MEDIA:
Midwife for an Inclusive
Society
By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA (IPS) -
Changing society to
bring about greater
respect for diversity
requires the
participation of the
mainstream press,
despite the combination
of alternative media and
the various forums,
blogs and networks on
the Internet that
promote a more
democratic flow of
information.
"The challenge is to see
how we can achieve that
and combine all the
possible ways of
communicating," Mexican
journalist Sara Lovera,
founder of the Mexican
women’s news agency
CIMAC and now a
correspondent in Mexico
for the Women’s Feature
Service for Latin
America and the
Caribbean (SEMlac), told
IPS.
SEMlac emerged 30 years
ago as a project of the
Inter Press Service (IPS)
news agency and the
United Nations
Educational, Scientific
and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO).
Its story was presented
at the Eighth
Iberoamerican Meeting on
Gender and
Communication, held in
Havana this week.
While the agency has
achieved a strong
presence in networks,
blogs and Internet
portals, CIMAC’s
experience shows that it
is possible to get the
press to republish
material from agencies
like these, which
promote a different
angle on the news,
including a gender
perspective.
Incorporating a gender
perspective in the media
means more than
addressing women’s
issues. Its intention is
to give both women and
men their rightful
place, and broaden
participation to include
the entire spectrum of
social groups and
experiences that coexist
in today’s world.
Thus, indigenous, black
and mixed-race
populations, poor
communities, sexual
minorities and the
immense diversity of
human groups and
characteristics should
be reflected in the
media, not only as the
subjects of their
stories but,
increasingly, as
influential voices in a
world which must become
ever more inclusive.
"We need to foment the
construction of
narratives and images
that are plural, in
which the voices tell
their own stories from
the perspective of their
different realities, and
which allow active
participation in social
debates, which some
people claim are
cultural debates," Cuban
journalist Isabel Moya
told IPS.
Moya, the head of the
department of Gender and
Communication at the
"José Martí"
International Institute
of Journalism, in
Havana, stated that such
active participation in
social debates "would
encourage the
implementation of
inclusive public
policies."
"It’s not just about
isolated messages
supporting this measure
or that, but about
reorganising the way we
manage text, in order to
potentiate cultural
heterogeneity and
encourage changes at the
inner, subjective level,
which are much harder to
achieve than the
approval of a law in
parliament," she said.
She said this project
would have
"ever-changing
boundaries, but
essentially would mean
moving on from
‘politically correct’
discourse to truly
inclusive cultural
practices."
Among existing
experiences the project
can build on, Moya
mentioned the
alternative press,
community networks and
media, communication
observatories,
self-regulation on the
basis of professional
ethics, and reshaping
journalistic ideologies
and concepts of news
value.
Another need is to
restructure curricula at
university
communications
departments, which do
not usually include the
gender dimension and
tend to encourage ideas
about journalism that
have either been
overtaken by events, or
are a repetition of the
concepts promoted by the
centres of power.
The meeting, which was
held Tuesday to
Thursday, 16 years after
the first of its kind,
was organised by the
Cuban Union of
Journalists, the
Federation of Cuban
Women and the Cuban
Association of Social
Communicators. This year
it was also supported by
the non-governmental
Martin Luther King Jr.
Memorial Centre (CMLK),
a Cuban ecumenical
organisation.
The debates focused on
the contradiction
between objectivity and
subjectivity in
journalism, social
responsibility in the
media, the reproduction
of sexist and
discriminatory
stereotypes, and the
need to promote change,
not only in journalistic
products but also in
copy for entertainment
and advertising.
Representations of black
and lesbian women in the
Cuban media, as well as
images of men and their
influence on the
construction of
masculine hegemony,
gender violence and the
culture of peace were
also on the agenda.
"In Cuba, racism is
talked about more now,
but in the media the
situation has hardly
changed. They have not
managed to rise above
its historical
determinants, and black
people continue to be
portrayed as slaves but
not as professionals,"
Sandra Álvarez, creator
of the blog "Negra
cubana tenía que ser"
(roughly: Bound to be a
black Cuban woman), told
IPS.
"There are hardly any
black radio or
television presenters,
and when there are, a
kind of whitening
process occurs, the
colour tones on the
screen change so that
the image projected
becomes increasingly
less black and appears
lighter," said Álvarez,
adding that this also
happens on educational
television channels.
The situation for
lesbian women is
similar, according to a
presentation by Norma
Guillard, who
coordinates a lesbian
group at the state
National Centre for Sex
Education. Relationships
between women are not
usually covered by the
media, and when they are
the presentation is
biased, or may even be
censored.
In Moya’s view, "androcentric
ideology resists being
replaced completely by
equitable relationships,
and in hidden, disguised
and unconscious ways it
remains in the
subjective selves of
communicators, in
professional ideology,
production routines,
interpretations of news
policies and
decision-making in the
media."
"When people
underestimate the
importance of gender and
communication debates, I
always tell them that
gender is a political
issue because it’s about
human rights. The aim is
to achieve a fair
representation of all
voices in the media,
women’s as well as
men’s," she said.
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