CMN203: Mass Communication

Portrayal of Women in Bangladeshi Media

According to a UNESCO report the litany of common images of women in the media: the glamorous sex kitten, the sainted mother, the devious witch, the hard faced corporate and political climber. The report released in 2009 states that, at the current rate of progress on stereotyping women, it will take another 75 years to achieve gender equality in the media [1]. Despite the common images portrayed in media, a woman has many different roles in the society; some are visible and some are invisible to the broader spectrum of the society. Just like the way our society looks at womens role, media in Bangladesh also portrays women in many discrete ways; sometimes positive and at times negative. While sometimes such portrayals of women are reality-based, yet most times they tend to be more of a myth then reality. This paper examines how women in Bangladesh are represented in printing (newspaper) and electronic (television and radio) media both in mythical and realistic ways.

Portrayal in printing media Newspaper in Bangladesh represents women in both positive and negative way. Violence against women is a big issue in Bangladesh and newspaper plays a great

Mohammed Ohidur Rahman

role in spreading the news. Sometime government administration is reluctant to take steps against violence and discrimination towards women. But when these news are published in newspapers, administrations have no other choice than taking legal steps against those criminals. In Bangladesh due to social and economic context, women are always vulnerable to domestic violence and sexual harassment. Moreover, poor and weak women from village often afraid to confront the male who has caused physical and mental harm. Government and the administration often overlook those cases and try to ignore them. Newspaper plays a very important role in bringing justice to those who are victim by publishing the news and forcing the government to take legal steps against the criminals. During 1971 liberation war many women were tortured, raped, and killed and newspaper helps bringing those heroic news to public. Hence, it allows the government and the people to rehabilitate those women who are the victim of 1971 liberation war. It also promotes womens right by publishing views from civil society and compels Government to reform necessary laws to protect womens right. It also promotes awareness among general mass regarding discrimination and violence against women. Moreover, many newspapers publish weekly special edition devoted exclusively for women where womens right, the hardship of their daily lives, legal assistance in case of domestic violence, womens fashion, and their contribution to

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the greater society are being discussed in details. Some publishes biography of great women around the world and how they had to struggle through to break the social and economic barriers and it serves as an inspiration to young women of our generation. Despite all the positive representation of women in newspaper, there is also a darker side that lies within it. Sometime women are being represented as a sensual object in newspaper through advertisement and pictures that are not necessary for that particular news. Some may even use female body and sensual stories to sell their newspaper, which is a common phenomenon practiced not only in newspapers but also in other types of media as well. Our media very often shows women as victims of violence and all kinds of exploitation. There are lots of success stories that should also address to encourage women. Many people criticize newspaper for their limited role regarding womens right. They say media discuss about womens contribution and their rights only on special occasions like on womens day, or when some women are being raped or killed. It is more likely showing sympathy rather than standing beside the victim and fighting for the justice. If womens are half of our society, why special edition is published only once in a month or on special occasions instead of publishing it on the daily basis? In this sense, we can say that media does not represent women of our society most adequately.

Mohammed Ohidur Rahman

Portrayal in electronic media Electronic media such as TV and radio are increasingly becoming popular in Bangladesh and it plays a huge role in shaping our society. Film and drama are two of the strongest mass medium which portrays the society and women definitely have a huge role in these medium. But recently our Bengali film has lost its heritage and dignity that it had before. The entire film industry is being used as a mechanism of violence and sexual oppression on women in different ways. In majority films, women are presented as a sexual commodity. Moreover, the Bangladesh film industry has attained ill fame for being vulgar by focusing on women as sex objects. The portrayal of women in dramas and films is usually negative. There are rarely some films where the women are shown in a very decent manner. For example, in the drama named DOLLS HOUSE women are shown as strong protagonists [2]. Yet, in most Bangladeshi film, women are often shown as a devoted wife or mother, innocent or victims, vamps or sex workers, physically disabled or morally wrong person. It would most often be hard to find where women are rather shown as professionals or achievers. In our media, the only constructive things women are shown to engage in doing are being housewives, whose daily work is only limited to happily cooking meal for their family, love men, cleaning the household things and

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being a caring mother, sister etc. The stories in Bengali film also develop in a stereotypical way where women often portrayed as lower class citizen than their male counterpart. Often they are being portrayed as an uneducated, poor, and surrounded by superstition. But this is not the true representation of our society in a broader sense. This type of narrow representation of women influences both our men and women to a negative think process and consequently, it becomes harmful to our society.

Portrayal in advertising Another way media represents women is through advertising, which often goes beyond the main purpose. Women are presented in many different forms in advertisements. But they can be divided into certain categories. One category of ads are such, were women are just used for attraction of the mass audience. They are used to get these people to watch the ads and also to buy the advertised products. In these kinds of ads, the role of women is of no use but for mere attention-seeking. Another category of women representation is where women are presented in saris, taking care of children and homes and waiting for their husbands to come home from office, just like the way Bengali film and drama represent women. This is considered the ideal

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role of women. These types of ads face a lot of criticism from the feminist organizations, but they still remain. However, even in the ads where women are shown as working, their main priority seems to be their home and how they balance work and home. Representation of women through advertising is more of a myth than based on our reality. Often attention goes to the women rather than the product they are holding. There is also a sensual appeal from women models which is often not necessary to promote the product. It can be said that the overall image of portraying women through advertisement is to sell the women models in order to promote the goods and services. In the midst of improper portrayal of women in media, there is also a welcoming change in womens role in advertising and it is hoped that more ads, where women are portrayed as independent personalities capable of taking care of themselves, will be produced. There are some ads where women are shown as working women. These types of ads show that the thought process has slightly changed the viewpoint on the role of women. A Banglalink advertisement, where a young girl was a journalist is a good example of such a change [3].

