How can one presume
that what the aspiring journalists want? The ones, who believe that living
independent is the way of life today, the one who say that having control of
one’s ideas, minds and career is the mature way to live. So what is their take
on women journalists and the beats assigned to them? With the aim to answer
this question, Asha Jhabakh and Dishya Sharma went out and met many aspiring
journalists and this is what they have to say.
A pen that has
changed the way a paper looks; a story that has gone ahead than plain
entertainment or infotainment and a bold step that changed the way the media
industry look at women, women journalists have strived hard for a position in
the industry.
Few years back, many
believed that women journalists were fit to be only feature writers which
involved less risk, less time at job and easy to deal with stories. With the passing
time, this trend has changed. There are more and more women journalists that
are getting involved in issues that require more time and fortitude towards
completing the story. A woman journalist has started walking on the path, that
was believed, was made for men only. Where many have established themselves in
the field already, there are many budding journalists who look forward to
joining various challenged fields. A research was done keeping the budding
journalists in mind and aimed at understanding their mindsets. Here the
research is aimed at the age group of 18 to 23 who are pursuing journalism or
mass communication and look forward to be part of the print industry. The study
is aiming at women in Chennai alone. The limitations to the study are that
since there is less time and it is for college purpose, the reach cannot be
wider.
As the study was
carried out in city, mainly college students who are about to join the industry
were used as the sample group and the frame size was fifty. The questionnaire
consisted of fifteen questions which touched up on the idea about of working in
the print industry that included the magazine and newspaper line. The
questionnaire first asked why the sample group chose the print medium.
Around 39
percent of the participants said that they took up print medium as they have
the flair for writing while another 39 percent say that they want to change the
way the society functions. They want to make a difference in the society with
the help up writing. While there are 13 percent of the people who believe that
the industry is growing and they see themselves as a part of the industry.
Out of the
sample, 56 percent of the women participants say that want to be a part of the
hard news desk. Out of the 56 percent of the people, 50 percent of the women
want to take up crime, 25 percent want to try a hand in sports and 17 percent
of the samples are interested in various other beats that comes under Hard
news. While 44 percent of the women of the sample prefer soft news writing and
choosing the field of fashion as their specialization.
The aspiring
journalists who are ready to enter the industry do have some hopes set with how
they will be treated in a newspaper organisation. 28 percent of the
participants want to be directed to the work, they want to be assigned on to a
beat. 36 percent want to enjoy the privilege of choosing the beat that they
want to work for and the remaining 36 percent women do not mind if they are
assigned to a beat or are given the opportunity to choose. The sample group was
asked whether they would want to work for the newspaper industry or the
newspaper industry, 54 percent of the women said that they’d prefer writing for
newspaper but there are about 46 percent of women who would want to write for
magazines. The ones who want to work in a newspaper organization say that it is
a daily routine and work is done on a daily process but there were a group of
respondents who said that they want to work in magazine because of two main
reasons – scope for exploring more beats and the glamour quotient – that attracts
these writers to the field.
Since the
industry has started accepting women in various fields, are the women really ready
to take up the opportunity to join the fields that they have fought for? So the
question was asked to the participants that which field, according to them, is
carried off better than men. There were responses that explained the mindset of
the sample group chosen. The answers included statements like “Genres like
fashion film and entertainment is carried off better than men because they have
better knowledge about the field than men and have hands on experience than
men”, “Men and women have different perspectives of the same thing. I think
women can look at human interest stories with a bit more compassion. I'm not
saying men lack it, because every person can feel empathy and compassion, but
women can think broader and therefore might delve more into the story” and “soft
beats are carried off better by women than men because a woman knows the most
in the fashion, tradition, exploring to the society and they are more ever good
in communication to the society explain to the society very clearly” stated very
clearly that many women aspiring journalists still do not take the opportunity
to place themselves in varied fields like sports, business, politics, crime and
finance.
Women
journalists have to take up the right that they fought to achieve and break the
stereotypes of women suited for art, entertainment and feature writing. The
research has resulted in a conclusion that women journalists are still
following the stereotypical road.
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