Go to the front page of The Guelph Mercury, The Globe

and. Mail, The New York Times.-

Look at any major newspaper. And count. Count the number of times that women are the subject of sto- ries. Count the number of times their names are mentioned. Count the number of times they appear in photographs.

And then go back and count the number of times that men’s names and faces appear.

What you will find is that women appear in only 13% of the lead stories, accord-

For example, early last year, the American media feasted on Gennifer Flower’s disclosure of her 12 year affair with President-elect Bill Clinton. 300 different news sources attended a Star press con- ference that introduced Flower’s story to the public. Many of those in attendance were from the main- stream press, not the tabloids.

In contrast, stories that deal with women’s achievements are of- tennotcovered by the popular press or placed underneath Dear Abby. For example, when a group of more

ing to arecentstudy by the University of Southem Califor- nia. If you check the Sports section,

you will find that ©. DAVID CLARK, Chairman and Publisher ”

WILLIAM THORSELL, Editor-in-chiel WILLIAM GREENHALGH, President out of 100 sports Jorn Managing Editor _-Proprietor—The Globe and Mail Division ; . MARGARET WENTE, Editor, Report on Business of Thomson Newspapers Company Limited stories, 7 are about EDWARD GREENSPON, Deputy Managing Editor 444 Front SLW., Toronto MSV 259 women. Although Cn Cae. Cay eee eat eT or

they make up more than half of the

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

CANADA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER

The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures. JUNIUS

Thursday, January 7, 1993

population, women are virtually absent from the front pages of our nation’s newspapers.

Can the absence of women in the news be simply explained by the uneven distribution of women and men in our society’ s positions of power? Are there no women out there worth more than a token men- tion now and again? Are wornen doing nothing worthy of recogni- tion?

Ironically, when their stories do make the front page, women often grab the headlines because of their connection to powerful men.

Would a more appropriate name beTHE GLOBE AND MALE?

than 800 women won the largest sex-discrimination court award in U.S. history in April 1992, most newspapers paid little more than cursory attention to this historical moment. The Edmonton Journal, a highly respected newspaper, Cov- ered the story in a 50 word blurb. Who decides whether it is Flower’s story that makes the front page orthe sex-discrimination case? Who decides how much attention a story deserves? Whois in control of the nation’s news rooms? Who makes the editorial board decisions?

If you guessed men, you'd be right. Four years ago, Southam (one of Canada’s major media conglom- erates) organized a task force that found only six of Southam’s 120 senior executives were women. In 1992, the number had risen to a mere eight out of 120. In Canada’s _ broadcast media, women occupy

15 per cent of the positions in the

public sector (CBC and educational: networks), but in the private sector this number dwindles to a meager one per cent of the positions. Because they control most of the editorial power, men define the news in Canada. Not only do they decide which stories to place on the

first page, but they also define which

stories are “newsworthy” and how they should be reported. Unfortu- nately, their choices reinforce the male-dominated, conservative agenda that controls Canadian me- dia, and the results are often insult- ing and harmful to women.

For example, a nation-wide © Canadian Press story was circulated to national newspapers on the De- cember 1991 acquittal of Queen’s University student, Robert VanOostrom. VanOostrom was charged with sexually assaulting three Kingston women. In the story, the reporterclaims that VanOostrom was “chased from the courthouse” by a “mob” of feminists from — Queen’s, “a hotbed of radical femi- nism.” Not only does the reporter not bother to inform his readers how many women he considers to be mob, but his use of loaded de- scriptive words like “mob” and

The above story is taken directly from the University of Guelph's Peak.

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