Introduction
Game of Thrones is one of the most famous TV series of all time, and didn’t we all love the sassy, multitalented Gemma Whelan? Gemma is famous for her role as Yara Greyjoy, and she is one of the main actors in the famous show. How amazing is it to learn that Gemma is pregnant! However, the star recently revealed to the media that for a long time into her pregnancy, she was scared of revealing that she was pregnant for fear of losing her job. It is a well-known fact that the film industry is male-dominated. Gemma believed that her job in the industry was at stake if they discovered about her pregnancy. In fact, she cast for the Crown when she was five months pregnant without informing anyone about it. Gemma’s story brings us to the issue of the position of women in the film industry. Hollywood is still extensively male-dominated, and the gender bias is evident from the scriptwriters, to the directors, and to the actors.
Analysis of Newspaper Posts, Magazine Posts, Blog Posting, and TV Show
In the recent years, the film industry has seen changes in their stories, whereby there are more and more female-led action films such as Game of Thrones and Hunger Games. In light of these changes, the media has been closed on the lookout for women in film, and whether any advancements are being made for the woman. However, after reviewing their data, the New York Film Academy realized that Hollywood is still very deeply rooted in gender bias. However, the NYFA magazine did acknowledge the fact that the number of female characters, emerging characters, and filmmakers are slowly but steadily on the rise. All the same, there is still so much room for improvement, and there is a lot that needs to be done to boost women power and exposure in the big-budget films.
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A newspaper article on Sky also analyzed the position of women in film, where it reported that only 7 percent of the total film directors in the lading 250 films in 2016 were women; a decline of 2 percent from the numbers recorded in 2016. At the time, there was an extensive awareness of the need to empower women in film, yet there was no improvement whatsoever in the statistics. The statistics had just gotten worse, and women were increasingly losing their ground. Taking into account all the roles in film, which include the executive producers, editors, cinematographers, and writers, women accounted for just a total of 17 percent of all these roles
A blog posting of New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) also took a look at the status of women in the film industry. The post had a different story, where it stated that the number of women hired into the industry had risen between 2016 and 2017. The post also reported that there was a rise in gender and ethnic diversity, which is a rather encouraging fact. The report holds that the total number of films directed by women had risen by 4 percent in 2017 in comparison with 2016.
Finally, a Hollywood TV show in 2016 claimed that the statistics of women in the film industry is the worst. The show made a study analyzing the on-screen representation of women characters in the top 100 of the best films annually. The study revealed some very dismal numbers as far as women in film and television are concerned, whereby there are extreme gender stereotypes, behind-the-scenes opportunities, and chronic underrepresentation. The study also showed some extreme lack of gender and ethnic diversity in the same. In her statement on the same, Dr. Martha Lauzen, who is the Executive Director for the Centre of the Study of Women in Television and Film, stated that it was quite unfortunate that the industry still harbored some extreme falsehood about women. She stated that women do not face any risks as filmmakers as opposed to men and that they should stop being treated as a niche audience. Lauzen was very keen on following factual statistics, and she proved the dire need for a change of attitude regarding women in film.
The story on the position of women in the film industry is a very crucial one, and it has received lots of varying reaction from the media. The coverage of this topic is rather extensive, ranging from magazine articles, newspaper articles, blog posts, and TV shows, and so much detail is given into the same. All the four different media channels are similar in that they agree that the position of the woman in the film is not impressive. All of the channels agree that there is still a lot that needs to be done and there is still so much potential for improving the position of the woman in the industry. All of these channels make use of statistics, trying to show how numbers of women representation have changed in the past two years.
All of the articles written and talked about regarding the position of the woman in film show that there is a very dismal representation, and that the numbers are deteriorating. It is surprising that it is only the blog posting of New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) that indicated an increase in representation of women by 4 percent in 2016. However, the posting did not incorporate enough statistics, so it was not very convincing. The differences in the four different types of media come in mainly in the source of information. The NFYA magazine was not clear on the source of the data collected, which makes it less convincing. The Sky newspaper article on the same gives more detail than the magazine because it has analyzed the top 500 films with the aim of finding a clear picture of the position of women in film. Just like NFYA, NYWIFT does not state the source of its statistics, and it is, therefore, also not very convincing. We also looked at a Hollywood TV show, where Lauzen had done an excellent job breaking down the character representation in all the roles that are associated with filmmaking.
From the exploration of the four different forms of media, it is evident that the media has noted the issue of women misrepresentation in the film industry. However, the fact that no major changes can be noted is evidence enough that the media is not appropriately handling this topic. The media bears so much power, and if it handled the issue with the seriousness that it deserves, then there would be some clear changes and developments that could be noted on the same. We noticed some major differences in how the sources handled the topic. Some sources like the blog posting and magazine articles simply stated the problem but did not go into a more detailed analysis of the same. However, looking at the TV show and newspaper posting, we realize that these sources go into detail about the issue and make an analysis of as many films as possible. The two sources have also offered a thorough breakdown of all the roles in the films that they have analyzed.
The media can improve their coverage of this topic by doing an enhanced analysis of the films released. The statistics should include all the roles that are involved in the development of the film to make a more concrete analysis on the gender representation on the same. To be more effective, the media should analyze as many films as possible and then make an annual comparison of the representation. It is not easy to detect any form of bias in the articles analyzed, especially the magazine article and the blog posting. The journalists in question avoided bias by simply making general statements like, ‘the issue of gender representation is improving,’ and failing to go into detail on the same. Anyone whose only exposure to this issue of women representation in the film was through media they would view the film as a rotten industry that has no regard whatsoever for the female gender. However, if the coverage was slightly different, incorporating all the necessary statistics that are well outlined, then one could view that the issue of gender representation in film is not great, but there is hope of some improvement.
Conclusion
The film industry remains to be greatly male-dominated, with the position of the woman is almost neglected. However, there is hope of improvement on the matter. It is partly the responsibility of the media to create an extensive awareness regarding the matter so that there can be a push to improve gender representation. Proper media coverage on any issue is very crucial as it can bring about some major changes on how the society views some matters.
References
Game Of Thrones star: 'I was scared to reveal my pregnancy.' (2017). Sky News . Retrieved 4 December 2017, from https://news.sky.com/story/game-of-thrones-star-i-was-scared-to-reveal-my-pregnancy-11151588
