Barbara Barnett

Medea in the media: Narrative and myth in newspaper coverage of women who kill their children

In reporting news stories about maternal infanticide, journalists and sources employ the narrative of the flawed mother in explaining why women killed their children. A qualitative analysis of 250 US news articles over a 12-year period found that journalists characterized murderous mothers in oppositional terms, as either superior nurturers driven to insanity because they cared so much, or inferior caretakers who shirked their maternal duties because they cared so little. This focus on the individual allowed journalists to organize and simplify complex information from diverse sources; however, reporters missed opportunities to present infanticide in the broader context of gender inequity and to examine disparities in punishments for women convicted of murdering their children. Journalists’ accounts of the causes of maternal violence - postpartum illness, economic stress, alcohol and drug abuse, too early and unplanned pregnancies, and loss of hope for the future - too often were superficial, reinforcing the myth of the all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful mother, and ignoring the fact that infanticide is a crime that has complex causes. Journalists can strengthen reporting on maternal violence by critically examining stereotypes of mothering as ‘natural’, and therefore easy, and by questioning the availability of family, community, and institutional resources for women who cannot or do not mother well.

Perfect Mother or Artist of Obscenity? Narrative and Myth in a Qualitative Analysis of Press Coverage of the Andrea Yates Murders

Although numerous studies have examined media portrayals of women, including women as victims of violence, few studies have examined media representations of women who perpetrate violence. This article explores one form of female violence—infanticide. The author conducted a narrative analysis of press coverage of the murder trial of Andrea Yates, a Texas woman who drowned her five children. Analyses revealed the presence of two dominant narratives: the story of the traitor, used to appropriate blame, and the story of the quest, constructed to right a wrong. The author concludes that the Yates stories reinforce traditional notions about femininity—that women are “natural” caretakers— and suggests that journalists and women’s advocates challenge this myth by raising questions about the responsibility of both parents in child care, calling attention to postpartum psychosis as a legitimate illness, and considering ways to help women who are unable or unwilling to care for their children.

Toward Authenticity: Using feminist theory to construct journalistic narratives of maternal violence

Scholars suggest we construct stories or narratives to help us create order and rationalize events that are difficult to explain. In contemporary society, journalists serve as mediated storytellers, and one story journalists have told from the perspective of sense-making is that of mothers who kill their children, a crime that can defy understanding. This qualitative textual analysis examines ten cases of maternal infanticide to determine the collective narrative told by journalists, exploring the dialectical and rhetorical functions of narrative. The analysis reveals that the news narrative offers moral lessons about the consequences of maternal incompetence and “inappropriate” feminine sexual behavior. The author questions whether the journalistic paradigm of detachment—traditionally associated with a masculine narrative style—is the best way to tell stories of womens lives and suggests feminist research practices can be used to capture the complexities of mothering work, as well as other complicated situations in womens and mens lives.

Gendering Leadership in Vietnamese Media: A Role Congruity Study on News Content and Journalists’ Perception of Female and Male Leaders:

This study combines two research methods to explore how female leaders are portrayed in the news in Vietnam, and Vietnamese journalists’ perception of female and male leaders. Content analysis indicated that female leaders are under- and misrepresented. Female leader sources seldom appear in the news. When they do, they are more likely to be interviewed on traditionally feminine issues. Survey findings demonstrated that gender stereotypes are pervasive among journalists, influencing their perception of news sources. Journalists believe male sources possess stronger work-oriented and agentic traits while female sources are more socially oriented and communal. Results confirmed role congruity theory’s applicability in studying media in a non-Western country.

