life. That one would create positive images about marriages and relationships.
– Yes, it’s like when they talk about all the violence on TV and that it is the cause of all the violence today, like, is it the same thing here now, that if we talk about these relationship crises we sort of see them in our own lives as well, like, hey! we have a crisis here and let’s separate.
– And one could then get ideas and new views...when one sees those who have been through crises...that our relationship is not ending after all. One could find help through others’ experiences (...)
– Survival games, that could be a good theme.
Group 3
Mixture of Information And Entertainment. In addition to the "survival games" of relationships, the focus groups mentioned that they would be interested in "different women" – singles as well as women in relationships; women of different ages giving their perspectives and promoting better understanding about the phases in women’s lives. Another intriguing theme mentioned was women and life in general in various cultures. Interestingly enough, no one mentioned the need for more drama or entertainment specifically for women. It was expected that these themes would be presented in a factual manner, yet not "too seriously".
References
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