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Conclusion The stereotypical representation of women in electronic media leads to women in society to think that this is life and they may come to accept this as the way things are. But this is not the actual state of women in Bangladesh, at least not in urban areas. Now a days women are becoming more self conscious and carrier-oriented. Women are not born only to cook and they should not be shown as commodities in the film, drama, or in any kind of advertisement. Women have proven themselves in every field of communication. They play different roles including homemaker, caregiver, sister, pilot, journalist, doctor, photographer, reporter, film maker, artist and many more. But sadly those great stories often left out from the media and media portrays women as victims, weak, and sympathetic way as if women are existed due to the kindness from the society. Womens role in film and drama often portrays in a skewed way and force us to think in certain ways. Moreover, to evaluate the position of a women in our society, we have to be very concerned how media indicates the women, how the media present a women, how the women think to develop themselves. Women are half of our society, but often they are overlooked and their contributions are underestimated both in media and in society. As media plays a big role shaping the society and culture, any misrepresentation women will have a

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negative impact in any society.

References
[1]http://worldsavvy.org/monitor/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=602&Itemid=1049 [2] part-2/ [3] http://safeen.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/representation-of-women-inmedia-part-1/#more-170 http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/essays/progressive.asp http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1138946/Hollywood-portrayswomen-image-obsessed-man-mad-idiots-says-British-academic.html http://www.iran-bulletin.org/art/CINEMA2.html http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/ http://safeen.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/portrayal-of-women-in-media-

CMN203: Mass Communication

The Era of Mass Society and Scientific Perspective

The Era of Mass society The era of mass society emerged as mass media flourished during the mid of 19 th century and the first decades of the 20th century. During this time, various forms of mass media, newspaper and magazine circulation, movies, radio all came to prominence and had an overwhelming effect on the people. The era was a time of change with an increase in the crime rates, social and political unrests. Leaders of cultural, political, educational and religious societies blamed mass media for pertaining to lower tastes, limited reading and language abilities by providing sensationalistic content. It was heavily believed that the media needs to be controlled to protect traditional values. As a result, mass society theory was

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formed.

Mass society theory Mass society theory argues that media corrupts the influences who undermine the social order and that average people are defenceless against their influence. Here, average people were meant to those who did not hold the same tastes and values as the mass society theorists who considered themselves to be superior to these average people. An example of the mass society theory could be looked in the overwhelming power of the mass media through the Nazis actions during the world war with their use of heavy propaganda in mass media. The assumptions of the mass media theory are also expressed through magic bullet theory, also known as hypodermic needle theory. The symbolism in the theory refers to the effect of media as a dangerous drug or a killing force that directly and immediately penetrates a persons mind. Although mass media does have a greater influence on people, the effects are often good ones. People also make consumption choices and often interpret in personally important ways. Therefore, no single theory could cover all the various effects mass media has and thus the mass society theory collapsed eventually.

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CMN203: Mass Communication

The Era of Scientific Perspective The 1938 Halloween eve CBS radio broadcast of Orson Welles War of the Worlds often is marked as the beginning of scientific perspective on mass communication by many media researchers. A story about Earth came under deadly Martian attack, presented realistically in a documentary style, frightened many people to flee from home in panic and hide in the hills from aliens. Many elite media critic used this incident as the proof or validity of the mass society theory, having the power to send people to hide in the hills from aliens. However, prominent sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld argued that a mere speculation about the impact of media was insufficient to explain the complex interactions that mass communication comprised. Instead valuable knowledge is more likely to be produced through sophisticated studies of media and audiences. Thus Limited Effect Theories emerged through putting together the systematic and scientific studies of media effects on people and society. Limited Effect Theories Researches were able to identify characteristics of individuals and societies that led people to become influenced by media. Such were individual differences (e.g.

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intelligence and education), social categories (religious and political affiliation), and personal relationships (such as friends and family). These characteristics would influence a person on his or her perception or media or intake of the media contents. Two-Step Flow Theory penned by Lazarsfeld is also emerged during the scientific era and is an example of a limited effects theory. He described that media influence on peoples behaviour was limited to opinion leaders, who are the initial consumes of certain media content, interprets by fusing it with their own values and beliefs and then pass it to opinion followers, who has less contact with media. His theory was rethought in later years. For example, television which was virtually unavailable in Lazarsfelds time; as it emerged gave a greater chance of access to everyone and to consume media content firsthand. Through the emergence of television, the opinion leader though still exist, however, their centrality to the mass communication has eventually diminished.

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