Mass media business - is an industry dominated by conglomerates of white men. It is scarcely obvious from what we see on TV , what we read in the newspapers and even from what we hear on the radio. According to Mike Honda’s article in the “Asian Week” editorial, today’s newsrooms reflect how non diverse our nation’s media is – Native American, Asian American, Latino American, African American or other – comprising only 13.4% of total payrolls. The absence of minorities is especially noticeable within the newspaper industry, with nearly 460 newspapers nationwide employing no minorities at all. Although, when the stories concerning minorities do appear in the news, nearly 50 percent of them focus on crime and drugs. The situation even worse when we touch upon LGBT minorities representing in the media. We rarely can see gay or lesbian representing their group on major television networks.
Today, we can notice slow development of an alternative Media. Independent TV channels, radio stations, blogs, social media and,of course, independent film and movie festivals make incredible contribution in order to represent those who are underrepresented. Why do we care? We care, because we rely on media in order to be informed, but the lack of diversity influences reporting, programing choices and the content of what we see or hear. Unfortunately, when media companies grow into huge monopolies, smaller media companies are often bought up, the range of voices is changed to one voice, therefore we lose representation of minor communities.
There have been numerous articles written in the past year about both the continued lack of women working behind-the-scenes in the film industry and the gross misrepresentation of women in films. In fact, the film business in the United States is often regarded as the most visible industry-wide bastion of discrimination against women. According to recent Directors Guild of America statistics, 95 percent of feature films are directed by men, and just 5 percent by women. Also consider that in the 83-year history of the Academy Awards, only four women have been nominated as best director and only one woman has ever won. In “Why do we need a Women's Film Festival?” by the women’s freedom center, filmmaker Kim Cummings stated, "When women work behind-the-scenes, the number of on-screen women increases ... (this) means more diversity in women depicted. I want my daughter to see herself reflected on screen, to see roles to aspire to ... I want my son to see women as more than eye candy." (Cummings).
When concentrating on the type of media such as film, it is necessary to know who is making the film and who is the audience. This way we can have better understanding of central ideas of the film and can identify with the characters more closer. In “Making Movie Magic”, Bell Hooks points out the importance of movies produced by women and stated, ”Movies do not merely offer us the opportunity to reimagine the culture we most intimately know on the screen, they make culture” (Hooks 9). However, many films produced by female directors are often dismissed by the film critics, who don’t even see what the filmmaker was trying to show the audience. In “Women Make Movies”, Debra Zimmerman noted, “I think that’s the biggest problem that women film and videomakers have right now: When they go through all the struggle to make films that really represent their vision, they are not received by the general public” (Zimmerman 263). Fortunately, there are several films produced by female directors that made their appearance on the big screen recently. It is necessary to mention “Frida” by Julie Taymor, a winner of two Academy Awards, “Cleo” and “Vagabond” by Agnès Varda, “Wanda” - Directed by Barbara Loden - perfect examples of a film directed by a woman.
http://youtu.be/06u-a5jmi6o (Short clip from the film)
It is true that most independent films produced by women do not even make to our TV sets. Many of them likely to be screened during the movie festivals, but even there not every filmmaker is comfortable with showing their work. Debra Zimmerman suggests that “Festivals and distributors have the most difficult relationship with women filmmakers”, and explaines “Just look at lesbian filmmakers who won’t have their film shown in lesbian and gay film festivals because they’re afraid of having their films ghettoized: the same thing happens with women filmmakers not having their film shown in women film festivals” (Zimmerman 263).
So how we can promote development of women and minority friendly media? To my opinion, one of the answers is to help preparing our minority youth for careers in the media industry. I was happy to find out that there are foundations and organizations that specifically focus on minority youth. The Emma L. Bowen Foundation, for example, offers a great program that helps prepare minority youth for careers in the media industry. The main issue foundation was created to address was the lack of diversity in the media industry. The vision of the founder was to help promote more positive portrayals of minorities in society by encouraging more diversity in the media workforce itself. By doing so, this foundation not only helping minority youth to enter the field of Media, but also urges them to voice their views and opinions, regardless where they going to end up in the future. I believe, with this type of preparation this youngsters will be ready to contribute in developing of both alternative and the mainstream media.
Additional video links on Women in Media:
http://youtu.be/ZXMu2Gr66IU (Part 1)
http://youtu.be/qU8oZ6Loz-s (Part 2)
http://youtu.be/mP5G-gWXKAE (Part 3)
http://youtu.be/TbEi-OFoTEo (Part 4)
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