Women and Media is a thoughtful cross-cultural examination of the ways in which women have worked inside and outside mainstream media organizations since the 1970s. The book provides an overview of the key issues and developments in feminist media critiques and interventions over the last 30 years, beginning with the extant literature in this growing field and ending with a new study of women's media activism in 20 nations. The authors recount and analyze the first-hand narratives of nearly 100 women media activists whose work has contributed to the making of a feminist public sphere that has moved women leaders and agendas more forcefully into their societies. This highly original empirical base, and the model of Women's Media Action that the authors developed, provide a unique account of women's struggles to improve, create and otherwise employ media in pushing for social change. The text is written in a concise, engaging style, laying out the central concerns about the women-media relationship as it has operated in a variety of political/critical contexts. It can be used alongside Women and Media: International Perspectives (2004), by the same editors.
Author Biography:
Carolyn M. Byerly, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Graduate Program of Mass Communication and Media Studies, Department of Journalism, Howard University, Washington DC (USA). She teaches seminars in mass communication theory, research methods, media effects, and political communication. Recent publications include Women and Media: International Perspectives (edited with Karen Ross, Blackwell, 2004), "After 9/11: Formation of an Oppositional Discourse," (Feminist Media Studies, Fall 2005), and "Women and the Concentration of Media Ownership" (in R. R. Rush, C.E. Oukrop, and P. J. Creedon, Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education, Erlbaum, 2004).
Karen Ross, Ph.D., is Professor of Mass Communication at Coventry University (UK). She teaches research methods, gender politics and media, and audience studies and is has written extensively on issues of in/equality in communication and culture. Her previous books include: Gender and Newsroom Cultures: Identities at Work (with Marjan de Bruin, Hampton Press, 2004); Women and Media: International Perspectives (edited with Carolyn M. Byerly, Blackwell, 2004); Media and Audiences (with Virginia Nightingale, Open University Press, 2003. She is currently working on two studies relating to press coverage of elections from a gender perspective.
