Use of women in the media, criticism from WACC-OCLACC workshop

Edelberto Behs, PORTO ALEGRE, Brasil, January 30, 2003

“Prime beef,” said one FM radio station in Santiago Chile in a poster advertising one Taxi Heathrow Airport of a music programs, with a photo of a woman’s buttock. An outcry from women forced the station to pull the advertising.

This example of the struggle and a critical reading of communication media was presented by María Helena Hermosilla, president of the World Association for Christian Communication – Latin America Region.

She made the presentation during a workshop the WACC- Latin America organized together with the Latin American and Caribbean Catholic Communication Organization (OCLACC).

In order to change the world, said the Chilean journalist, there is a need for empowered citizens. Hermosilla defined her country as the “embarrassment of the region” as it was the last Latin American nation to grant women the right to vote and to date does not have a law on divorce.

Catholic Communicator Ana Maria Rodríguez, who participated with Hermosilla in the workshop “Globalization, gender and communication in Latin America,” commented on an investigation held in her country, Colombia, which demonstrates that women’s work is not present in Colombia radio.

While radio’s aim is not necessarily to educate, people are learning when they listen. One of the objectives of the feminist agenda regarding mass communication media, is to emphasize the educational role of these media, she said.

Television, said Hermosilla, has constructed an informative system but also has an impact on behavior. She mentioned the soap operas that present a profile of men and women that are adopted by society.

It is essential to be alert, to denounce and make reality transparent, said the Chilean journalist. “It is not natural that girls learn to cook and boys do not. These things are cultural constructions,” she said 

She proposes that mass communication media be monitored and questioned the models of public participation.

At age 25 Hermosilla confronted salary discrimination. At that time she carried out the same tasks as a colleague but was paid less for being a woman. “We must investigate because there are many women working at the grassroots level but we rarely see them in executive position. Women must struggle to hold important positions,” she said.

Placing women on the public agenda and in mass communication media is a current challenge, affirmed the president of WACC-Latin America.

 “This is a struggle that should also take place within the Church,” said Ana Maria Rodriquez, when asked about the participation of women in the Catholic Church.

“When the hierarchy is questioned, we aren’t given any answers,” she said. She said that the participation of women communicators in Catholic communication media is essentially non-existent.

Hermosilla proposed a critical reading of mass communication media. She indicated that when she investigated the interviews carried out on the radio and in the press she noted that when women were interviewed they were questioned about their children and families. These questions, however, were not put to men.

This was the first time that the two bodies of Christian communications from Latin America, the WACC and the OCLACC carried out a joint workshop, They also addressed community and participatory communication, Workshops were also attended by Pedro Sanchez, of Peru and Atillio Hartmann, present and vice president of the OCLACC respectively.