Comment here about what you think. Extra credit will be awarded for any thoughtful response.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Is there a gender bias in the media when discussing gender issues?
Comment here about what you think. Extra credit will be awarded for any thoughtful response.
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19 comments:
I feel like it's not so much of a bias issue, as it is that the wrong people are being asked. Women should be able to decide what happens to their own rights, such as abortion, planned parenthood, and birth control. The fact that a more men were even asked questions pertaining to women and their bodies and such, in a large margin, is really quite horrible. I think that men definitely do not understand the meaning of institutions like planned parenthood to women across the country. If you consider bias to be talking about things like abortion when you can't possibly have any idea what it feels like to actually have a human growing inside of you, let alone what it feels like to need or want an abortion, than yeah. There's definitely some gender bias there.
It seems like there definitely is a gender bias in the media when it comes to talking about gender issues. I think media companies and newspapers tend to ask men and use their opinions more because everyone assumes all women will say the same thing about issues like abortion, birth control, and women's rights. Many people might just assume that all women are headstrong about being pro-choice, having birth control, and having full rights, but that's not always the story. I think the media tries to show what the men say more because in general, essentially they are opposing what women say about how they should control their bodies. That's not the way it should be; women should have the largest say in these gender issues, but that's just not the case.
There is definately a gender bias issue in the media. The women are being completely outnumbered by men in topics that don't involve them as much as it involves women. I feel like men are asked these questions because men have greater "power" and leader roles in the US so they are turned to in help of womens right, which i think is wrong. They should be targeting the population whos bodies will actually be affected by these decisions; women. I agree with Tessa, and I feel like the media doesn't ask for womens opinions nearly as much because their opinions don't vary as much as mens do. The media doesn't just want the same opinions over and over again, so they look for men to share their opinion. It's wrong because men shouldn't have too much of a say in it. Yes, they are partially responsible for their children, but the birthing conditions that women have to go through should automatically make it womens choices. On this webdite, it seems as if the writer is outraged with the numbers and facts. Women are being "silent" and don't get to share their voices. Society thinks that men are "experts" on everything, but in this case the women are. Men couldn't possibly be because they don't know what giving birth is like.
I feel the media is biased towards men’s opinions. It is rare to see women's opinions being shared in the media. Men dominate the media when it comes to talking about gender issues. It seems like men are always being asked their opinion on abortion or birth control, when really women are the people who ultimately face the results of these decisions. Like Erin said, women should be able to decide what happens to their own rights. Rarely do we see women’s opinions of men’s rights being voiced in the media. In the graph showed, men are quoted so much more than women are. My question is, why? Yes, men do dominate in things such as politics, but they have no idea what birthing conditions and the process are like (except seeing it from the outside). In the media there is bias towards men but, the people having to deal with issues (women) should have a much larger say.
I don't know whether you can determine if there is a gender bias in media based on only this information. It does say men are quoted more often than women, but it doesn't say what their opinions are. Bias means "prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person or group compared with another." All this chart shows are numbers. For all we know, all the men could have completely different opinions or ideas on the subject. In addition, I think men are quoted more often simply because the people in power tend to be men. If women were in the same positions as men, they would be the ones quoted. This brings us back to the whole debate over what a woman's role is in society, and why more women aren't in the same job positions as men; therefore, not being quoted as often as men. I agree with everyone else that women should have a larger say regarding birth control, and yes I do think there is a gender bias in the media, but I don't think you can conclude that information based on these statistics.
If this chart is displaying accurate information then I think that a lot of the reason there are so many more men being quoted isn't really that the media is choosing only to publish men's quotes. I think there just happen to be A LOT more men involved in politics.
Also men seem to be a bit more vocal and aggressive in sharing their opinion. If a newscaster was standing on the corner asking pedestrians their thoughts about abortion and so on, I would guess that men would be more likely to get involved with that than women.
Another thing to think about is what point the newspapers and tv channels are trying to get across. If an article is trying to explain why planned parenthood should be done away with, there are probably more men that agree with them and those are the quotes they would publish.
Society isn't perfect by far. There aren't any countries in the world where women's wages equal those of the men, we have yet to have a female president and many men still feel that women just aren't as capable however, there are many women in congress, we had Hilary Clinton run for president recently and women are generally treated equally here in America.
I think that there is a bias in the media but I do not think it is as dramatic as the chart presented it as.
Can I hope that any of my male students have an opinion worth expressing?
I agree completely with Erin. When these types of questions are asked, women should be the main source of the answer, since the issue are mostly concerning the health of women. These types of data particularly infuriate me since I believe it is inappropriate for men to have a say unless it directly effects them. There is no possible way for men to understand the importance of these things such as planned parenthood, abortions, Women's rights or birth control. The bias is only coming from the side of the men. Women I believe have more of an equal outlook on these issues than men do since men can not directly relate to them. To heal this bias I believe an equal number of men and women on both sides of the political parties should be surveyed and then we would get more equal answers for the nation.
