The Media Foundation Which Runs The Hoot Has Published:Women in Journalism Makin

BY Ammu Joseph| IN Media Practice | 11/04/2002
The Media Foundation Which Runs The Hoot Has Published:Women in Journalism Making News

The Media Foundation Which Runs The Hoot Has Published:Women in Journalism Making News

WRITTEN BY AMMU JOSEPH


The Book


The last decade of the millennium has been an eventful one for the media in India. The spurt in the number and visibility of Indian media women is but one of several significant developments here during this period. However, it is an interesting and complex phenomenon which deserves closer scrutiny than it has received so far.

"Women in Journalism: Making News" provides an overview of the situation, experiences and perspectives of women working as journalists in different parts of the country, in the English as well as Indian language press, at various levels in the editorial hierarchy, and in different branches of journalism.

Based primarily on the responses of more than 200 women to a wide range of questions, the book explores the world of journalism in India through the eyes of women situated at different vantage points in the profession. It examines where female media professionals are currently placed in the print media, what they are and are not doing, why they think this is the case, what they feel about the situation, and how they view the profession as a whole as well as their own role in it.

The introductory chapter brings together available information on the number of women in the field and on the history of women’s involvement in the press. It also highlights some of the issues confronting women in the media here and elsewhere. Subsequent chapters present the often diverse experiences and views of female journalists with respect to the impact of gender on their professional lives.

Among the issues discussed are: recruitment and remuneration, assignments and beats, night work, promotions, colleagues and sources of news/information, families, generational changes, and professional networks. The impact of social and cultural factors on women’s experiences in journalism are also explored, as are women’s perspectives on recent developments in the media.

The book will be of interest and use to a wide range of readers, including journalists, media owners and managers, students and teachers of journalism, media studies and gender studies, as well as the general public in the role of media consumers/watchers.


The Author
Ammu Joseph is a freelance journalist and media researcher/analyst now based in Bangalore. She co-authored and edited "Whose News? The Media and Women’s Issues" (Sage, 1994). She began her career in Bombay with Eve’s Weekly (1977-81); she was editor of the Sunday magazine of The Indian Post, Bombay (1986-88) before opting to freelance (1988 to date). For four years in the 1980s she was also visiting lecturer in journalism at the Sophia College Polytechnic, Bombay. She was a founder-member of the Women and Media Group, Bombay. In addition to writing articles for various publications, primarily on issues relating to women, children and the media, and a column for children in The Hindu’s Young World on current social and ethical issues, she has contributed chapters – on subjects ranging from child labour to gender and the media – for a number of books. She has degrees in English Literature (Madras