Video 1: Who’s in the Picture?
News Anchors
The Issues
It is easy to select an equal number of male and female news readers from most European television channels. But do these news readers tell the whole story about the on-screen representation of women and men? For instance the chart shows that in 1997–98 only 32% of those appearing on television in six European broadcasting organisations were women. In fact, it turns out that the function of news reader is the only one in which men and women are more or less equally represented on our television screens. Why might this be? What is does it tell us about gender portrayal?
Gender portrayal is the depiction of the feminine or masculine gender role. It expresses a set of social and cultural perceptions of women and men. These perceptions change over time – just as gender roles themselves change. For example, twenty years ago most European broadcasters rejected the idea that a female news reader could adequately convey ‘truth and authority’ on the television screen. Why should this idea have changed? Is it linked to changing definitions of female professionalism? Or to changing definitions of what will attract the audience? Or to changing definitions of news itself ? And to what extent are such changing definitions or interpretations inter-related? The current acceptability of the female television news reader illustrates well how gender roles and gender images evolve within particular communities. Gender portrayal is part of this complex process: it is embedded in existing ideas and imagery of gender while at the same time it may alter those ideas and images. For example, what impression would the viewer get from watching news programmes, as opposed to other types of television content?
On average, when we watch television we see twice as many men as women. Other research data on gender portrayal are included in the Fact Sheet for this item. But why do these numbers matter? Indeed do they actually matter? What do they tell us about how television portrays social reality and diversity?
First impressions can be misleading. If one’s viewing is usually confined to certain times of day, or to certain kinds of programme, it is impossible to get a clear picture of the overall patterns of portrayal. Quantitative analysis can help here. It can be quite simple – merely counting the numbers of women and men in a range of programmes, for instance. Or it can be more complex – for example, analysing the roles and activities of women and men, the level of formality with which they are introduced, who speaks and for how long. These were among the aspects analysed in the study ‘Who Speaks in Television?’, carried out for Screening Gender. The coding schedule that was used is included as part of this toolkit. You could take it as a starting point to develop your own research tool.
Despite its limitations, quantitative analysis is useful. It allows us to establish a benchmark and to measure change – or lack of change – over time. It helps us to see the broad patterns in portrayal – whether of gender, of age, or ethnicity (or indeed of all these elements together). It gives a concrete starting point for any discussion of gender images in the media. It provides us with elements for a debate on whether those images reflect contemporary society, a society in which men and women have much more diversified social roles than ever before.
Production Questions
FACT SHEET, ITEM 1: WHO’S IN THE PICTURE?
Facts and Figures
Of the people portrayed in prime time television on six European public broadcasting organisations in 1997–98, 32% were women. Women’s share of participation ranged from 28% in DR (Denmark) to 36% in YLE (Finland) and SVT (Sweden).
Percentage of women in television programmes:
Different Research, Same Outcome
Then and Now: Is there any Difference?
There has been little quantitative analysis of how gender portrayal might be evolving over time. One of the very few attempts to systematically track changes has been within the Norwegian national broadcasting company NRK. Studies at five-year intervals since 1973 have shown that change is extremely slow. In 1973 women were 25% of those appearing on television. By 1988 – fifteen years later – the figure had crept up to 28%. In 1998 it had reached 31%.
Video Clips
Successful Immigrants
Successful Businessmen
Vox Pop on Doping
Amsterdam Marathon
The Issues
Women often remain invisible in the media. Even if a subject is clearly of significance to them, or if the topic is specifically of concern to women, they may not be represented. The study ‘Who speaks in television?’ found that there is not a single genre in which women are portrayed more often than men.
The significant absence of women in the media is closely tied to our ideas about social success and social status. Generally, women are perceived as having less social status and success. Hence women – and their views – are seen as less important. This helps to explain why they are not portrayed as often as men.
These points are well illustrated by the video clips. In the first clip women seem to have been completely forgotten. Was it really impossible to find a female ‘successful immigrant’? In the second clip too, women are almost completely overlooked. In both these examples, it is as if the programme makers worked within a framework in which ‘success’ is conceptually linked with ‘the masculine’.