There appears to be a gender bias issue in the media, however this is might be due to the fact that men are more active in government and other policy making jobs. Fewer women take an active part in public policy decisions and/or studying these issues and therefore there may not be as many of them to be interviewed or quoted in the media. The chart can be misleading. The statistics clearly show that men are quoted more than women about woman's issues in the media which may lead someone to conclude without further consideration that the media is very bias against voicing the opinions of women, however there are several explanations for this such as the fact that men take up more government jobs. During this election cycle several issues concerning women have been discussed and it is crucial that women participate in government and public policy decisions in order to advocate for themselves and their opinions towards issues which are so important to them.
I do not feel that there is gender bias in the media. I don't think that most newspaper editors or writers go out of their way to prevent women from being able to published or speak out. Even though the statistics do show that there are more men quoted or featured in the media than women I do not think that it is because of gender bias. Instead I think that the whole world has a gender issue and more men are in are in important positions than women at the moment. I think this is a bad thing. I think that both women and men should have equal opportunity in the world but in the past and even now many others do not think that and discriminate against women.
When i have witnessed media lately i have not noticed more men than women being interviewed or quoted. Every day I read the sports section. In the sports section it is very rare that a women is quoted because most of the sports that the newspaper focuses on are dominated by men. This may be one area of media that men dominate, but i do not think that it is because of gender bias. I just think that there are more male professional athletes and sports that people follow. This is the case with the rest of the country and the world as well. When women are in positions that a media story focuses on i think that most newspapers would be more than happy to interview them. But because of the sexism of the outside world many women are not in these prominent positions that are usually interviewed. For instance, police chiefs are almost always men. Whenever a crime is committed the police chief of the town gives a statement. This contributes to the percentage of women being quoted.
On the issues of birth control and abortion I do think that more women should be interviewed. It is only Womens opinions that matters on those issues. I have not read extensively about birth control, abortions, or Planned parenthood. I have no experience in those fields so I think we should leave it up to the Women to decide what is right.
I think that even though these information sources probably didn't go out of their way to choose many over women in thee polls, that the information is biased just because the information coming from the polls is not equal between men, women and organization. Especially on issues related to gender and equal amount of men and women is so important in making any kind of of point through data, so I thought it was interesting that on so many of these issues men outnumbered women so greatly so even though the poll might be valid, it doesn't really show the real opinion of the world in the aspect of gender.
I believe that this specific information is biased. This is not to say that all newspapers are biased or that polls taken by newspapers should be disregarded as biased information altogether. However, I do believe that if these figures are correct, the information gathered here is somewhat skewed. This is magnified by the fact that the issues being discussed are mainly relating to women and women's bodies. Due to this, women should be interviewed more than men when it comes to birth control/abortion rights. This is not to say that women should have all the say on the issue. The man has the same genetic connection to the child as the woman does. Therefore, the decision regarding birth control and abortion should be a group one, with both parties having a say in the decision and therefore a responsibility to stand by whatever choice they make. So in this statistic, the number of men and women being interviewed should be equal, as the opinions of men regarding abortion are equally important. Both sexes are affected by abortion, and both sexes should have a say in its regulation.
Corrections
many = men
thee = the
and=an
When discussing gender issues such as if women should have the free right to get an abortion if and when they want, or the availability of birth control I do believe that although men feel they have the right to give their opinions on these topics they shouldn't. I don't think it is fair for men to tell women what to do or put restrictions on things that apply to our bodies for they have no knowledge or experience pertaining to these topics. Like Tessa stated, more men are asked their opinions by newspapers and news companies on issues like abortion, birth control, planned parenthood and women's rights. But why should their opinion matter when they are not women?! It wouldn't be fair for women to have control over what men do. I think that is a problem in the media because if women were to take a stand against men and start using our power to regulate certain issues relating to men, they would become angry.
There is an obvious gender gap shown in the chart and the ratio of men asked to women asked shows this. I feel like because more men are found to be involved in politics and usually have a stronger opinion, they tend to be considered to have more "power" and there lies the issue.
In my opinion, women should have the largest say when it comes to abortion, women's rights, and birth control because it directly affects them. Since men are, and have generally been throughout history, politically dominant, they do ultimately have a larger say and should be looking for a woman's opinion on controversial topics like these that don't have much of an affect on their lives. In terms of poles taken by the media about questions such as these, I think women should be the majority of people answering. That doesn't mean that men's opinions aren't of value, it just means that, like women entangling themselves in men's rights, the focus should be on women's opinions of their own rights and how they want to be able to live. Therefore, I don't think there is a gender bias in the media as much as a bad choice of people to pole on the subject.
I think it is wrong for men to be the person most asked about topics that mostly pertains to women. Like Erin, I do not think it is exactly a bias issue, it is just there are more men in the media, because of a range of things give men more of an opportunity to join the media. I am not saying that men are completely not related to these issues, but the fact that men are covering these issues more than women doesn't make much sense. There needs to be both men and women contributing equally to these issues, and if any gender contributes more, it should be women, since this issue deals with their bodies. Men making decisions on women's bodies just doesn't make sense. But in the media, men and women both have the right to say what they think, even if it pertains to something women deal with. I don't think that men are specifically asked more about these issues over women, I think that women are just underrepresented in the media as a whole.
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