Tag Archive for: gender sensitive journalism

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Understand Gender-Sensitive Journalism Before Writing

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Women are still a minority, very few women occupy strategic positions in the media. Whereas the presence of women in strategic internal media positions can reduce the objectification of women by the media. Both media films, television, advertising, games, and journalistic products.

The objectification of women by the media often occurs because women are considered as attractive commodities in the media. Both as a form of the depiction of women who are very male and a form of harassment of women.

“For example, body shaming or sexist jokes that are not gender-sensitive are present in media content,” said Iwan Awaluddin Yusuf, a doctoral student at Monash University, Australia on May 30, 2021, at the LPM Meeting Public Discussion at Pasundan University.

Then what is the role of the media in the objectification of women?

According to Iwan, there is the worst role of the media, for example, the media in reproducing inequality and commodifying women. In addition, the media also perpetuates and celebrates the objectification of women. Another role of the media is also still passive in educating the public.

Iwan hoped that the media should educate the public. The media should carry out the functions of surveillance and prevention. “The most ideal and progressive is the media that plays the role of implementing and developing gender sensitive journalism,” said Iwan. “For example, journalists in Konde and Magdalene are committed to joining associations and advocating for the rights of women and the marginalized,” said Iwan as an example. Rights such as menstruation leave, pregnancy, lactation rooms and others are often voiced in the media called Iwan.

So what should the media do? What to avoid?

Media workers, including in the student press, try to avoid victim-blaming as much as possible. “In reporting, avoid defending the perpetrators, avoid using sensational, sadistic, and bombastic elements. This element in this journalistic code of ethics violates,” explained Iwan, Communication Lecturer at UII, who made gender-sensitive journalism his study while at Monash University.

Mainstream media, student press media, and community media are important in understanding gender sensitive journalism. According to Iwan, primarily public media such as RRI and TVRI have the potential to educate the public. “If there is something we need to criticize, it is that RRI and TVRI are not tools of the government, that hope should not be broken, any media needs to work together on this (gender sensitive journalism), including from RRI and TVRI,” continued Iwan.

The media can also balance the portion of sources in their coverage. The easiest thing is to balance male and female sources. “Also balancing sources that has a gender perspective,” he explained to the participants, most of whom were students.

Today’s mass media should also be able to adopt the Unesco Gender Sensitive Indicator for media which was released by Unesco in 2012. With this indicator, at least the media can apply it at the organizational or management level. The media can implement policies that are pro-women by creating a balanced structure and recruitment between female and male managers, leaders and journalists.

These efforts are important to avoid objectification of women and marginal groups in today’s media.

Today’s Media Challenge

“Startups or over the top (OTT) companies such as Google, YT, FB, Twitter, etc. have not all been willing to take responsibility if there is content and applications that are not gender-sensitive,” said Iwan. Iwan sees the challenges of today’s media not only among journalists but also in the scope of companies and digital media.

Not to mention, the fact that so far there has been no gender-sensitive curriculum in the academic environment. Yet this is also important to produce gender-aware journalists and media practitioners.

Iwan also feels the need to support the capacity building of media regulators to be able to identify various forms of objectification of women. Media regulators, such as KPI and the Press Council, must be able to see and observe carefully the discourses that actually hinder efforts to eliminate violence against women that appear in the media.

Another speaker, Nani Afrida, a journalist at Anadolu Agency, said that the need for an independent and gender sensitive mainstream media presence is urgently needed. “The position of the media is very difficult to be independent because it is co-opted by the conglomerate of media owners. The position of women is so unheard of,” She said.

 

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AES Forum: The History of Gender Sensitive Journalism in the Japanese Colonization Era in Indonesia

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Many say that the Japanese Population Age was a New Age, but it is also widely known as the Darkest Age of Colonialism. There are many stories of how the atrocities during the Japanese occupation were recorded in the oral history and the mass media published at that time.

On August 29, 2020, in the discussion of the Amir Effendi Siregar (AES) Forum, Iwan Awaluddin Yusuf, an UII Lecturer in Communication Science Department who has researched a lot about gender-sensitive journalism, shared his data findings on the Japanese colonization in Indonesia. This fact is widely published in the media reporting on women. How women are represented in Japanese media and journalistic techniques. Not only in newspaper coverage, but also in comics.

Afraid to be taken away

At that time Indonesian women were very afraid to look good. “They are afraid, so they will dress as badly as possible for fear of being taken away,” said Iwan. At that time women had to give their energy, thoughts, skills, and even possessions for the benefit of the Japanese colonizers.

So women who are good, beautiful, healthy, polite will be taken as jugun ianfu (comfort women who are actually prisoners for sex slaves during the Japanese occupation) or fujinkai (female soldiers who support Japan) who help the war to expand colonization in East Asia.

At that time, the media in Indonesia became a propaganda medium. In fact, not only journalistic media but also comics always portray women as beautiful, able to provide good and healthy meals for families, able to look after children.

Japan is also trying to drown out the narrative of American women. At that time, America wanted to show that women must have an equal position with men with various abilities and intelligence. Meanwhile, Japan, with advertisements in its media, depicts a good woman as being gentle and capable of taking care of  the household.

This is also confirmed by Galuh Ambar, who researched the construction of Indonesian women in the Japanese era. She, through the IVAA grant program, quoted the magazine Pandji Poestaka, which described the construction of new women’s ideas in the household. Pandji Poestaka, for example, wrote, “Now we are facing a new world, a new order, heading for greater east Asia under the leadership of old brother Nippon. Mothers are not the least of our obligations in achieving that noble ideal. Our first duty is to completely eliminate all bad western influences, to clean the household from the smell of the west. ”

At that time the comics became a propaganda tool. You can see the comic Sembadra and Srikandi. In the comic, the Suprapti-Sutarti brothers are depicted in different characters. Suprapti is a girl from home, while Sutarti is a girl who likes marching training, is brave, and manly. Two girls like that who would help Japan realize its dream of becoming Asian leaders at that time.

