Women's Institute for
Freedom of the Press
Associate News
last updated October, 2009
Contents:
News of WIFP Associates
Most recent news: Wazhma Wali Sadaat, Danna Walker, Carolyn Byerly, Laura Gil Gonzalez, Birgitte Jallov, Gertrude J. Robinson, Senay Ozdemir, Margaretha Geertsema, Frankie Hutton, Maurine Beasley, Jean Kilbourne, Rojee Kattel, Gail Rebhan.
Websites of WIFP Associates
A Few of the Books by WIFP Associates
graphic by Jin-A Yang
List of Associates Associates' Statement
News of Associates:
Wazhma Wali Sadaat
Wazhma Wali Sadaat is a media woman in Afghanistan who says the key issue of concern for Afghan women is freedom. She believes that with freedom they can do everything for themselves. They would get an education, which is everyone’s right, she says, and they would use it. They would choose their life partner by themselves and girls would not be given away: in exchange, as part of inheritance, or to pay off a debt.
Wazhma is working on a magazine. She is manager of Arfan government magazine in the Ministry of Education. Her radio program is NADA-E-ZAN, which means voice of women. It airs weekly from TALIME radio station. The program is about Afghan women’s life. Women call her about their experiences in their lives. She goes out to them and spends time with women who have problems. Sometimes she can help them as well as sharing their stories. She sometimes puts the Mullah’s speech about women on the air, or other elders, or the words of the Prophet Muhammad because it is an Islamic country and people respect these figures.
Her program has many parts, including the health of women, reality stories of Afghan women, cooking, fashion, and other beneficial things. She intends every part as a way for women to learn something that can put to use in daily life. Wazhma wants the information in her programs to improve the lives of women.
Dr. Danna Walker
Dr Danna Walker's book, Women and Media: The History of an Activist's Fight for Equality: Donna Allen and The Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press is now available in paperback. (380 pages, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing) Our special price is $49.99 with free shipping. (Amazon price: $114.00 USD). Order from WIFP
Dr. Carolyn Byerly
Dr. Carolyn Byerly, associate professor of communications at Howard University in Washington, DC, received the Donna Allen Award for Feminist Advocacy from the Commission on the Status of Women of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication at its annual convention, held in Boston in August.
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Laura Gil Gonzalez
Laura Gil Gonzalez is currently part of our WIFP staff. Laura has a Master's Degree in Journalism from the University of Navarra, Pamploma, Spain. she has hd six years exxperience in the media industry, press offices and PR firms.
Birgitte Jallov
Interning with the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press 1982/83, Birgitte returned to the WIFP for some intense days in July this year, reconnecting and catching up.
While working under the inspiring leadership of Donna Allen and in close collaboration with Martha Allen, Birgitte 26 years ago at the institute continued the work she had begun in her native Denmark on the empowering potential of community radio – also – for women. At the institute Birgitte worked with women’s use of and work with community radio, low power media and general access to the media issues.
Moving on with work in her Copenhagen-based women’s community radio collective and as a reporter on Denmark’s first two community TV stations, Birgitte took her conviction that people / women should speak for themselves forward in community work in Denmark and in press freedom and media development work as an independent consultant, as the head of the Communication for Development Unit in the ILO and as chief technical adviser of one of UNESCO’s largest media development projects to date in Mozambique, working to assist the country in the transition of the media sector from a socialist government-controlled media to a dynamic media, able to further the country’s move towards a multi-party democracy. During Birgitte’s work here (1998-2006) the community radio sector developed from 8 initial community radios to 60, along with support given to the Government broadcaster, women in the media, adequate HIV/AIDS work by the media, support to small newspapers and a lot (!) or journalism training and other capacity building.
Today Birgitte continues to work as an independent consultant with issues related to empowerment of communities and people through the use of communication and media for social change and development. Visiting the WIFP Birgitte stressed how important her WIFP work period had been for her to consolidate early convictions – and sees the work she is still deeply involved with as an immediate extension of the inspiration and courage shared by Donna and Martha Allen so long ago.
Birgitte Jallov's website: www.birgitte-jallov.com
Dr. Gertrude J. Robinson
Since retiring from Mc Gill University in Montreal in 2000, Dr. Robinson has spent er time writing a comparative book about the increase of women in the journalism profession. It was published in 2005 by Hampton Press Cresskill New Jersey. The title is: Gender, Journalism and Equity: Canadian, U.S., and European Experiences. $25 paper.
The cover notes: "This analysis is unique in that it uses gender as a central explanatory variable; it is comparative and it explores the impact of equity legislation on the profession in North America and Europe. The book's focus on gender as a socially constructed attribute, permits the author to address the systemic biases that are inhering in the social reproduction of the journalism profession across countries. These biases lead to classificatory and evaluative procedures that have negative outsomes for female professionals such as differences in access, promotion, and pay. It also provides evidence of how male denigration of females' managerial protential inhibits female promotions to top positions, and the difficulties females encounter in functioning in these roles." The 8 chapters provide evidence on female representation in print & television journalism in North America and Europe (Britain, Germany, Scandinavia); the "working climate" and "glass ceiling" in the newsroom; equal opportunity legislation in N.A. and Europe, as well as examples of what "equity in portrayal" demands might look like. Gertrude has spent the last three years promoting the book at national and international communication conventions and has received warm responses on both sides of the Atlantic.
