Media, Identity, and Gender: Tracking Feminist Media and Journalism Theories and Methodologies

This article attempts to illustrate some general theoretical and methodological approaches to journalism and media coming from feminist perspective. The research questions raised by media feminists scholars relate not only to the key issue of representation, but also to wider examination of the place of women in the media industries, to women as producers and as audiences, and women’s reflections of their own situation in relationship to the media spaces. At the heart of this article lies a case-study. It asks whether there are any gender differences in a general perception held in a newsroom of a small Australian newspaper – that female journalists work differently to male journalists. On the basis of qualitative methodologies (participant observation, and indepth interviews) the study explores the question whether there are observable differences in the way female journalists and male journalists work in that particular newsroom. Put it simple, we are interested here in whether Australian female journalists in the studied newspaper newsroom conform to a traditional, patriarchal style of journalism?