1. Gender in Communication in
Social Institutions: Media
Chantal Wood
December 10, 2012
CMS498
Maureen Ebben

2. Media is Always Changing
 Television shows, magazines, celebrities, fashion, etc. is
always changing.
 Years from now, celebrities that are famous now may
not be.
THEN & NOW

3. Media is Contradiction
 “Popular culture and its
media of transmission
present “inescapable
levels of contradiction”.
(Gauntlett, 2002, p. 255)
• Gender contradiction is
apparent in movies such
as Mulan, where she is a
woman who wants to be
a warrior.

4. Media is too Complex
 There are multiple forms of mass media that shape our
society such as television, internet, magazines, books,
music, etc.

5. Media as a Social Institution
 Institutions are a support system for individuals.
• Media is the newest form of a social institution.
• Anything from Facebook, Twitter, match.com, online chat
rooms, etc. can be considered social institutions for
people to be members in a group.

6. Media Economics
 With media as a social  There are also websites
institution, there is a that increase consumer
focus on media demand such as Ebay,
economics and its Amazon, Pintrest,
content. Wanelo, etc.
 There are a great deal of  These websites are
commercials that sell updated to the latest
their economic medium. fashions, music, etc. and
 Example: allow people to feel the
need to buy.
Commercial

7. Media Economics Continued
 Television shows mainly  Example: In the television
aim to viewers who have show, Gossip Girl, the
money. main characters all have
 Most television shows money, wear designer
have main characters that clothes, attend Ivy
have money and power. League colleges, and
You rarely ever see a shop in Paris.
show based on a poor Gossip Girl Episode
person.

8. Media and Power
 “Institutions are organized in accord with and permeated by power.” (p. 238)
 Media influences social norms and the way people identify themselves and
provide what it is like to be feminine or masculine.
 Beauty products, fashion, etc. are always changing and making people
believe they need the new and improved things.

9. Media and Power in Films
 There is also power
shown in films such
as V for Vendetta,
The Godfather, and
Schindler's List.

10. Media and Hegemony
 Media and hegemony is the way people perceive and evaluate
social reality.
 “It must be maintained, repeated, reinforced, and modified in order
to respond to and overcome the forms that oppose it.” (p. 239)
 With the hegemonic understandings, gender is viewed as women
acting like women and men acting like men.
VS

11. Opposite of Gender Hegemony in the
Media
 In Alias, Jennifer Garner plays a woman who is a double agent that
fights against men and knows how to carry a gun. She uses aliases
to complete her tough missions.

12. Media Polyvance and Oppositional
Readings
 Every person may interpret media differently than others.
 Although males and females may get different interpretations of
media, for the most part, there are some similarities.
 The similarities reveal things about gender, identity, etc.
 We believe that women should wear heels and men should wear
suits.

13. Interlocking Institutions
 From all institutions, media is the most interconnected.
 People learn what a family is, what school is, what being
a teenager is, what work is, etc.
 People learn from the mediated messages that filter
through their heads and give them a sense of self and
identity.

14. Differences Among Women
 In television shows and  In the second Youtube
films, women can either commercial, Rihanna is
be looked at as the stay- wearing barely any
at-home mother or the clothes and clearly the
sex symbol. sex symbol. She is
 In the first Youtube wearing Armani Jeans,
commercial, the woman representing that women
brings her kids to hockey will feel and be sexy
in the “mom van”. wearing these.
 Example: Hockey Mom  Example: Armani Jeans

15. Differences Among Women Continued
 “Although all women may be held to beauty standards,
the standards is not the same for all women.” (p. 242)
 In different cultures, women may be viewed differently.
What is beautiful to one person, may not be beautiful to
another person.

16. Similarities Between Women and Men
 With the media, there will
always be body image
pressures and the pressure to
look beautiful or handsome.
 Women target other women to
look skinny and beautiful while
men target other men to look
fit and buff.
 People often forget that what
we see on a magazine has
been digitally altered or fixed
so that person on the cover
looks great.

17. Similarities Continued
This is an example of
Lebron walking around
like he is the “man”.
Everyone knows him,
he’s a great dad, has a
great job, he is the
alpha male.
Lebron Commercial
 Men strive to be the alpha male, the all-star male or the
breadwinner.
 Women strive to be the “it” girl, the beautiful, skinny woman who
gets the man.

18. Media Content & Media Effects
 “Media content analyses imply that because media has particular
content, a particular effect follows.” (p. 244)
 The way people view television, the way they see women, the way
children see violence, etc.
 When children watch television and are involved with the media,
they are provided with ideas about what the social norms are and
what is expected from each gender.
 In that case, boys play with cars and girls play with Barbies.

19. The Gaze
 The Gaze mainly focuses on  Men act and women appear or
the women and how she is the man sees what he wants
represented in films. and gets it.
 “The way the camera, the  An example would be Pretty
audience, and the male Women, where Edward sees
character (with whom all Vivian and has to hire her. At
spectators– male and female– the end of the movie, he falls
identify) look at women in love with her and ends up
reinforces the male as active getting her.
and the female as passive.” (p.
250) This goes back to the
polyvakent feelings where the
men think like the men in the
movie and the women think
like the women in the movie.
 The cinematic gaze is usually
from the male.

20. Media as Always Liberatory and
Constraining
 The first theme is gender is  The third theme is progressive
constructed and thus is always representations rescue
in flux. traditional gender norms: Mr.
 Years ago, there were never Mom and Ellen.
magazines for men. Now there  More men are becoming stay-
are GQ, Men’s Fitness, etc. for at-home fathers whether they
men. are heterosexual or
 The second theme is homosexual.
resecuring gender’s borders:  In 1997, it was the first time a
“masculinity in crisis”. homosexual person had their
 In movies now a days, it shows show on prime-time.
men using psychological or  The fourth theme is old
physical violence. The man is technologies replicate old
in crisis. gender norms.

21. Media as Always Liberatory and
Constraining Continued
 Theinternet has taken over our old gender
norms. The internet replaces and even talks
about race, sex, and gender.
With the use of chat rooms,
Facebook, Twitter, and any other
social media, the old norm of talking
face to face has disappeared by the
new technologies.

22. “The creativity and artistry involved in media creations opens spaces for
creative performances of gender– within limits.” (p. 260)
 As time goes on, the way  We now know that
we see gender is both men and women
changing.
are at times ridiculed
 When more people
in terms of gender
become engaged in the
media that they are and the way they
consuming, they can take perform it.
what they’ve learned and
apply it in unpredictable
ways.

23. References
 DeFrancisco, Victoria L., and Catherine
Helen. Palczewski. Communicating
Gender Diversity: A Critical Approach. Los
Angeles: Sage Publications, 2007. Print.
 All images from Google Images.