‘Portrayal of women in TV,films far from reality’

“That media is today conceived as a culture industry,which manufactures and sells images of masculinity and femininity is the truth. But the image of women portrayed by the media through TV serials,pop shows and films,is not to be found in real life,” felt the speakers.

In his keynote address,Vipin Pubby,resident editor of The Indian Express,discussed the increasing representation of women in print-media who are doing a commendable job. He also set the ball rolling by raising the question that whether media,itself a watchdog,needs another watchdog to monitor it.

Ramesh Vinayak,resident editor,Hindustan Times ,in his presidential address said though women’s role in media had enhanced,yet fields like politics,sports,finance continues to be ruled by men. He also dwelled upon the skewed sex ration vis-à-vis- reporting and the desk,where there were less women reporting from the field. A presentation on the media and women interface was made by Dr Mohanmeet Khosla,where she underlined the “commodification” of women by media,both print and electronic.

Prof Jyoti Grewal,visiting professor from Dubai,who chaired the session,explained “commodification” of women through “cultural cannibalism”,whereby the culture itself at times eats up the women’s well-being. Jyoti Kamal from CNN-IBN and Dr Shruti Shourie from DAV College also shared their views during the first session.

The second technical session was chaired by Mukesh Bhardwaj,resident editor,Jansatta. Dr Archana R Singh made a presentation on women professionals in media.

A panel discussion on ‘Has Media Handled Women’s Issues with Responsibility’ was held in the last session where the panelists included Prof Manju Jaidka,Ritesh Lakhi and Chitleen Sethi.

The resource persons felt that the need of the hour was to have a gender policy,an in-house audit mechanism to audit media’s role in gender stereotyping. They also suggested that intellectuals react to such portrayals so that the media knows where it is going wrong apart from having gender sensitising seminars.