Senay Ozdemir
Senay Ozdemir has a book out, published June 25, 2009 (The Wax Club at Arbeiderspers). See http://www.deharsclub.nl/
You can see Senay Ozdemir's blog at: www.senayozdemir.blogspot.com
We would also like to refer you to a column of Eileen Flynn, a fellow lecturer at UT and a columnist for Austin American Statesman: www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/faith/06/20/0620flynn.html
Senay is a visiting professional at the University of Texas at Austin, where she created and teaches the course "Online Publishing" in the School of Journalism. She is the Director of Medusa Media Productions, a multimedia company that produces the online magazine SEN, writes articles for other publications and works as a consultant for the Dutch government about women’s and media issues. As the founder and editor-in-chief of SEN Magazine, Ozdemir tackles women’s issues targeted toward Mediterranean women aged 20-35 with an Islamic background living in the Netherlands. She has written op-eds for the LA Times, NRC Handelsblad and de Volkskrant about issues regarding women’s emancipation.
Dr. Margaretha Geertsema
Dr. Margaretha Geertsema is an assistant professor in the Eugene S. Pulliam School of Journalism at Butler University in Indianapolis. Her research focuses on gender and news in an international context, and her work has been published or accepted for publication in various academic journals, including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Feminist Media Studies, Feminist Teacher and the Journal of Development Communication. She teaches classes in media writing, mass communication, international communication, and women's human rights. Margaretha is currently working on a research project about collaboration between U.S. women’s media organizations and women in the Middle East to improve access and representation to the news media.
Dr. Frankie Hutton
Dr. Frankie Hutton, author and university history professor, and Ms. Uma Swaminathan, high school teacher and film maker, hosted a group to hear social activist Dr. Tobe Levin talk about her new book Empathy and Rage in April, 2009 in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Dr. Levin heads FORWARD-Germany a NGO that works to fight female genital mutilation and her new book is a survey of African fiction and literature with regard to female genital mutilation. Dr. Levin is award winning collegiate professor in the University of Maryland system and teaches in Europe.
Also, Frankie Hutton has launched The Rose Project that is a spin off of her book Rose Lore: Essays in Cultural History and Semiotics which seeks to link with 501(c) 3 organizations and community groups in the creation of something beautiful and useful to serve humanity. (The rose, of course, is the flower most linked to hermetic knowledge, universal feminine qualities and female genitalia.) The first community event sponsored by The Rose Project was a joint effort with Artists Showcase of the Palm Beaches, a county wide art competition in Palm Beach County Florida at the Lake Park Public Library in February 2009. High School art students and amateur community artists were encouraged to participate in a rose art competiton that culminated in an afternoon celebration and $1,000 in prize money awarded. website: www.geocities.com/frankiehutton/rose.html
Dr. Maurine Beasley
Associate Maurine H. Beasley, professor emerita of journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, has written chapters pertaining to the history of women and communications in two recent books. Both, by coincidence, have been published by the University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri.
One is "Good Women and Bad Girls," a history of the images of women presented in the first newspaper published by the University of Missouri School of Journalism when it opened its doors 101 years ago. It appears in the book titled 1908: Journalism At Its Professional Birth edited by Betty H. Winfield. The two is "Hannah Arendt: Public as Authority," published in Clifford G. Christians and John C. Merrill, eds., Ethical Communication: Five Moral Stances in Human Dialogue. Maurine also published a 5,000 word invited review essay, "Pens, Petticoats and Revolutionaries: Women and the Power of the Press," in the Journalism of Women's History 20, no. 3 (Autumn 2008): 206-218. In addition, she gave a paper at a refereed panel session of the Organization of American Historians convention in Seattle, WA on March 26. The title: "Advising Suffering Womanhood: Dorothy Dix Addresses the Lovelorn."
Jean Kilbourne
Jean Kilbourne's new book So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids (co-authored with Diane Levin) has just been published by Ballantine.
The book deals with children from infancy through adolescence and is very much about boys as well as girls. It is for parents, teachers, and everyone who cares about children. Jean Kilbourne and Diane Levin have been concerned about these issues for years and hope the book will spark a lot of discussion and action.
Please see the website, www.sosexysosoon.com.
Rojee Kattel
Rojee Kattel, Community Outreach Manager of the BBC World Service Trust, sends her greetings from Nepal. She is working for democracy and peace in Nepal. Rojee Kattel has been working with thousands of groups of men and women to raise their voices for the new constitution. Gail Rebhan
Gail Rebhan, active with WIFP in the 1970's, created two new artist’s books.
The book “Twenty-one” depicts this highly anticipated birthday. Voting, entering into contracts, serving in the military, and being charged as an adult in court all begin at age eighteen (except in Mississippi and the District of Columbia). But, turning twenty-one means the end of underage drinking. This book depicts the essence of this significant birthday. These candid color photographs of a backyard twenty-first birthday party in the summer document the casual, carefree, playful, and energetic spirit of twentysomethings. The book opens with images of a beer keg and grilling hot dogs, moves to dunking for apples, more beer, a slip and slide water game, beer, taking photos, beer, a keg stand, birthday cake, more beer, beer pong and beer. This book describes the culture of middle-class kids on the cusp of adulthood celebrating the ritual of turning twenty-one.
From Gail:
In “Some Light Switches in my House,” I document with deadpan humor some light switches in my house. Most of the light switches are plain white rectangles. The crisp frontal color photographs are all shot from the same distance. There is, however, a surprising variety. Some are dirty, indicating heavy use. Others are relatively pristine. The light switches for the master bedroom and bath are in better condition than the light switches for the other bedroom and bath. The switches in the basement and laundry room are particularly unfinished. This book is a continuation of my exploration of contemporary middle-class daily life. Light switches reveal much about our use (and value) of the various areas of our home.
You can see a preview of these books at her web site www.gailrebhan.com
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