Women reporters in the vanguard
Major news stories do not give much thought to women, and women correspondingly feel disinterested and at a loss. How can this standoff be broken?
Chang Chin-hwa, director of the Graduate Institute of Journalism at National Taiwan University, and also a woman, notes that traditionally men were thought to belong to the "realm of public affairs" and women to the "realm of private affairs." Thus it is less accurate to say that there is an innate difference between men and women than it is to say that women have rarely been given an opportunity to participate in the realm of public affairs. Perhaps it will only be when more women have entered the public realm, and when there are more women with the power to define and interpret issues through the media, that other women will begin to find "public" issues more relevant and interesting. Although this step is still far off, it is the most fundamental one.
Huang Chao-sung, editor-in-chief at the China Times, contends that the media does not deliberately ignore women. Instead, in a social structure which gives greater weight to men than to women, the principle of "objectively reflecting what is happening in society" means that the media naturally creates the sense that it similarly gives less attention to women.
It is no easy task to transform a social structure. Fortunately, in recent years there has been a great increase in the number of women working in journalism. These women have been, consciously or not, spreading the seeds of a women's perspective on the news through their profession. In particular, stories by women reporters about feminist activists can break down the gender disadvantage.
"Right now the ambition of women's news is to seize a corner of the pages in the newspaper devoted to major national stories," says Lin Chao-chen, a reporter at the China Times who has a strong feminist consciousness. But it won't be easy to achieve even this. Moreover, it is by no means the case that all women reporters have a feminist consciousness. "The so-called 'neutral' journalism training we received in school is in fact laced through with the male perspective, and after getting accustomed to this it is hard to escape later on," she explains.
In one sense, notes Huang, there is no need for a particular women's angle on all types of stories. The majority of topics are in fact 'neutral.' F example, many of the reporters covering national political and economic news are women. When they write their copy, they need only conform to the traditional definition of news, and their stories are treated exactly the same as the male reporters'.
But, if women want to change the angle of approach to a story, and write a truly feminist news story, they will often end up disappointed. Last year there was a string of incidents of women who murdered their abusive husbands, sexual harassment on college campuses, and rape. Many women reporters were deeply distressed by the superficial "spin" put on these stories by their newspapers, which deliberately treated the stories as "having pornographic overtones" or as cases of "the war between the sexes." They had to fight hard to get more balanced reports into the papers.
Invariably, Lin Chao-chen has had to resort to some "tricks" in order to win some front-page space for women's issues, like turning in the copy faster or writing in a more amusing way. Meanwhile, she tones down any sharp feminist rhetoric. "It gets accepted a lot easier if the packaging is done well," she explains.
Cover girls
As if it weren't enough that serious women's topics have a hard time getting into the front pages, what Lin Chao-chen has found even more disappointing is that many women are concerned about only a very narrow spectrum of issues. For example, she has on occasion written articles for the women's page about the activities of women's rights groups, but she always gets the same old nag from the page editor: "Write something a little 'softer' please!"
Chen Ai-ni, the former chief editor of Woman ABC, faced the same problems. For instance, she wanted to get rid of the traditional "cover girl" format and place "accomplished" women on the front. As a result, sales dropped and advertisers began to object.
Or, to take another case, Chen wanted to change the way traditional women's topics like "the division of housework" get discussed. She reasoned, "We shouldn't just get a closed circle of women to discuss this. We should also invite government scholars to explore fundamental issues like unreasonable pay structures, and the inadequacy of social resources devoted to women. This is the only way to treat these problems with the seriousness they deserve and to allow the two sexes to exchange ideas." In other words, she hoped to break down the wall between the private and the public realms, begin a discussion of an issue--family responsibilities--over which women have some influence, and in so doing to see what men have to say and to see whether or not the power of government might not be able to help out.
Easier said than done. Unfortunately, she also had to consider the fact that her women readers have become accustomed to a soft style of reporting that "doesn't pose brain-bending problems." She worried that readers wouldn't be able to digest a heavy dose of economic and fiscal issues added in to the discussion of family matters, and that sales would fall. In the end she decided not to take the risk of changing the format. "This should be seen as a limitation we place on ourselves," says Chen with regret.
And that is not all. Just as there is little room for women to get a foothold in the national news section of the paper, the women's page is usually confined to women writing for women readers, with "no men allowed!"
A medium of change
Jao Jen-chi is the first man ever to report for the women's page at the United Daily News. Originally the editors of the women's page, fearing that "if we always only have women writing for women, perhaps the viewpoint will be somewhat biased," decided to find a male writer to "discuss women's issues from the male point of view." Sadly things didn't work out as planned, as many women obviously found it hard to accept this "test of objectivity" in their news.
Jao offers a case in point: He once followed up on a story in which a man in Kaohsiung, despite not knowing how to swim, plunged into the water to help his girlfriend; the woman was saved, but the man drowned. Of the more than 20 men Jao interviewed, all ridiculed the man in the story as a fool, and none indicated that they felt either sympathetic or moved.
However, his (female) editors found this report unacceptable, and revised it. Even then, many women readers sent in protest letters after the article was run. "Women simply don't want to hear how men really feel," says Jao. Having been through several similarly frustrating experiences, he says with exasperation, "When it comes to sensitive topics for women, a male reporter is frankly better off sticking to the party line, because that's the only way to keep everybody happy. Is it any wonder that so many men have not the slightest interest in the 'grannies' and housewives" women's page?"
Is it thus always to be the case that men and women will stick to their own sides in the media, without any communication? Chu Yuan-hung says that the only way to move toward the ideal of truly "gender-neutral" and "humanistic" union is through two-way traffic: giving women's issues more exposure in the parts of the media devoted to major news stories, and allowing men more opportunities for their softer, more ordinary, "inner selves" to emerge.
So, if we want men and women to achieve harmony and common ground, wouldn't building up a consensus in the media and giving room to as many voices as possible be the right place to start? If we want to make this enormous step, there's a lot more work to be done.
[Picture Caption]
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The era in which men sat around reading the paper while women cleaned the house is passing away. But, when will the day come when the news pages can be shared by both sexes? (photo by Diago Chiu)
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To get women's issues into the front pages, feminists have begun making their own news. The photo shows a march protesting sexual harassment. (photo by Diago Chiu)
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Last year there was quite a stir over the "case of Deng Ju-wen," a woman who murdered her abusive husband. The trial was widely reported in the media. (photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)
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The baby-napping case which occurred right around Chinese New Year this year was big news. It is still being debated whether the fault lay with the woman who kidnapped the child or the society's male-dominated values that motivated her. (photo by Wu Chao-sheng)
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(left) There are lots of magazines with women on the cover, but most are devoted to leisure time activities, with no "women's perspective on the news" to speak of. (Sinorama file photo)
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(right) Lately there has been a great increase in the number of women reporters. As they chase around the males who make up most of the subjects of the news, will they apply a "women's perspective" to the news? (photo by Vincent Chang)