sign in sign up
<<
Home , Dinakaran, Dinamalar, The Hindu

American International Journal of Available online at http://www.iasir.net Research in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences ISSN (Print): 2328-3734, ISSN (Online): 2328-3696, ISSN (CD-ROM): 2328-3688

AIJRHASS is a refereed, indexed, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary and open access journal published by International Association of Scientific Innovation and Research (IASIR), USA (An Association Unifying the Sciences, Engineering, and Applied Research)

Construction of women imagery in the of

R. Venkatesh Aravindh1 1Doctoral Research Scholar, Department of and Mass Communication, PeriyarUniversity, Salem, Tamil Nadu, .

Abstract:Women despite accounting for a major percentile of the Indian polulace, had their tasks cut out in order to gain access to realize even their basic needs. The societal norms, culture, traditions that were prevalent during varying courses of time also had a telling impact on them in not realizing it and had to look up to the head or the dominant figure to cater to their basic needs whilst also seking permission to achieve the same through their father, brother, husband etc. The aspect of women empowerment in India took part in different phases in the rich and vast history of our country. Social evils against women were abolished and done away viz. , widow re-maariage etc. The concept of women empowerment is incomplete without the aspect of employment oppurtunities for women. Morover, media being the watchdog of the society has the responsibilty of informing the masses. This research study will focus on how the newspapers are serving as a platform for women by analysing news articles to discover the adequacy and coverage of women empowerment based news items.The research study adopts a qualitative research approach by analysing women empowerment based news articles among six newspapers in Tamil Nadu.

Keywords: Coverage, Status,Women, Empowerment, Print media,

I. INTRODUCTION Women empowerment is a crucial aspect of research across the globe. However, it is much more important aspect especially in developing countries. Elizabeth M. King and M. Anne Hill (1993) studied the condition ofWomen’s Education in Developing Countries; and discussed the condition of women’s education, returns to women’seducation, factors influencing women’s educational status factors affectingprimary and secondary education.

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Education enables women toassume more women’s autonomy or power both in traditional gender stratified family setting and in more egalitarian ones, giving them greatercontrol over their own lives and a stronger voice in matters affectingthemselves and their families (Tiwari et. al, 2002; Jejeebhoy 1995; Dey&Bhavsar2002).

III. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY  To educe the adequacy of womenempowerment news items in the newspapers in Tamil Nadu.  To examine the coverage of womenempowerment news items in the newspapers in Tamil Nadu.

IV. METHODOLOGY The research study adopts Qualitative Content Analysis method to examine the adequacy and coverage given to women empowerment based issues in the newspapers of Tamil Nadu. The period of study is two months- November and December 2017 among six newspapers viz. , Times of India, Indian Express, Dinathanthi, and Dina Malar.

Table 1: Articles by Story Type Newspapers The Hindu Times of Indian Express Dinathanthi Dinakaran Dina Total India Malar News 30 24 18 38 30 28 168 Features 22 16 18 18 22 20 166 Letter to the 20 24 16 24 22 20 126 Editor Editorial 22 16 18 19 22 20 86

AIJRHASS 18-121; © 2018, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved Page 80 R. Venkatesh Aravindh, American International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, 21(1), December 2017- February 2018, pp. 80-81

Table 2: Articles by Length Newspapers The Hindu Times of Indian Dinathanthi Dinakaran Dina Malar Total India Express Number of - - - - - Words >800 20 6 6 12 10 8 62 400-799 24 9 7 8 12 10 70 150-399 24 13 13 34 40 12 136 100-149 17 24 17 14 32 30 134 <100 18 22 11 30 26 24 131

V. FINDINGS  When enquired about the type of news story, there were a total of 30, 24 and 18 news articles in The Hindu, Times of India and Indian Express and 38, 30 and 28 news articles in Dinathanthi, Dinakaran and respectively. There were a total of 22, 16 and 18 features in The Hindu, Times of India and Indian Express and 18, 22 and 20 features in Dinathanthi, Dinakaran and Dinamalar respectively. There were a total of 168 news articles, 166 features, 126 letters to the editor and 86 editorials across six dailies.  Regarding articles by length, there were a total of 20,6,6,12,10 and 8 articles which were more than 800 words totalling to 62 across the six dailies dailies. There were a total of 24,13,13,34,40 and 12 articles which were 150-399 words in length totalling to 136 across the six dailies. There were a total of 18,22,11,30,26 and 24 articles which were below 100 words in length totalling to 131 across the six dailies.  VI. CONCLUSION Women imageries are not something that is new in the media outlets. Print media is no pushover with regards to the kind of women imageries that are portrayed and represented. There always exist some notions of coverage and portayal in print media outlets in lieu of the press rules and regulations. However, it has to be noted that there are always many aspects or issues which are often overlooked and not given adequate coverage by the print media oultets. Women empowerment is one such issue therefore the current research study was undertaken with the objective of finding out the dequacy and coverage of women empowerment baded new articles in the newspapers of Tamil Nadu. The study revealed that there were more coverage given by the Tamil dailies in their coverage of women empowerment based news articles in comparison to the English dailies. It was also revealed that there was more coverage given by the Tamil dailies with regards to the news articles in comparison to other categories of article types than the English newspapers. The study also shed light that there were more news articles which were 150-399 words in length among Tamil dailies in comparison to their English counterparts. However, it has to be noted that there were more articles which were more than 800 words in length in English dailies than in Tamil dailies.

VII. REFERENCES

[1] Bhandari, S. K., (1998), “Education Development of ’, Ministry ofEducation and Culture Pub, New . [2] Dey, D., &Bhavsar, S. (2002). Womens empowerment and its relevance to fertility and child mortality: an analysis based on NFHS-2 data. [Unpublished] 2002.Presented at the 25th Annual Conference of the Indian Association for the Study of Population International Institute for Population Sciences India February 11-13 2002. [3] ElizabethM. King, Hill, M. Anne, (1993),“Women EducationalDeveloping Countries, Barriers, Benefits and Policies”, A World Bank Book, . [4] Global Monitoring Report 2003-2004 “Gender and Education for all the leap to equality” [5] Jejeebhoy, S. J. (1995). Women's education, autonomy, and reproductive behaviour: Experience from developing countries. OUP Catalogue. [6] M., Manvel (1998), “Women and Development” Karnavati Publication, . [7] Mendoza,Walter, and D’souza, John, (2002) “The Long and Winding Road from Structural Change to Structural Transformation: A Backgrounder on NGOs and People’sMovements’, Center for Education and Documentation Pub., Mumbai [8] Shireen, Jeyeebhoy (2001)“Women’s Education Autonomy and Reproductive Behaviour: Experience from Developing Countries”. [9] Shukla, Sucheta, (2004) Women’s Autonomy In India: Some Issues, Seminar papersubmitted for the partial fulfillment of the Master in Population Studies (M.P.S), InternationalInstitute for Population Sciences, Govandi station road, Deonar Mumbai [10] Talwar.Sabanna, (2007), ‘Women Education, Employment And Genderdiscrimination,Serials Publications, ,(India). [11] Tiwari, P. A., Gulati, N., Sethi, G. R., &Mehra, M. (2002). Why do some boys run away from home? Indian journal of pediatrics, 69(5), 397-399. [12] UNGEL’s (2000), “Scaling up Good Practices in Girl’s Education” UNESCO,UNSPublish.

AIJRHASS 18-121; © 2018, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved Page 81