A major factor in the third and fourth clips is the conventional association between men with sport. The third clip illustrates the widely-held assumption that men have a greater interest in and knowledge of sports. The fourth shows how powerful is the taken-for-granted image of the successful sports person. This – male – image is so deeply embedded that it dominates even when women’s prowess in sport takes the media by surprise. But how well-founded are the assumptions that lead the media to focus so overwhelmingly on men when it comes to sports coverage? For example Dutch research has shown that women make up over a third of the audience for sports programmes.
Taken as a whole, this set of clips points to the way in which cultural assumptions link with production approaches so as to privilege the male, and to reduce the visibility of the female. For example, if an interviewer asks women and men the same questions, in the same way, this does not necessarily produce an ‘equal’ result in terms of male and female representation. Part of the problem is that the questions themselves, and the way in which they are asked, tend to derive from a male view of the world and how it operates. The second and third clips demonstrate how this tends to marginalise women. The street interview or ‘vox pop’ is typically designed to produce straightforward, catchy one-liners. In the second clip the questions were: ‘What are you going to do with your education? Will you be successful in life?’ The interviewees themselves reflect gender differences not just in terms of what they answer, but also how they answer. Young men of this type usually assume they will be successful. They also tend to give quite direct answers to such questions. Young women may be less likely to associate ‘success in life’ with ‘career’. So their responses to this particular question may be more tentative than those of men. In addition, women tend to express themselves in less direct ways and with more caution than men do. They are therefore less likely to produce the short sound bites expected in vox pop interviews.
There are many ways to approach a topic or tell a story. For example, including women in the ‘successful immigrants’ programme could have added another dimension, an additional angle. Allowing women more time to give their views on performance enhancing drugs could have enriched that particular story. Thinking carefully about gender differences – for example in the way that women and men express themselves, or in how they think about work and private life – helps the programme maker to focus on issues and choices that are often taken for granted, left unaddressed or only addressed in a routine way. Most of the time, therefore, attention to gender portrayal will result in better and more appealing programmes.
Production Questions
Links
The Wider Picture
Item 1. News: ‘Let your subject speak’
Two versions of the same news item on women in the Finnish army demonstrate what happens when the programme maker allows women to speak for themselves.
Item 2. Current affairs: ‘Help your subject to speak out’
Three versions of an interview on local traffic plans show what can be gained when a woman is deliberately encouraged to express her point of view.
This is my Picture
Item 1. Documentary programme maker Claudia Tellegen explains why and how she encourages women to contribute well on television.
Item 3. News reporter Ari Hakahuhta tells how he made the two versions of the Finnish army story, and what makes the second one different.
FACT SHEET, ITEM 2: ABSENT WOMEN
Facts and Figures
Women’s participation in different programme genres:
Topics Tell the Story
Not Much Is New
N.B.: This figure of 55% is for ‘youth programmes’ on radio. The television figure is 42% for ‘news for young people’.
Video Clip
Love Boat
The Issues
When women appear on television, they are not necessarily truly present. Obviously, a silent woman confirms the minor role assigned to her by the programme maker. But – in a way which may be less immediately apparent – a silent woman can seem more ‘absent’ than a woman who is not portrayed at all.
Making television programmes always involves telling a story. A programme maker does not only decide which stories are told, but from which perspective they are told – and thus which outlook on reality they represent. By and large, the world we see on television is a construction of programme makers, rather than a mirror of some real world. In other words, the programme maker plays an active, steering role in defining the realities that appear on our television screens.
Production Questions
Links
The Wider Picture
Item 2. Current affairs: ‘Help your subject to speak out’
Three versions of an interview on local traffic plans show what can be gained when a woman is deliberately encouraged to express her point of view.
Item 3. Documentary: ‘Where do you choose to put your microphone?’
Extracts from two documentaries illustrate different ways in which women can be given a voice.
This is My Picture
Item 1. Documentary programme maker Claudia Tellegen explains why and how she encourages women to contribute well on television.
FACT SHEET, ITEM 3: SILENT WOMEN
Facts and Figures
Women’s share of speaking time on television:
What Do Silent Women Tell Us?
Video Clips
Pets and Stray cats
Small Town Traffic
Taboos at about Ten
The Issues
A television interview is based on the principle of giving and taking space. In the division of roles between interviewer and interviewee, issues of gender play a major part. Men are more inclined to take up space in our culture. They also tend to be more respected for who they are. In television interviews this results in men taking or being allowed more time to speak, while women receive less speaking time. If the interviewer and the interviewee are aware of this, they may be able to break the pattern. For instance, the interviewer might make a conscious effort to ask women more open-ended questions which encourage them to give expansive answers.