 

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Forum AES: Sejarah dan Catatan Jurnalisme Sensitif Gender

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Isu Sensitif Gender sudah ramai dibicarakan sejak mendekati milenium kedua.  Diawali oleh buku yang ditulis oleh Mukhotib di tahun 1998 berjudul Jurnalisme sensitif Gender diterbitkan oleh PMII. Tapi jika melihat lika liku sejarahnya, jurnalisme sensitif gender ini sudah dimulai jauh di jaman kolonial Belanda.

Iwan Awaluddin Yusuf, salah seorang dosen Ilmu Komunikasi UII yang sedang studi doktoral di Monash University, banyak memaparkan data yang begitu kaya dalam diskusi di Forum Amir Effendi Siregar (AES) pada  29 Agustus 2020.

Dalam diskusi itu ia banyak menceritakan konteks jurnalisme sensitif Gender, literatur, sejarah dan dinamika Jurnalisme sensitif gender serta beberapa kajian riset. Ia juga melihat jurnalisme sensitif gender ini tak sebatas di pemberitaan media, tapi juga terjadi dalam praktik keseharian yg melingkupi dunia jurnalistik.

Misalnya upah karyawan perempuan yang lebih rendah, tidak adanya perlindungan jurnalis perempuan, syarat rekrutmen, tidak adanya ruang laktasi, dan, “tidak adanya toleransi libur untuk perempuan dalam masa menstruasi,” kata Iwan mencontohkan.

Iwan berpendapat, wartawan perempuan dari sisi jumlah meningkat pascareformasi. Peran perempuan dan medianya mulai beragam. Mulai dari media dengan perspektif feminis bermunculan, lalu jurnalis perempuan yang menjadi pemimpin redaksi dan tentu saja bisa menentu kebijakan redaksi. “Tercatat ada 12 Perempuan yang menjadi pemimpin redaksi,” kata Iwan. Muncul juga perkumpulan jurnalis latar belakang perempuan dalam Forum Jurnalis Perempuan Indonesia yang diketuai Uni Lubis, dan Serikat sindikasi.

Ditambah lagi, Iwan juga mengatakan bahwa beberapa media arusutama berbasis di Jakarta bahkan punya jurnalis yang spesialisasi dan idealismenya kuat pada  jurnalisme sensitif gender. “Tak hanya idealisme, tapi juga memiliki pengetahuan dan keterampilan,” imbuhnya.  Merebaknya kasus kekerasan dan pelecehan seksual membuat pendekatan ini menjadi kian masif digunakan.

Perkembangan jurnalisme ini juga membaik. Muncul beragam liputan-liputan bagus menungkap kekerasa seksual sepertu liputan kolaboratif #namabaikkampus. Muncul komunitas yang menjadi media watch dalam peliputan yang sensitif gender. Misalnya remotivi, KNRP, dan mafindo.

Iwan juga mengamati, pada tataran praksis, jurnalis dan jajaran manajemen masih kesulitan dan kedodoran menerapkan jurnalisme ini. Meski pemahaman dan perspektif gender telah banyak dipahami. ”Di lintas departemen, perspektif jurnalisme sensitif gender tak sepenuhnya merata dipahami,” ungkapnya. Tidak ada pelatihan khusus dan kontrol rutin soal pengetahuan jurnalisme sensitif gender.

Dilihat dari babakan sejarah, secara periodisasi, Iwan memberikan bànyak data dan cerita yang melimpah tentang peran perempuan atau data sejarah yang didasarkan pada jurnalisme sensitif gender. Sebagai catatan bahwa Jurnalisme sensitif gender tidak melulu membicarakan perempuan, tetapi juga melihat konteks bagaimana gender dinarasikan dalam masa tertentu.

Dalam membagi sejarah perkembangan jurnalisme sensitif gender, Iwan membagi dalam lima periodisasi milestone Jurnalisme Sensitif Gender. Pertama Era kolonial, era social marxis di bawah Presiden Soekarno,  Era suharto, era transisi reformasi dan era paska reformasi hingga kini.

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History and Track Records of Gender-sensitive Journalism 

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Gender sensitive issues have been widely discussed since approaching the second millennium. Starting with a book written by Mukhotib in 1998 entitled Gender sensitive journalism published by PMII. But if you look at the twists and turns of its history, this gender sensitive journalism has started way back in the Dutch colonial era.

Iwan Awaluddin Yusuf, an UII Communication Science lecturer who is currently studying his doctorate at Monash University, explained a lot of rich data in the discussion at the Amir Effendi Siregar (AES) Forum on August 29th, 2020.

In that discussion he talked a lot about the context of gender sensitive journalism, literature, history and dynamics of gender sensitive journalism as well as several research studies. He also sees that gender-sensitive journalism is not limited to media coverage, but also occurs in daily practices that surround the world of journalism.

For example, the lower wages of female employees, the absence of protection for female journalists, recruitment requirements, the absence of lactation rooms, and, “there is no tolerance for holidays for women during menstruation,” said Iwan, giving a lot of examples.

Tracing from the historical stage, periodically, Iwan provided a lot of data and stories about the role of women or historical data based on gender sensitive journalism. It should be noted that gender sensitive journalism does not only talk about women, but also looks at the context of how gender is narrated in certain times.

In Sharing the history of the development of gender-sensitive journalism, Iwan divided it into 7 periodizations. First, the colonial era, second is the era of the independence movement of Indonesia, the Japanese occupation era, the Soekarno era, the Suharto era, the transitional reform era and the reform era until now.