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PP 309
Female War Correspondents of World War I: Mapping a Thinly Researched Field in the History of Journalism
S. Seul
1
1
University of Bremen, Department of Cultural Studies, Bremen, Germany
World War I saw the rise of women as war correspondents. Although the presence of female journalists in the combat zones was still unusual, women
of the belligerent nations as well as of neutral countries managed to gain access to the frontlines in different war theatres and to publish their eyewitness
accounts and photographs in well-known newspapers and magazines. To name just a few, Sofía Casanova from neutral Spain covered the Eastern Front
for the Spanish paper ABC; the American journalists Nellie Bly, Peggy Hull, Louise Bryant, Bessie Beatty, Rheta Childe Dorr and Helen Johns Kirtland,
among others, reported from Russia and theWestern Front. On the Allied side, Louise Mack from Australia reported on the German invasion of Belgium for
British papers, while in Italy Flavia Steno covered the Italian front for Il Secolo XIX. On the side of the Central Powers, Thea von Puttkamer was a German
war correspondent based in Constantinople; and Margit Vészi, Maria Magda Rumbold and Alice Schalek were accredited as official war correspondents
to the Austro-Hungarian War Press Office. Still, studies of female war correspondents have been few and far between and are conspicuously absent from
Knightley’s (2003) and Farrar’s (1998) accounts of war correspondents. Likewise, histories of women journalists largely ignore female war correspondents
(Spreizer 2014; Marzolf 1977; Hämmerle, Überegger and Bader Zaar 2014). Hence, we still lack a systematic study of female war correspondents during
WWI, as opposed toWWII, be it on a national scale or from a comparative point of view. This paper endeavours to shed new light on the history of women
in journalism. It presents an outline of the existing scholarship and identifies hitherto neglected facets of female war reporting that could form the basis
of a future research agenda with a multinational and comparative approach. Thus, future research should aim to (1) identify the names of female war corre‑
spondents from different nations and the newspapers/magazines they were writing for; (2) establish the social background female war correspondents and
their professional careers –were they already established journalists prior to their war activities (such as Nelly Bly, Alice Schalek); (3) illuminate the working
conditions of female journalists in a traditional male preserve: Were women given equal access to the battle theatres? Were they accredited as official war
correspondents with the military? Howwas their treatment by military authorities and by their male colleagues?Were they able to publish under their own
names; (4) reconstruct the astonishingly wide-ranging activities of female war correspondents, who often not only published reports in newspapers and
magazines, but acted at the same time as photographers, lecturers, or even nurses; (5) discuss how female war reporting differed from its male counterpart,
specifically to test Milly Buonanno’s (2009) hypothesis that female war reporting is characterized by a greater responsiveness to ‘human interest stories’i.e.
reporting the human aspects of war such as suffering, loss, displacement, and upheaval; (6) and, finally, trace the similarities and differences in the lives
and work of female war correspondents.
PP 310
Pluralizing the Family Ideal: Sitcoms, Social Change and the Nuclear Family
A. Dechert
1
1
University Augsburg, Institute of Media- Knowledge and Communication, Augsburg, Germany
In the popular sitcomModern Family (ABC, 2007-), the 'typical' US-American family no longer exists. Besides the so-called isolated nuclear family – father,
mother and their own children – Modern Family shows a multicultural patchwork family and a homosexual couple raising an adopted child. However, all
these family representations are grounded on an heteronormative family ideal: Even though other forms of family like single parenthood or extended family
networks are common in US-American society, in each of Modern Family's regularly presented families two parents are present. In my paper, I will argue
that – in the wake of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s – US-American television sitcoms of the 1980s and early 1990s were heavily engaged
in an act of 'pluralizing' the ideal of the nuclear family – an ideal that was commonly associated with whiteness, heterosexuality and biological lineage.
A qualitative content analysis not only confirms that the sitcoms Love Sidney (NBC, 1981–1983), The Cosby Show (NBC, 1984–1992) and Murphy Brown
(CBS, 1988–1998) held on to the nuclear family model as they either centered around biologically defined nuclear families or symbolic ones. It also confirms
that these sitcoms broke with hitherto prevalent stereotypes and conceptions of family: Love, Sidney represented a homosexual man as a capable father
figure; The Cosby Show portrayed an African American father as a role model; Murphy Brown showed a single mother who successfully combined career
and family while being helped by an friend who fulfilled the role of a father figure to her child. Furthermore, I will point out that these three sitcoms ignited
public debates which were covered by the media. These debates show what can and what can not be said on a consensual level, they – as H. Newcomb and
P. Hirsch already stated – lay open the “metaphoric 'fault lines' in American society” (Newcomb & Hirsch, p. 569–570). Especially conservative Americans
(Love, Sidney and Murphy Brown) and part of the African American community (Cosby Show) felt offended by these new representations of fatherhood
and family. Yet, the so-called mainstream press backed up the television industry's effort of integrating minorities into a modified mainstream ideal. This is
confirmed by the results of a qualitative content analysis. Furthermore, archival research on the actors within the debates and a qualitative content analysis
of minority newspapers confirm that these new representations were also supported within the represented minorities. On a general level, I will first
show that the above mentioned sitcoms were powerful parts of discourses on family values. Secondly, I will point out that the 1980s and 1990s have to be
considered a formative age of contemporary family values in the USA. Literature: Newcomb, H., & Hirsch, P. M. (2000). Television as a cultural forum. In H.
Newcomb (Ed.), Television: The Critical View (pp. 561–573). New York: Oxford University Press.