Other stereotypical patterns exist in the way in which men and women are approached. Dutch research shows that men tend to be approached more formally, respectfully, politely, and indirectly; women tend to be approached informally, amiably, jokingly, and directly.
Programme makers determine the amount of space available for various views and opinions. They may decide to widen or reduce that space in certain situations. So by taking specific steps regarding programme format or content, programme makers can disrupt or reinforce stereotypical patterns of portrayal. It is important to remember that stereotypes are not unequivocally either negative or positive. It is the way in which stereotypical images are used, and the context in which they are set, that produces a particular evaluation or interpretation of them as positive or negative. In interviews and talk shows, as in every kind of programme, it is possible to overturn ‘traditional’ stereotypes. This can contribute to creative, surprising and unconventional television.
Production Questions
Links
The Wider Picture
Item 2. Current Affairs: ‘Help your subject to speak out’
Three versions of the interview on local traffic plans show what can be gained when a woman is deliberately encouraged to express her point of view. The third version also illustrates how gestures and body movement can contribute to expressiveness when an interviewee is standing or moving, rather than seated.
Item 3. Documentary: ‘Where do you choose to put your microphone?’
Extracts from two documentaries illustrate different ways in which women can be given a voice.
This is My Picture
Item 1. Documentary programme maker Claudia Tellegen explains why and how she encourages women to contribute well on television.
FACT SHEET, ITEM 4: MAKING SPACE, TAKING SPACE
Facts and Figures
Percentage of women and men addressed formally:
Genre can make a difference…
Dutch research from 1996 looked at whether there is a difference in the way women and men are addressed in interviews. Is the interviewer’s approach indirect and polite, or is it direct and familiar? The study found no difference in current affairs programmes: 40% of both women and men were addressed directly, and 60% indirectly. However, in talk shows there was a marked difference: 87% of women were addressed in a direct, familiar way compared with just 56% of the men.
Style matters...
The same 1996 research and an earlier Dutch study from 1992 found other stereotypical patterns in the ways men and women are addressed in interviews:
Because …
When programme makers are aware of these patterns in the ways that guests are addressed, they can consciously decide to adopt a particular interview style. When interview styles and techniques are used creatively and are sensitive to the needs of guests, programmes may become less predictable and less burdened with stereotypical views and gestures.
Video Clips
Domestic Help
Foreign Minister
Car Test
Men |
Women |
work-related |
domestic |
high status |
low status |
public |
private |
mind |
body |
The Issues
In the past twenty-five years much has changed in terms of the social division of roles between men and women. These changes have not yet been fully reflected in the media. By and large, media images of women and men are conventional and fixed: they reflect stereotypical perceptions of gender roles. Gender stereotypes work along various dimensions and at various levels, many of which contain implicit value judgements about women and men.
A group that is socially ranked higher is less subject to negative stereotypes than a group that is socially ranked lower. Thus in television, men – especially white, middle class, middle-aged men – are associated with positive and attractive qualities. These include power, courage, independence, humour, autonomy and balance. For groups with lower social status, stereotypes are much more rigidly defined, less flexible and hence much harder to resist. For women, stereotypes concerning sexuality (the "dumb blonde"), and emotionality (the "irrational female") are persistent and difficult to break down.
A member of a socially higher group is more likely to be perceived as an individual than as a group member. A male politician is first and foremost perceived as a politician. A female politician is first and foremost seen as a woman. Her profession is rarely separated from her gender. This is not to say that a socially higher group is not stereotyped at all, but rather that the range of images available is much wider and much more flexible.
The same basic stereotype, like that of the irrational or emotional female, may be presented in various forms: in an exaggerated way (as in comedy), in a tragic way (as in drama), or in a realistic fashion (as, for instance, in news items on natural disasters). The result of these multiple variations of the same image pattern is that some types of stereotyping are more immediately recognisable than others. At the same time, they also become more entrenched in the culture at large. As a result, they are harder to eradicate.
