WOMEN AND MEDIA

As said by Swami Vivekananda, there is no chance of the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on one wing. But then also women have been fighting for the right to be equal members of society for centuries. In the past women were treated as second class citizens and didn’t have the same rights as men did. Women later lead a movement to change these ways. Although some drastic changes did come about from these movements, equality wasn’t fully attained. In this day and age, equality between men and women still hasn’t been achieved and the media is to blame for that. For decades, the media has dominated society’s views and perspectives of others. Due to recent media, it has been difficult to regulate how women are being influenced and treated by other people in society. The media influences society tremendously and subconsciously steers the way we treat and think of others. Advertisements, television shows, movies, the internet, magazines and other forms of the media have all targeted women in a very erroneous manner. Women are still being highly misrepresented and misunderstood through media all over the world. Increasingly, real women are being under represented, misrepresented, sexualized, discriminated, stereotyped and in many cases violence and abuse against women has also been glamorized.
In today's society, advertising has a profound impact on how people understand life, the world and themselves, especially in regard to their values and their ways of choosing and behaving. Women are being used excessively in the advertisements. And nowadays media advertisements have enhanced glamour through attractive presentation of women in advertisements. Women are being used as decorative and entertaining element. A woman's bodily charm is used to promote ads concerning physical fitness products, cosmetics and those that add to appearance of the body. Young female models are treated by the advertisers as the important components in the advertisements. Women are the main target for many advertisements and are used in many forms of advertising. The media has historically used propaganda to define who women are and what they should be.
By and large the media scene in India is that media does not address serious issues about exploitation and in equal treatment to women in different spheres but is keen in reporting sex related incidents by way of sensationalizing news of atrocities on women. Thus instead of highlighting the exploitation of woman they end up becoming one of the reasons in increase of violence as their coverage more often than not tend to glorify the crime against women. It is true that media has brought to light, as never before, certain misdemeanors against women but in a very subtle manner it also perpetuated the stereotyped image of woman as a householder and an inconsequential entity in the traditional value system. Generally, women’s problems never figure on the front page of a newspaper unless it is a gruesome murder or a case of rape. Newspapers even on women’s page do not usually address relevant issues for women empowerment but reporting is concerned with beauty tips recipes, fashion syndrome, etc.
One of the reasons of discriminatory images of women in media is the fact that media products, as a rule, are created by men, in men’s tastes and for men. More women are involved in careers in the communications sector, but few have attained positions at the decision-making level or serve on governing boards and bodies that influence media policy. The lack of gender sensitivity in the media is evidenced by the failure to eliminate the gender-based stereotyping that can be found in public and private local, national and international media organizations.