Depiction Of Women In Contemporary Dailies

This paper investigates the place and projection of women as represented through photographs in four leading daily newspapers circulated in Chennai. The intention of this study has been to identify any gender stratification or bias in the portrayal of women. In this research an attempt is made to interpret the depiction of woman in newspapers and to identify if the projection of women conform to or break the stereotyping of women. It also seeks to scrutinise gender disparity and locates stereotyped, objectified, commodified representation of women in specific newspapers.

Though women are engaged in breaking gender boundaries in numerous fronts, they are often not sufficiently acknowledged or treated equally with men. In addition to being underrepresented in positions of authority, women are stereotyped in certain sections of media and entertainment. This has lead to a prejudiced reinforcement of women. The study of four Chennai edition English newspapers namely, The Deccan Chronicle, The Hindu, The New Indian Express and The Times of India for a period of one month has helped gain insight into the representation of women. A quantitative analysis of photographs has been undertaken to accomplish this argument. Photographs of men and women projected under various news headings, features and articles have been counted to evaluate the extent of representation while mediating notions of gender. The total percentage of representation of men and women is found to display underrepresentation of women. The percentage of women displayed under different broad areas has been provided in the paper to elucidate the extent of mainstreaming, stereotyping and objectification of women. To substantiate the conclusion with the extent of projection of women in specific news, the percentage of representation of women has been included in pie charts.