These fundamental gender stereotypes are present in many aspects of programme portrayal. Here are some ways in which they are commonly expressed in relation to roles and locations of men and women on television:
Man
Woman
common roles
variation
one-sidedness
diversity
lack of range
social status
absence of status
active
passive or reactive
independent
dependent
protagonist
supporting role
expert
victim
professional
lay person
spokesperson
housewife
common locations
indoors
outside
office
home
behind desk
behind kitchen sink
study
nursery
Yet it is important to remember that stereotypes are not unassailably either negative or positive. Much depends on the context in which they are set, and the way they are used. For example, entertainment programmes often either exaggerate or reverse stereotypes so as to surprise the viewer and grasp attention.
Programme makers in other genres can also question taken-for-granted gender stereotypes. To take just one illustration, ‘expert authority’ has traditionally been associated with the masculine gender role, and it continues to be so. Women are still only 17% of experts in prime time television. Yet as we enter the 21st century women are increasingly qualified to provide expert opinion on just about every imaginable subject. It may be a challenge to find them, rather than turning to the usual male authority. But they do exist. By bringing them into public arena through television, the programme maker both enlarges the spectrum of opinion in the public domain and provides new role models for particular audience groups.
Production Questions
Links
The Wider Picture
Item 4. Hosts and Presenters: ‘Two dimensional characters or real personalities’
The final two clips in this sequence illustrate unusual approaches, intended to overturn conventional stereotypes: in the Norwegian talk show ‘Baluba’ the stereotypes are exaggerated to achieve a subversive effect; in the Dutch talk show ‘Laat De Leeuw’ (Latenight De Leeuw) the aim is to reverse the stereotypes.
This is My Picture
Item 4. Children’s programme host Victoria Dyring explains why she thinks female role models in science and technology are important, and how she tries to find them.
FACT SHEET, ITEM 5: ROLES AND LOCATIONS
Facts and Figures
Percentage of women in various roles:
Gender, Role and Location …
Social Status and Portrayal …
Video Clips
Election Night
The Issues
The camera is a powerful and subtle tool. It can portray individuals from particular angles, thus putting them in a certain light. It can make them look more imposing or smaller than they really are, thus giving them more or less status, and so on. Film theory tells us how the camera’s position, focus, or movements influence the perception of the viewer. In cinema, there are countless examples of how the camera’s visual language contributes to the creation of heroes and villains. In television journalism too, the camera is sometimes used to make a particular statement. From close-ups of starving children, to footage of emaciated prisoners of war behind barbed wire, we can find many examples of how shots are chosen to create a particular effect. Of course a lot of television journalism is concerned with undramatic events, on which the camera is turned in a routine manner. But even here, the way in which the camera is positioned can affect perceptions, reinforcing or changing existing stereotypes.
A good example is the relative height of women and men. It is true of course that men, on average, are taller than women. But this general fact has such powerful connotations that in individual cases it is often upheld artificially. For instance, the engagement photos of British Prince Charles and Princess Diana portrayed him as taller than his future wife – precisely as dictated by the stereotypical image. But the photos didn’t show that the prince was standing on a stool. Further evidence of this pattern can be seen in family photo albums or in the pictures displayed in the window of any professional photographer’s store. It would be quite a challenge to find a family portrait in which the photographer has grouped the family so as to create the illusion that the mother/wife is taller than the father/husband.
Why is it important to maintain the illusion that an individual man is taller than an individual woman, if this is not actually the case? Again, we come back to questions of status, power and dominance. Cartoons regularly caricature the stereotype of the ‘domineering woman’ by depicting a female colossus who towers over a much smaller man. In our society, it seems, power is associated with physical size. A woman who is taller than her male companion disrupts conventional expectations. She must literally and metaphorically be ‘cut down to size’ – that is, reduced in importance.
If we study gender portrayal patterns closely, we find that there are differences in the ways that women and men are viewed by the camera. It turns out that men are more frequently portrayed from a low-angle position, through a medium shot, or by a moving camera. Women tend to be shown more often from a high-angle camera position, in close-up, or by a static camera. While there is nothing inherently right or wrong about these patterns, when they recur in the same configuration again and again, they may reinforce traditional perceptions of women and men. For example, differences in camera angle and positioning tend to perpetuate images of men as imposing, important, powerful and active figures; and of women as less significant, less important more passive beings.
