Critical challenges facing women and girls in the media : commonwealth stories, global solutions : Malta and beyond

Abstract

What are the critical challenges facing women and girls in the media? What we understand as ‘the media’ has undergone dramatic rethinking in recent years but the questions and answers remain the same. This question has been asked by media academics since the 1950’s when, with increased access to TV in the home, there was a parallel increase in questioning in academia with regard to concerns around gender portrayal. The question has also been answered, many times, and in many ways across the various and varied spaces that are ‘media’ and the possible interpretations of what we mean by ‘in’ the media. There are two spaces demanding discussion and focus when we ask What are the critical challenges facing women and girls in the media? The first is how are women and girls portrayed in the media, and the second is how women are placed as practitioners working in the media industry itself.