Changing the discourse: The fight for gender equality in pop culture blogs
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Date
2017-02-15
Authors
Obie, Jaclyn
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Publisher
Mount Saint Vincent University
Abstract
Gender inequality in modern, Western society is problematic and strengthened by media reinforcement. The negative representations of women in media can actively prevent gender equality. Media, and entertainment media in particular, treat women unequally and represent them in harmful ways. Albert Bandura’s Social cognitive theory of mass communication (2001) established that the examples presented in media have a lasting impact on the audience’s values, opinions and behaviours. Using Bandura’s theory as a theoretical framework, this study is grounded in the consequence of media’s unequal representation of women. This study looks at two blogs that treat women, and people of colour, as equals, and actively point out inequality in other media. Lainey Gossip and Awards Daily are challenging a tradition of unequal gender representation in entertainment media. I did a two-case case study of Lainey Gossip and Awards Daily, which included Critical Discourse Analysis of their blog posts, and interviews with the founders of those blogs, Elaine Lui and Sasha Stone respectively. From the research, several solutions to the existing inequality in media emerged, chiefly that of representation – having women writing about entertainment media, producing media content, and shown on screen, is the first key step in achieving equality in media.
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Keywords
Gender inequality, entertainment, media, blogs