Gender mainstreaming as an essential part of journalism education in India
The present paper posits relevance of gender mainstreaming (GM) in journalism education, which can redress rising gender discrimination, violence, and gap in media ethics, professionalism and journalistic practices. Reasons are embedded in the structural, spatial and temporal aspects of the media pr...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Lomonosov Moscow State University. Faculty of Journalism
2020-09-01
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| Series: | World of Media |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://worldofmedia.ru/volumes/2020/2020_Issue_3/World%20of%20Media_3-2020%20(1)-5-33.pdf |
| Summary: | The present paper posits relevance of gender mainstreaming (GM) in journalism education, which can redress rising gender discrimination, violence, and gap in media ethics, professionalism and journalistic practices. Reasons are embedded in the structural, spatial and temporal aspects of the media profession, especially in the digital media content and practice. Gender mainstreaming framework (UNESCO/ UNITWIN, 2018) has been used in this paper to explore the progress in gender mainstreaming in journalism education in India. The findings are based on a survey of 34 Journalism schools of public and private universities in India for an exploration of pedagogical and transactional practices in gender mainstreaming. Findings suggest that epistemological and ontological perspectives in teaching and research programmes fall short of a consistent gendered approach and are universally sporadic. Any conscious agreement on ‘gender mainstreaming’ is either restricted to a ‘topic’ or a paper and offers limited scope of influence on changes in the interpretation of content, gender sensitive pedagogical perspective or diversity of issues in research. The position of faculty on gender mainstreaming does not actually show a deep gender polarization, but such feelings essentially could not change the orientation of the curriculum of the course, their delivery and professional standards. If enrolment of female students in journalism, as part of higher education, has shown a significant rise, yet their entry in the media industry has not dented the status quo of discrimination, or stopped women from deserting the profession mid-way. Mapping of gender mainstreaming in journalism education holds the promise of ushering in affirmative policies and actions in changing the media discourse pertaining to exploitation, disempowerment and marginalisation of women. |
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| ISSN: | 2307-1605 2686-8016 |