Gender Awareness In The Modern Media Studies

As a brand new concept, gender consciousness was imputed to China after the Forth World Women Conference of 1995, causing the attention of the society central group to women issue. Because of the enormous effect on people's thought and behavior, media have huge potential to establish new behavior standard for women, to alternate androcentric culture and promote the gender equality, thereby would take on society responsibility can't be shifted off. When the modern media were investigated under the view angle of gender consciousness, however, we would find, in variety of media, the women image have not been promoted a lot, and the harmonious coexistence of two genders are still far unreachable. So for the goal that media contribute more to promote the gender equality, bringing the meditate on society gender issue into media mainstream must to be further emphasized.The theory background of analyzing gender consciousness in media is combination of social gender theory and spread theory. The Social Gender contrasts to natural sex. What is called gender consciousness refers to: observing the social politics, economy, culture and environment from the view angle of gender, carrying out the gender analyse and gender layout, at last preventing and overcoming the pattern and act going against two genders development.While the media were observed through the view angle of social gender, there were biggish systemic errors can be found on the presentation and reflection of the media to women image and women issue, which lacked the gender consciousness in different degree. The problem exists mainly in the following three respects:Firstly, some media consolidate the stiff impression of women image, whose representation as: 1 .Emphasizing the women's role in private field; 2.Emphasizing the women's outside value; 3.Materializing the women image.Secondly, there exists un-equipoise and unilateralism of the attention to gender issue. Representation as: 1.Women media and women program are insufficient with inappropriate time and site. 2.The attention of mainstream media is insufficient to issues concerned deeply by women, either. 3. The multiple roles of women were not showed enough. Media pay more attention to the urban women than the rural women; young beautiful girls and white-collars than women of middle or old age and common women; urban high-consumption group than middle and low class woman group.Thirdly, when they analyze the social problem, media lack of social gender view angle and have gender blind spot. Representation as: 1. Personalizing the public issue. For the women getting achievement in public field, media always stand to question closely their private life, praise their success in both career and family, or show their guilty feeling to the family, emphasize the women's traditional responsibility in private field; Emphasizing the women's role of procreation tool and responsibility for breeding children; Spreading out the theory of "women are source of disaster". 2. Glorifying the feudal idea. Publicizing feudal virtue conception; publicizing unhealthy marriage-amativeness conception. 3. Enlarging the negative image of women; 4. Philistinism of social responsibility. 5. Localizing the comment angle on woman issue.The defect of social gender consciousness in modern media has brought bad influence on society, woman and adolescent. 1. Strengthening the social difference of male and female, letting woman's social condition lowered more. 2. Visional standard of "beauty of woman" misdirects woman, making more and more women maze their self-worth.. 3. The normal social comment criterion was affected, which will go against woman's development; 4. Affecting the growth of adolescent and children.The reasons of defect of gender consciousness in media have the following aspects: 1. It makes media's overlooking gender natural behavior that the androcentric thought and the fusty gender idea still predominate in society. 2. The emphasis of woman's other-controlled condition by media induces and strengthens woman's collectivity unconsciousness, which incites the media's defect of gender consciousness further. 3. The absence of woman in media decision-making and more notable position conduces to the media's gender consciousness warp. 4. The indifference of social gender consciousness conduces to the stiff impression of traditional women copied and strengthened constantly, thereby lead the media's gender blind spot not corrected for a long time.Bringing gender consciousness into media mainstream and establishing the space for genders equalization needs the co-operation inside and outside of media. For the government and society, the following things are important: 1. Bringing the gender consciousness to media decision-making mainstream, constituting the rules, laws and culture, media policies present social gender consciousness, to restrain in law the media behavior of discriminating and belittling woman. 2. Reinforcing the participation of woman into press and media. 3. Government offers support of policies and funds to develop woman media and boost the excellent women image's possession proportion of media. 4. Constituting multilayer supervision mechanism. 5. Enhancing social genderconsciousness training for managers and practitioners of media. For managers and practitioners of media, accepting the social gender consciousness training, boosting up gender consciousness, establishing media self-discipline mechanism, actively sparking plug genders-equal conception are essential. For the acceptors, especially for the woman acceptors, it is essential to accept the initiation of gender consciousness, erect the genders-equal conception, learn to survey and criticize media from the view angle of gender consciousness, put forward rational requirement and advice feedback and promote media build up gender consciousness.