Gender stereotypes in Georgian media

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Date
2021-06
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Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi state university, Faculty of social and political sciences
Abstract
This research analyzes the challenges in Georgian media (TV, radio, print and online) from gender equality perspective and answers the questions as it follows: How to change dominant gender-related stereotypes in news organizations? how to reduce gender-related stereotypes in news coverage? How to cover domestic violence and femicide in ethical and ecological way? To answer the following questions qualitative research has been conducted in 2021. Using grounded analysis as strategy, mixed/hybrid methods for coding have been used and included both - deductive and inductive approaches. The data have been collected from focus-groups (N=4) and all participants (N=25) were chosen from media organizations. The media pool consisted of prominent journalists and talk-show/news presenters, top and middle ranked managers (editors, producers). Qualitative data corpus for analysis consisted of transcripts and notes (including body-language and tone remarks, changes of ideas and interesting points). Content has been clarified, classified and synthesized into the main topics and sub- categories. Analysis is based on comparison of the information obtained from both single discussion group and between different ones and suggests the ways for empowering female journalists and reframing existing gender-related stereotypes in media organizations; as well as adjusting covering of domestic violence and trauma reporting. The main findings are as it follows: Focus-group participants agree that perception of journalism as a profession has been changed over time, but gender-biased stereotypes still exist in the newsrooms. The challenge is establishing the ethical standards while covering gender-sensitive stories (domestic violence included) and the main reason for it remains lack of knowledge and skill-based competencies. As for combating bulling and blackmailing female journalists, groups appealed media organizations and journalists for expressing solidarity, more promptly. Groups agree that for battling dominant gender-related stereotypes, it is fundamental to create alternative discourse and narrative in media, as well as to promote discussions and diverse groups. Lack of such platforms and planning process in media is mostly caused by political agenda dominated in the newsrooms. In this regard, another challenge is gender-biased media-positioning of female politicians and business women in talk- shows and news stories, which is partly caused by stereotypical self-representation of female respondents.
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Keywords
Media, gender stereotypes, domestic violence, Georgia
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