Industry Resources
Roles and Respect for Women in Popular Prime-Time Broadcast Television:
Professional or Personal?
The representation of women in primetime television is changing. It may seem to some to be a revolution – where show runner Shonda Rhimes can successfully generate popular female characters that are celebrated for portrayals beyond sexual stereotypes and where these characters may even be the boss (Everett, 2015). This has occurred, in spite of the constraints of working in the television industry still considered to be a gendered production process, privileging males (O’Brien, 2015). Read More (members only)
Research piece from BEA/AWM partnership for Women Leading in Media (April 2016 – BEA Convention)
Author is Beth Olson, University of Houston
Room at the Top: Empowering Women in Broadcast News Leadership
The purpose of this qualitative study of current and former women television news directors is to understand how the organizational culture of television news supports or fails to support women as news managers. Through in-depth interviews with women who are or have been news directors in local television markets, this study seeks to explore the issues that contribute to the relatively low percentage of women in news director roles in the industry. By revealing the lived experiences of some of these women, this study seeks to describe existing barriers and opportunities in management. The results of this research have the potential to empower women in television news and invigorate the recruitment and retention of women news directors. Diversity in the newsroom, among both staff and management, is essential to practicing responsible journalism that truly reflects and benefits the audience. Read More
Research piece from BEA/AWM partnership for Women Leading in Media (April 2016 – BEA Convention)
Author is Christine Eschenfelder, Middle Tennessee State University.