Dividing women: the framing of trafficking for sexual exploitation in magazines

Each year thousands of women are trafficked for sexual exploitation. To understand how the mass media represent trafficking, a qualitative framing analysis of magazines, published from 2000 through to 2010, was conducted. Results showed magazines presented complementary frames of victimization and benevolence. Magazine articles shed light on trafficking, which operates in society’s shadows and is far removed from many people’s lives, but articles reinforce hierarchies and divisions: between women and men; among women; and among “good” prostitutes who deserve help and “bad” prostitutes who do not. Articles imply that the problem of trafficking is one of individual vulnerability, which can be remedied by charitable efforts, and ignore the larger cultural, political, economic, and educational systems of sex discrimination. Traffickers and men who buy sex were largely absent from magazine stories, and focus on the sale of sexual services, rather than the purchase, emphasized women’s role in the trafficking process while making men’s roles invisible. Because the mass media can shape public opinion and public policy, such incomplete reports may lead to ineffective policies.

Girls Gone Web: Self-Depictions of Female Athletes on Personal Websites

The Internet was heralded as a medium that might expand coverage of women’s sports, yet some question whether the Internet has provided even more opportunities to perpetuate gender stereotypes. This research study examines the personal websites of professional and amateur female athletes to determine how women present themselves to the public. This qualitative analysis considers whether women practice “apologetic behavior,” in which they assure the public they are women first and athletes second, and whether women follow traditional gender scripts that characterize them as maternal, sexy, or childlike. The analysis shows that women promote their brawn, beauty, and brands. Women provide details about the rigors of training to be elite athletes but also provide details about their personal lives that reinforce gender stereotypes. The analysis concludes that women use websites to construct an apologetic identity, in which they emphasize that they have sacrificed time and energy for their sport, but have not abandoned traditional feminine roles of sex object, mother, or caretaker.

Emma says: A case study of the use of comics for health education among women in the AIDS heartland

In the southern African country of Zimbabwe, there are posters on the trash cans that line the streets of Harare, the capital city. They show a man and woman dancing, with a message that cautions: “No condom. No sex. Play safe.” In Kenya, the Ministry of Health distributed posters that read, “Anyone can get AIDS: Take care” (Kim Witte 1998). In Tanzania, at some of the truck stops frequented by long-distance drivers, signs carried a picture of a skull and crossbones with a two-word warning below: “AIDS here” (Ted Conover 1993). Messages declaring the dangers of AIDS are everywhere in Africa and with good reason: Africa is the heartland of the AIDS epidemic. “In most sub-Saharan African countries, adults and children are acquiring HIV at a higher rate than ever before” (Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS [UNAIDS] 1999). Of the 42 million people worldwide living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, more than half—29.4 million—live in sub-Saharan Africa (UNAIDS 2003). While AIDS has declined in the east African country of Uganda, it remains a critical problem. In 12 sub-Saharan countries, at least 10 percent of the people aged 15–49 have AIDS; the prevalence rates are greater than 20 percent in seven countries, including Botswana and Zimbabwe where more than one-third of the population is HIV-positive (UNAIDS 2002a, 2002b). Health experts have issued a grim forecast: “There was hope that southern Africa’s epidemic—the most severe in the world—had reached its ‘natural limit,’ beyond which HIV prevalence rates would not rise. New data show this is not the case...” (UNAIDS 2002b). Since the AIDS epidemic began two decades ago, industrialized nations have spent millions of dollars on AIDS research, prevention, and education programs in so-called Third World countries. These campaigns and programs have been part of larger international development efforts, begun by the USA in the 1950s, to encourage stronger economies in developing nations (Gustavo Esteva 1993) and expanded in the 1970s to include social well-being (Srinivas R. Melkote 1991). Mass media have been critical forces in these development programs, including efforts to improve health care. Yet, in spite of programs to educate men and women about AIDS, efforts to empower women to protect and preserve their sexual health, efforts to promote AIDS prevention, and research aimed at finding a definitive cure, AIDS remains a devastating problem in Africa.

A role (in)congruity study on Vietnamese journalists’ perception of female and male leadership

ABSTRACT This survey study examines the applicability of role congruity theory on journalists in Vietnam. Findings show that journalists hold stereotypical perceptions of female leaders. Journalists see female leaders as more communal while male leaders as more agentic. Journalists believe it is more important to report information on female leaders’ domesticity and physicality than it is on male leaders. In addition, journalists from families with a traditional division of labor tend to hold stronger gender stereotypes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.