Media, Culture and Society - Assignment Example

Media, Culture and Society: Content Analysis Assignment &Research Essay Representation of Gender in the British National Newspapers, Content Analysis In the recent times, media has become the most common channel of communication all over the world. Among the media channels, newspapers deliver information regarding celebrities, models, advertisements, education and many other fields. The way the newspapers present their information to the people is a point of concern. This is due to the fact that the method of presentation has a great influence on people’s behavior, attitude and even their perception. Newspapers and magazines play a significant role in celebrity advertisement. The images and texts in these magazines have negative effects on the society as a whole. However, the newspapers are commonly ignored as a source of this negative portrayal. For this reason, this research will pay a keen look at the newspapers to carry out a content analysis of the language and images used in them. The main objective will be to explore how gender issues are presented in these newspapers as portrayed by the images and language used. In this view, issues related to both males and females will be investigated. For this research, a content analysis approach was used. This method was chosen in order to explore and examine the content of the newspapers, so as to come up with an accurate assessment of the extent to which newspapers influence the public across the world. In view of this, this study defines the British National newspapers as the study population. A sample of six highest selling newspapers were selected; three tabloids and three broadsheets. Among the tabloid papers include; The Daily Mirror, the Sun and the Daily mail. On the other hand, the three broadsheet papers include; The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian. The sampling period was two weeks. Qualitative and quantitative analysis was employed. Among the major indicators observed include; The number of males covered against that of females. The body size and weight as related to attractiveness. Positive and negative texts in the newspapers. The photography involved. The Age of the celebrities. A codebook was formulated in order to enhance the measurement of these parameters throughout the period. The data findings were subjected into a statistical analysis. The results were used to draw up conclusions. Coding used Gender 1=male 2=Female Age of the subject 1-15years= 1 (Children) 16-32years= 2 (Youths) 32 and above = 3 (Adults) Results and Analysis From the research, the number of female celebrities covered in the newspaper was generally lower than that of males in all the newspapers. For instance, in the daily Mirror, the number of males covered during this period was 12 as compared to that of females which was 6. This gives approximately 33% of female celebrities out of all the celebrities covered. About 90% of the women in the magazines had their images under dressed. On the other hand images of men were well clothed. In the field of sports, male to female ratio was 3:1. Most of these newspapers showed dominance of celebrities aged between 16-32 years. Those beyond this range were under-represented with an average percentage of about 20%.the newspapers covered very little regarding children. In addition, the newspapers presented various attitudes concerning the weight and body sizes of the celebrities. Words such as ‘sexy’ and ‘hot’ were associated with slim and light weighted ladies. On the other hand, the perceptions of ladies having weight exceeding 55kg were portrayed negatively. Most of these papers emphasized on sliming. For instance, both the ‘The Daily Mirror’ and ‘The Sun’ had an article headed “How to slim in 1 month”. Several conclusions can be pulled from this study. Generally, the males dominate the celebrity field. This implies that the gender equality is suppressed in the Newspapers. In addition, young people are the majority in the newspapers. It can be concluded that, those represented are in the sexually active age. The older generation is inactive and hence least covered. Another important issue regards the field of sports. There are less females participating in the field of sports. From this, it is clear that females are not adequately presented in sport activities. A pie-chart showing the relative representation of children, youths and adults in the newspapers Reflections This study reflected on the media coverage of gender issues in the Newspapers. The findings of this research portray the current issues present in the Newspapers and their significance to the society. The experience of this research is coherent to the previous researches conducted earlier regarding gender related issues. The entire sample of newspapers analyzed portrays a close correlation between the materials they present to the public. Common issues were evident in all of them. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the sample used is an adequate representation of the target population. There is a surprising trend of gender biasness in the whole population. All the newspapers had more male celebrities than female ones. This is a clear indication of the male dominance in all the fields of the society. They dominate in sports, music industry, and economic sectors to mention the least. The statistical data analysis portrayed this image of the society very clearly. This is a point of concern to the gender equality activists (BBC News Magazine, 2012). Another alarming issue is the negative image associated with female celebrities. For instance, a majority of those covered in these papers have their bodies under dressed. This has increased alarmingly increased over the ages (Matias, 2012). This is contrary to the body images of the males, who look rather overdressed. The media coverage favors most youths in their active ages (between 16 to 32 years). The aged are underrepresented in the fields of music, business as well as sports. The body figure of the females is an issue of concern of all the sample newspapers. There is a growing positive attitude towards ladies who maintain their physical figures and weight. They are all concerned with weight management in this category of gender (Collins, 2011). It is essential at this point to admit that the methodology used succumbed to a few shortcomings. For instance, a number of newspapers presented images and text that were unrelated. This was an unforeseen shortcoming. It posed a difficulty in relating the text used with the image making it hard to achieve a comprehensive analysis. Another problem was the presence of group images in which both genders are represented. The codebook designed did not take care of this category of images. The study would have been more successful if it provided a means to evaluate the gender presentations in such group images. All in all, the objective of the research was achieved (Macnamara, 2007). This research forms a strong basis of drawing a research essay regarding gender issues and images portrayal by the media, especially in the British daily newspapers. The data obtained from this study provides a platform for identifying the major gender issues of concern in the presentation of this media services. Among the major issues clearly identified in this research is the gender biasness of the media. Also, there is evidence of negative sexual impact of the media as portrayed by the images of female celebrities. From this data, it is possible to understand the impact of the media to the society as a whole. Given that this study covered the most selling Newspapers in United Kingdom, converting the data to percentages would help draw up conclusions regarding the whole society. References BBC News Magazine. (2012). Five things about women in the press. Retrieved from; Read More