ECREA16-Abstract

285

Friday, November 11

1 6 : 0 0 – 1 7 : 3 0

GEC05

Raising Questions of Gender andMedia Production

PP 411

Is Journalism Gender E-Qual? A Study on the Gendered Accumulation and Evaluation of Digital Capital Among Journalists

S. De Vuyst

, K. Raeymaeckers

Ghent University, Communication Studies, Ghent, Belgium

This paper examines the role of digitalisation in shaping and reproducing gender relations in journalism. It builds on the concepts of Bourdieu’s field theory

to study how journalists construct the value of digital capital in this rapidly changing professional field. In the past several decades, research has widely

illustrated the significant impact of technological innovation in the media industry. Researchers have acknowledged the impact of digitalisation on different

layers of the journalistic profession. In the first instance, digitisation stimulated convergence, which created challenges for traditional media companies

and changed the structure of the global media industry tremendously. In this context of expanding convergence, journalistic practices changed as well. In

increasingly computerized newsrooms, journalists have access to a wide range of digital tools, such as social media, websites, and mobile phones, to gather

and disseminate information. However, the assets of these new tools are not automatically accessible to all journalists. In order to enjoy the professional

advantages of these new tools, journalists must develop specific digital skills, which often requires additional time investment and training. There are

differences in the speed of adoption and in levels of digital expertise among journalists, which are often explained by age. It is interesting to observe that

the gender aspect is rarely taken into account in this type of research in journalism studies, even though previous studies have shown that the technological

competence of men and women is often evaluated differently. Feminist media scholars have stressed the importance of the gender perspective when

studying working conditions, career trajectories and the work-life balance in journalism, but only a few of these studies have applied this perspective to

technological innovation in journalism. Our study will begin to fill this gap by combining perspectives from both fields of inquiry in order to gain a better

understanding of the impact of recent technological changes on gender relations in journalism. Studying this possible influence is important, because

earlier research has shown that the progress of women in journalism is not linear and profoundly sensitive to structural transitions in the global media

industry. Our central research question explores gender dimensions of technological innovations in journalism. We conducted 24 in-depth interviews with

a cross-national sample of journalists with varying levels of digital competence. Our findings offer insight into the importance of digital expertise as a form

of cultural capital in journalism. The data paints a picture of the perceptions and experiences of male and female journalists with digital tools and in the use

of strategies related to digital capital in the struggle for power, status and legitimacy in the field of journalism. The results suggest that gender permeates

both the evaluation and the accumulation of digital capital in journalism. There was a strong connection with other forms of capital such as gender capital

and reproductive support capital. The participants also described strategies related to digital capital that could increase the status of women in the field

of journalism.

PP 412

New Ways to Be Heard? A Case Study on Women Hosted Podcasts in Germany

N. Heise

Graduate School Media and Communication, Social Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

Over ten years after journalist Ben Hammersley coined the term “podcasting”, more attention is being focused on the medium recently, due to successful

formats like Serial, audience growth etc. (Berry 2015). While the existing literature tends to focus on podcasting as a distribution system, production

convention or revenue model (e.g. for radio broadcasters), podcasts as ‘personal media’and cultural phenomenon received only little attention in commu‑

nication and media research. As an easily available, convenient to use web technology and participatory medium, podcasting is enabling users (amateurs,

pro-am’s etc.) to run their own‘independent DIY radio’and to publish diversified (niche) audio content, free from formal restrictions. These kind of indepen‑

dent/private audio podcasts seem to offer new possibilities to engage politically and socially as well as empowering potentials for marginalized groups,

minority communities etc. Thus, podcasting might be“a powerful tool to reclaim representation of realities and issues”(Martini 2014), and to create a more

democratic and inclusive media ecology. However, several studies revealed a participation gap in podcasting: Not only is podcast production dominated

by men (82 to 88%; cf. Mocigemba/Riechmann 2007; Markman 2012; Markman/Sawyer 2014; Knickmeier 2014) – this gender related bias is also evident

among podcast listeners, which tend to be “highly educated, economically stable, heavily male, and surrounded by technology on a daily basis” (Chadha

et al. 2012: 390). Apparently, podcasting“copied the same gender stereotypes and realities”of traditional broadcasting environments (cf. Shapiro 2013) –

nevertheless, the field of women hosted podcasts is still rather underexplored. Against this background, the paper presents findings on podcasting practices

and offerings by women from German speaking countries, based on an explorative analysis of the crowdsourced directory“Frauenstimmen im Netz”, which

was started in August 2014 (n=210). With over half of the formats running since 2013, the results indicate that there has been a growth of women hosted

podcasts in recent years. About half of the listed podcasts are produced by women exclusively, who share their expertise, experiences and views on a broad

variety of topics, such as pop/geek culture, technology, politics, society, arts (the top 3 topics are“everyday life”, n=30;“knitting”, n=18;“literature”, n=14).

While some of these offerings are ‘radio-like’shows, many of them are ‘solo-casts’(one host: n=88, 42%), which points to the emergence of new ‘personal

media genres’ (Lüders et al. 2010): ‘audio diaries’, for instance, seem to offer female hosts an intimate and personal space to tell their own stories. Other

cases, like (feminist) DIY and needlework podcasts, show the relevance of creating networks and build communities between hosts and their listeners:

Not only to connect and create discursive arenas countering mass media representations of women and/or issues labelled as “female”, but also to provide

forums of mutual support and feedback.While these podcasts point to the empowering potentials, e.g. to address and reclaim issues like sexuality, sports or

science, more research is needed on women’s experiences with the medium, and the reasons behind the marginalized role of female voices in independent

audio podcasting.