Space and Execution of Gender Sensitivity in Media Education: A Sri Lankan Experience

Abstract

Media play important roles in society. They report on current events, provide frameworks for interpretation, mobilize citizens with regard to various issues, reproduce predominant culture and society, and entertain (Llanos and Nina, 2011). As such, the media can be an important factor in the promotion of gender equality, both within the working environment and outside. Communications interventions designed to change norms, attitudes, and behaviors around gender are quite important for developing transformative ideas on the construction of gender norms. Gender studies and the gender sensitivity approach in media education are quite important in terms of eliminating the gender disparities in society as well as the framing of issues on gender-related matters in the media outlets. The development of an integral plan to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment through the media is a priority on UNESCO’s agenda. Universities and schools specialized in different areas of communication are called to play a key role in helping eradicate any form of discrimination against women. ‘Gender Sensitization’ in higher education is the key area and the Sri Lankan education sector has imitated different steps to include gender in schools and universities as one of the components in their curriculum, reflecting the global trends. This research study mainly focuses on two ways: the first one is how the gender components and gender-sensitive approaches have been included in the curriculum of Media and Communication Studies so far based on the Sri Lankan context in universities and schools and the second one is the challenges and the opportunities faced when it comes to executing stages at the professional media-working environment. Since ‘Communication and Media Studies’ has been introduced in schools at the General Certificate of Education– Ordinary Level and Advanced Level and Universities for a considerable period in Sri Lanka, Gender studies also have been got the opportunities to include in many forms in the discourse of Media Education. This gender-inclusive education has had an impact on the reflection of media outlets since culture and social norms play an integral part in gender and formal education in Sri Lanka. Based on the qualitative and descriptive analysis, the study explores the curriculum of universities and schools in regard to the Journalism and Media Studies in the Sri Lankan situation. Interviews are also done based on the academic staff of selected Universities, where the Gender-related course units are available in the curriculum and the researches have been carried out at the post-graduation level. In addition to this, in order to explore the status at schools, the teachers of ‘Communication and Media Studies’ are also interviewed to check the validity of the curriculum and the necessity of the space for gender sensitivity. Further, the placement of the gender components in the curriculum has been analyzed among the students who have passed out from the Universities and working in the media industry by interviewing in order to get the applications of academic learning in the world of work. The results of the research showcase that the Media Education in Sri Lanka has included gender components in varieties of ways in the curriculum of the schools and the Universities. The media literacy and the media culture in the School curriculum at Ordinary and Advanced Levels have accommodated a considerable amount of gender components as part of the contents. The course units: Gender and Communication, Mass Communication and Society and Development Communication at the University of Jaffna, Gender Studies in Media at the University of Kelaniya, Gender Issues in Development at the University of Peradeniya, Communication, Gender and Society, Development Communication and Organizational Communication at Trincomalee Campus of Eastern University also play an important role to create and develop a constructive space on the discourse of gender. In addition to this, quite a number of student’s research work of the post-graduate degree programmes in the relevant departments also have a notable sphere of gender-responsive studies. Anyhow, there is a gap found between the education and the practicing principles in the working environment, which have many influences, by existing social norms, values and power relations in the society and even within the media institutions. The women are still underrepresented in the newsrooms and the decision-making positions in Sri Lankan Media Institutions. There is a lack of development and mentoring opportunities for enhancing leadership skills to the women journalists along with a lack of psychosocial needs and pay gaps. The responsibility on the content management of prime time and the hard news always goes for men and the soft part to women journalists and they are severely encountered by gender-based violence physically and mentally and cyber pulling. The research further reveals that the personal lives of women journalists also influence their professional working environment due to the social and cultural norms and the stereotypical thoughts strongly existing in the local society.