Production Questions
Video Clips
Sex Survey
The Issues
The choice of a specific setting and tone is never entirely random in television. This is most obvious in drama, where sets, costumes, casting and dialogue are carefully designed so that each detail contributes appropriately to the overall message, meaning, or style. In the Finnish news clip a variety of strategies is used to a similar end. With the mix of old footage, new footage and commentary, the makers of the item convey a message and implicitly comment on the topic. However, factual programmes rarely exploit the full range of effects that a specific setting might have on the viewer’s perception. Time and budgetary constraints mean that there is less opportunity to think through all the various dimensions that come into play. This makes it more possible for stereotypical messages to slip through, even though they may conflict with the programme makers’ own views or intention.
When it comes to avoiding stereotypes, sexuality is arguably the most difficult subject. In each culture it is surrounded by countless myths and beliefs, and in most societies people feel inhibited when addressing it in public. Humour is often employed as a strategy to hide uneasiness. To avoid the pitfall of stereotypical portrayal of sexuality, programme makers who address this subject should consider their decisions as carefully as possible.
As always, it is important to consider what is shown and told, but also what is not shown and not told. In the news clip the audience sees a lingerie store, a couple in love, a moving fountain with a mouth, the launching of a rocket, and archive footage of naked men in a sauna. Meanwhile viewers are informed about how often people have sex in different countries, the implication being that frequency of (heterosexual) sexual activity is a positive thing. But many other potentially relevant aspects are neglected in this message. Alternative forms of sexuality, for instance, are disregarded. The people involved in the study are not given a voice. Nor do viewers learn who initiated and paid for the study (a condom company).
In this news item, then, a stereotypical view of sex led to a selection of footage and commentary that conveyed ideas about sexuality mainly in terms of masculine norms.
Production Questions
Links
Who’s in the Picture?
Item 5: Roles and Locations
Clip 2: The Foreign Minister
An interview with the Swedish Foreign Minister about her new appointment takes place in the local zoo. What does the selection of this setting convey to the viewer?
The Wider Picture
Item 7: Talk show: "Good research leads to more than the obvious story"
Clip 2: "Direkte Sexy", the talk show about sex that deliberately distinguishes different gender perspectives on sexual emotions.
This is My Picture
Item 2: Interview with Elin Østraat, chief editor of "Direkte Sexy", about the production questions they dealt with while making an informative and entertaining programme about sex.
Video Clips
Young, Pretty and Immigrant
The Ideal Husband
The Issues
Commentary is almost never neutral. In fact it provides the easiest vehicle for programme makers to take a position, or express a view – literally, to comment on something. So commentary can potentially influence viewers’ understanding or interpretation of an issue or a situation. Reporters and programme makers have considerable power in how they formulate their commentary. Implicitly, the comment on Michel’s decision to give up one day of work each week underscores the conventional norm: in a family with children the man has a job and the woman stays at home. When both have jobs and take care of the children, the man is considered the one who makes a sacrifice, the woman the one who benefits.
Language has an enormous impact on gender portrayal. To a large degree, our view of gender roles determines the questions we ask of women and men and the texts we write about them. Quite commonly, messages about what is normal and what is deviating from the norm are buried in the way views and ideas are articulated – in a throw-away phrase, the way a sentence is constructed, the use of a word, or in some other seemingly inconspicuous detail. Consider the message in this sentence: "Although she is well on in years, she is still very active". Or the contradictory messages in this one: "Fortunately, more and more men are willing to take a step down in their careers to share the burden of childcare". On the one hand the speaker is positive about the development, as implied by the word "fortunately". On the other, the expression "to take a step down" has a negative connotation. Normative views like this are often embedded in language itself. So they can easily slip into a commentary text quite unintentionally. Because of the subtle role of language in transmitting value judgements, texts need to be carefully formulated to avoid unintended effects.
Production Questions
Video Clips
Mr. Chairman
The Househusband
- At the end of a cycle race senior Dutch journalist Jean Nelissen interviews the winner, Rudi Kemna. Does he have any plans to join the professionals? No, replies the cyclist. He is a "househusband: I do the housekeeping and a bit of cycling". "So you do the cooking? (...) And house cleaning as well?" Nelissen asks in astonishment. Back in the studio, the programme anchor jokes gently that his veteran colleague is ‘hearing for the first time that men also cook and clean’.
