Women, Democracy and The MediaBy Sonia BathlaSagePages:209Price:Rs 195That India suffers from a higher-caste patriarchal culture is not news. But the fact that the media contributes to sustaining this social order - by defining women's issues as ultimately irrelevant to the working of our unwieldy democracy - is a disappointing realisation. We do always hope the press will impersonate democracy's conscience. We should obviously know better.Sonia Bathla's empirical study of gender representation in media attempts to find deep socio-cultural explanations for numerical data. Establishing the integral connections between democracy and the media and demarcating a space for women within this public sphere, she draws to our notice the fallacious nature of a popular impression: that the press has played an important role in highlighting gender issues like violence and rape. In fact, Bathla contends rather convincingly, the national press has actively contributed towards perpetuating patriarchal cultural and political practices by "silencing" the women's movement and making its various concerns "invisible".Through "content analyses" of news reports filtered through interviews with journalists and activists, Bathla examines the treatment of women's issues. While her research methodology uses feminism as a frame, she continuously clarifies distinctions between western and Indian contexts. In an ultimate exposition of this distinction, she offers a Gramsci-inspired "Indian cultural paradigm" of "Brahminical hegemony" to explain the subordination of women.The scope of the study is somewhat limited by its consideration of the English language press alone. Even so, Bathla succeeds in sowing seeds of persistent discontent regarding gender representation in the media. But then eternal seasons of discontent are what democracies (and the media?) are all about..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 16, 1998--- ENDS ---
