Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Differing diversitiesWomen and mediaFeminist research on the media has its own agenda, but sidelights have also beenshed on the cultural diversity issue. Conclusions are mixed on the possibility ofovercoming some known media cultural deficits. It still seems that the traditional“mainstream” media and news journalism especially, remain dominated by menand “male” concerns, as conventionally understood (business, formal politics,football, etc.). However the situation is said to have improved compared to twentyyears earlier and there is more diversity of representation of women in content.Although the employment of women in media professions is increasing, it is stilldifficult for women to have much influence within the various professions. 1However, policies of some public broadcasting organisations have favoured theadvancement of women.On the other hand, women are gaining more influence because of their audiencepower and their role as principal controllers of household purchasing decisions(which matters to advertisers). There is also evidence of widespread gendering ofcertain television genres and of “feminisation” of newspaper content (Neveu,1997). Certain sectors of the publishing industry (for example, magazines, romanticfiction) as well as of television (for example, day-time television) continue toregard women as their chief market and pay attention to their views and needs(Zoonen, 1995). According to Zoonen, the new genres and formats mentionedabove open up new possibilities for female journalists and allow more space forfeminine subjectivity. There are already high hopes that the Internet will open upmany opportunities for women to communicate and inter-communicate, despiteinitial male bias in adoption of computer-based technology.Public service broadcasting as agent of diversityPublic broadcasting has played a key part, as noted above, in maintaining andextending cultural diversity for all kinds of minority interests and tastes (Raboyand Atkinson, 1997). However, research has shown not only an overall decline inaudiences for public broadcasting, and therefore reduced cultural influence, butalso the adoption of competitive strategies which relegate cultural goals and programmingto inconvenient hours. There is less room and money for pursuing variouscultural goals.Media ethics in EuropeOne of the minor items in the European policy discussion has been a discussion ofthe possibility for a European “code of journalistic ethics” that could be adoptedmore widely by European media to strengthen quality and accountability. Thiscould have an important bearing on some diversity issues. Laitila (1995) hasexamined the ethical codes of thirty-one European codes and found enough similarityto make this a feasible project, given policy support.__________1. See Zoonen, 1994; Gallagher, 1995; Baehr, 1995; European Commission, 1999.82