Car or Care
- The German programme "WISO" (abbreviation of Socio-economic in German, also meaning "How come?") has a new angle on why there are more women in employment – especially in executive positions – in Sweden than in Germany. For some time now, Swedish employers have contributed to the costs of domestic help for their employees. The idea is beginning to take off in Germany, where some firms now contribute to their employees’ child care costs. The item ends on an optimistic note: ‘Help instead of company car is the future, not only for women’.
Labour Market
- The Norwegian news programme "Redaksjon 21" interviews the Governor of the Norwegian Central Bank on how the Euro will affect the national economy. To help explain the economic problem caused by immobility in the European labour market, the programme host, Anne Grosvold, picks an unfortunate example: Portugal. The Governor is unimpressed. Portuguese workers are among the most mobile in Europe, he points out. Nevertheless, he concedes, the general point is correct. Recovering her composure, the host admits that she has been made a little hot under the collar by his belittling tone.
Jealousy
- In a popular Dutch entertainment programme "Jansen en Co", host and singer Leonie Jansen interviews three female artists who will be touring the country in the coming season. The interviewer starts with a question about the proverbial jealousy among women, but this irritates her guests immediately. One of them responds: "Would you ask three men that?" Though the host tries to pursue the issue, her guests refuse to address it.
The Issues
Gender portrayal is inextricably bound up with social change. This final selection of clips illustrates how gender pervades all cultural domains: politics, sport, private life, the economy, the media, and so on. But acceptance of change can be challenging and even painful. As most of these clips show, in this demanding process of accommodating to new roles and attitudes in society, a sense of humour can often ease the passage.
The first three cases demonstrate that it takes time to get used to new male and female social roles. Re-conceptualisation and negotiation, gradual processes of understanding and acceptance – these are all required. Both within these processes, and in the way they are portrayed, there is often ambiguity. Forward-looking elements may be juxtaposed with more traditional interpretations. For the audience, the end result may stimulate new ideas, or reinforce old ones – depending partly on each viewer’s own particular starting point. For example, the clip about the Dutch cyclist shows a meeting of two generations – the modern young househusband, and the perplexed older journalist. With whom will viewers of different ages identify? The German example explores innovative schemes to help employees reconcile work and family responsibilities. So far, so good. But the employees are all assumed to be women. Only in its very final statement does the report hint that men may also benefit from this kind of help – rather than from, say, a company car. How are female viewers likely to relate to this report? How relevant to their own lives will male viewers find it?
If these examples illustrate that change is typically tentative and ambiguous, the final two clips are somewhat more unusual. They show what can happen when the protagonist in a television programme – whether as interviewer or guest – decides to mount a small rebellion against taken-for-granted gender roles. They demonstrate that, however entrenched the conventional stereotype is, it is not immutable. An interviewer can decide not to ignore a patronising put-down, however subtle it may be. A guest can refuse to answer a stereotypical question, however light-hearted it may sound.
Competing views of gender are directly or indirectly at work in all these examples. Each one, in a slightly different way, shows how gender provides one of the major cultural frames through which social and economic relationships are configured and reconfigured. Taken as a whole, they illustrate the inter-relationship between changing perceptions of gender and changing patterns of gender portrayal.
Production Questions: A Time for Self-Reflection
Journalists and programme makers have a special responsibility vis-à-vis society at large. What this responsibility entails in any particular case depends on how individual programme makers deploy their personal views, skills, knowledge, attitudes, experiences and talents in their professional lives. This is why a sustained effort at critical self-reflection is crucial every now and then. So, for instance:
- As a journalist or programme maker, how do you make sense of or evaluate your own personal past – the historical framework of your life – in relation to gender? Have your views about gender changed over time – for example, in relation to public life, work, family, human relationships in general?
- At this point in time, how do you see your own professional responsibility vis à vis the social position of women, ethnic diversity, and other relevant social and cultural themes?
- Thinking about your recent programmes, or ones you are planning, how would you say your own beliefs and ideals come into play when making decisions? Do they influence your choice of themes, the range of people you include in your programmes, the approach you take to controversial topics?
- Looking to the future, how do you think television portrayal – of gender, of diversity – is likely to evolve over the next decade? In your own company? In the industry in general? Do you think you have a role to play in that evolution?