Download issue (PDF) - Nieman Foundation - Harvard University

Women: International
A Mapuche woman from the south of
Chile. Media often overlook this minority
population’s way of life and thinking,
even while Mapuches fight for their
rights. El Sábado/El Mercurio.
At times, however, they’ve put such
issues on the news agenda but the
newsroom—with its male editors—has
failed to listen. If these issues are not
considered part of the “big news” going
on, then social issues, per se, seem
to be of no interest. Furthermore, they
do not sell. But what these editors and
media owners miss is that credibility
sells by itself.
Last year, Chilean First Lady Luisa
Durán de Lagos launched a campaign
called “Give a woman her smile back.”
She raised funds to pay for dental treatment
that would make poor women
who had lost teeth not only smile again
but feel capable of asking for a job
without being ashamed of themselves,
act with personality before her husband
and children, eat normally, and
stand up with dignity. But most of all,
Durán asked the media to contribute
to this campaign. Of course, it became
a 10th priority issue except for women
reporters, who did their best to publicize
the issue when given extra space
or asked to “fill.” Only one broadcast
story showed images of the first women
who underwent the treatment, talking
about the complete change that had
taken place in their lives.
Recently, I was in a southern fishing
town doing a story on a craftsman who
builds marvelous violins from a native
Chilean wood called “alerce” (the larch
tree). While I talked with his toothless
wife, I said to myself: “I won’t write the
story until I get her teeth back. I’ll drive
everybody nuts, but his violins and her
smile are the same thing to me.”
By assuming top positions, women
journalists can create the possibility
for positive steps forward for others. In
Chile, we are getting there. Feature
story magazines are edited by women,
and many radio broadcasts are run by
women. The main TV broadcast news
hour has a woman editor. But the other
four TV broadcasts do not, and there
are no women running newspapers or
newsmagazines. Only three women sit
on boards of the two big media companies.
Even when we feel we are almost
there, most of the time our issues are
still left out. And what women face
when we get to high positions is the
challenge of either fighting for a change
in the priorities of the news agenda or
gradually yielding to our bosses, who
in turn yield to political and economic
pressures that won’t easily accept anybody
changing the order of things.
Women with independent points of
view who work inside big media companies
and who want to work with
their colleagues and bosses to prepare
the way for new topics, pluralism and
diversity, usually fail. We are either
moved to another position or a new
boss is placed above us, and our power
is diminished. Chile, for example, is
the only country that does not have a
divorce law. Our media—conservative
and reactionary—allows discussion of
this in some sections focused on women
or family (usually written by women),
but the lead “news” article, usually
written by men, will always be against.
Women in independent media, however,
usually do succeed in their efforts
to favor pluralism and diversity and
place social issues on the front page.
Chilean Internet newspaper El
Mostrador, run by a woman editor, has
become a hit in breaking news. Its
headlines and very good reporting have
been considered the standard of several
Chilean news media for more than
two years now. Yet, the lack of advertisement
on the net hurts the paper so
it is not clear how long it will survive.
What worries me—and ought to
worry others—is that independent
media are disappearing everywhere.
We either fight for their survival, or we
will need to work out a new agenda
from inside the core of big media companies.
We won’t be alone in this because
public opinion badly needs more
information on these hidden issues.
Following September 11, nothing will
be the same. People need and want to
know more, to dig in and understand
the reasons behind the facts.
Thus, women journalists have a
chance now. Editors will turn to us. As
women, we know and have experienced
discrimination. We understand
minorities. We wake up every day intertwining
emotions and human relationships,
trying to understand others
and to work things out from the point
of view of those who are affected. And
we go to sleep at night thinking about
steps we have walked either towards or
away from our mission. We have been
waiting too long to speak up, for ourselves
and for others. We have to take
the chance that is now presented to us
and go for it. ■
Veronica Lopez, a 1997 Nieman
Fellow, founded and was the editor
of several magazines in Chile (Cosas,
Caras, El Sábado de El Mercurio,
among others) and in Colombia
(Semana). She has taught journalism
at several universities. She
serves on the board of the International
Women’s Media Foundation
and of Chile 21 Foundation. At
present, she is studying the launching
of new independent magazines.
vlopez@netline.cl
102 Nieman Reports / Winter 2001