Women in Media Debated
Calislar said that even women journalists could not see issues outside of the male dominant viewpoint adding that often they were subject to discrimination without even noticing it.
Mater: Men always come to mind when preparing news
bianet project coordinator Nadire Mater who addressed the workshop recalled that the project was launched in 1996 with the goal of "an independent media" and that throughout the years they had acted in awareness that news reports relating to women were important. She said, however, that in the mainstream women were still not the first to be consulted as sources when it came to news reports, that men were often turned to first while women were remembered only when it came to issues such as "adultery".
Stressing that bianet itself had been in an effort to change this approach, Mater said one of the pages of bianet, namely "Women's Window" prevailed on news reporting focusing on women.
Mater said it was extremely important under which circumstances women worked in the media, situations where women were consumers, where they were subject to news reports or used as news sources and said "women are half of this life, this life is ours".
Dogan: We must distance ourselves from male expressions
Attending the discussion on behalf of Ucan Supurge, Selen Dogan explained that the group's web site was updated on a daily basis and that this work was carried out by scanning reports on women in the media.
"In this work there are days where we can't find a single news report on women" Dogan explained, saying that overcoming this problem felt like "poking a stick in a bee hive".
Dogan said it would be beneficial for alternative experiences on reporting on women to be discussed adding that it was particularly important to avoid the language used from being sexist or victimizing women.
Tanrıover: No womens news in political newspapers
Attending the meeting on behalf of the Media Monitoring Group (MEDİZ) Assc. Dr. Hulya Ugur Tanrıover said whether or not mainstream, the back page beauty concept was widely used in the media.
Stating that women rights violations could also be observed in political newspapers, Tanriover said this is how MEDIZ had surfaced as a group.
She said their goal was "to say no" to sexist news, sexist opinions, commentaries that gave no place for women, to making crimes against women magazine press items and to the sexist expression.
Yuksel: Homosexuality connotes male models
Kaos GL Editor-in-Chief Ugur Yuksel told the meeting that whenever the concept of homosexuality came up in the media, it connoted men and often male models.
Yuksel said homosexuals were perceived as "men who played with baby dolls when they were children, who were harassed, who have no children" and said that in this prejudice lesbians were treated as if they did not exist. Yuksel explained that Kaos GL targeted to fight the "heterosexual" viewpoint in the media.
Castellanos: From writing food recipes to writing war
Colombian journalist Angella Castellanos said that in the early 1990s, women in her counry entered journalism by writing food recipes.
In the period that followed, she said, women had started to cover wars, work as editors. Castellanos said they wondered the reason for this and it was explained to them that this stemmed from "women being able to establish good communications with the military".
Castellanos said women needed to be educated on reporting on women issues and added that stereotypes and clichés were still influential in reporting. "We are trying to raise awareness" she said.
Turkey is a media stereotype heaven
In the questions and answers section of the meeting, Assc. Dr. Gulgun Erdogan Tosun stressed the sensitivity shown to reporting on women in the Islamic media and said this hould not be ignored by other sections.
Bringing on the agenda the concept of Cliché, Tosun noted widely used stereotype concepts in the press against women, including "veiled, Kurdish, victim of violence, Natasha, British tourist woman and honorable."
Tanriover, meanwhile, said the media in Turkey was a "stereotype heaven" in reference to Turkish concepts that phrase, for instance, a scientist as "a man of science" or an intellect as "a man of intellect". She said that in order to change this, women had to create an almost continuous mechanism of pressure and that they should react to instances where such phrases are used.
At the end of the discussions, Nadire Mater called on the participants to extend support to bianet's "Kadinin Penceresi" (Women's Window) corner. (AO/II/YE)