Dafna Lemish
Boys Are…Girls Are...: Gender Equity in Children's Media
PREMIERES: Fri, March 11, 7:30-8pm
Repeats:
On WSIU HD 8.1, 16.1: 3/13, 12:30pm; 3/18, 5pm
On WSIU World 8.2, 16.2: 3/12, 4pm; 3/13, 4pm; 3/14, 8pm
Rating: TV-G
SHORT DESCRIPTION:
River Region Evening Edition News Director Rachel Gartner moderates a discussion on gender equity in children's media with David Kleeman, President of the American Center for Children and Media; Professor Dafna Lemish, Chair of the SIUC Radio-Television Department; and Assistant Professor Sarah Lewison of the SIUC Radio-Television Department.
LONG DESCRIPTION:
Studies of children's earliest cognitive development as human beings show that the electronic media they use for learning, entertainment, and sharing information will heavily influence just about every aspect of their lives, including how they identify themselves as boys and girls.
An event, "Boys Are…Girlss Are: Gender Equity in Children's Media," held at SIU Carbondale and sponsored by the Department of Radio-Television, the SIUC Global Media Research Center, WSIU Public Broadcasting, and SIUC Women's Studies, brought together internationally recognized experts in the field of children's media for presentations on the latest research in their field and screenings of television programs for children from around the world.
Presenters at “Boys Are…GGirls Are,†which coincided with International Women's Day (March 8), took part this week in a roundtable discussion about gender equity in children's media for this special.
Hosted by River Region Evening Edition News Director Rachel Gartner, the panel included David Kleeman, President of the American Center for Children and Media; Professor Dafna Lemish, chair of the SIUC Department of Radio-Television; and Assistant Professor Sarah Lewison, also of the SIUC Radio-Television Department.
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A symposium next week at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will take a look at gender issues in children’s media.
David Kleeman, president of the American Center for Children and Media, is among the panelists for the discussion that will focus on gender equity in children’s cartoons and other television programming.
The discussion is from 3 to 6 p.m., Tuesday, March 8, in the Communications Building, Studio A. The topic, “Boys Are … Girls Are …: Gender Equity in Children’s Media,” is sponsored by SIUC’s Department of Radio-Television, the Global Media Research Center, WSIU, and the Women’s Studies program. Admission is free, and the public is welcome.
Dafna Lemish, professor and chair of the Department of Radio-Television, said research suggests that what children watch continues to reinforce stereotypes.
“It’s an issue because when you look at television programming for children around the world there is a very prominent inequality that starts with just the numbers -- in the number of characters who are boys and the number of characters who are girls, suggesting that girls are marginal to society” she said. "But it is not only the numbers -- but also the stereotypes associated with girls and boys that are the problem" she said.
Lemish, and Sarah Lewison, an assistant professor in radio-television, will also participate in the discussion. Rachel Gartner, news director for WSIU’s River Region Evening News, will moderate.
“Children see media, and television most of all, as a window to the world; if there are flaws in that window, they may not have the perspective, experience or media literacy to recognize them,” Kleeman said. “So, it’s content creators’ responsibility to reflect honestly the diversity in children’s world, and to avoid stereotypes or representations that could lead young people to conclude that they are not important, or are limited in their potential.”
International research, which Lemish was involved with, shows girls and women are under-represented in children’s television, he said.
“U.S. research shows that females are more limited in their range of roles, and often over-sexualized even in children’s and family shows and film,” Kleeman said.
Kleeman will show a selection of short clips from children’s television programs from other countries, drawn from the worldwide children’s television festival, PRIX JEUNESSE, which occurs every two years.
The festival doesn’t usually draw the most popular programs, but people submit shows “that reflect their culture or deal with substantive topics,” Kleeman said. He plans to use one hour of segments as a “conversation starter” with the audience “on the inter-relationship of culture and media and how it influences stories and portrayals around gender.”
For more information, call the Department of Radio-Television at 618/536-5454 or the Global Media Research Center at 618/453-7709.
Lemish said that Sunday, March 6, is UNICEF’s annual International Children’s Day of Broadcasting, where broadcasters throughout the world are encouraged to devote a day to quality programming for children.
From 8:30 to 9 a.m. on Sunday, WSIU-TV will air a compilation of approximately 20, one-minute spots produced by youth from around the world, most of which focus on the child’s everyday life, said Monica Tichenor, the public information and promotions coordinator for WSIU Public Broadcasting.
WSIU Radio is airing a series of special UNICEF radio features produced by African students associated with UNICEF’s youth radio initiative. The features explore what life is like growing up in Africa. The three- to five-minute features will air at 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., starting Wednesday, March 2, and running through Friday, March 24, Tichenor said.
In addition, an interview by WSIU Radio’s Jennifer Fuller featuring Kleeman and Lemish is available on podcast at www.wsiu.org/
Kleeman will also discuss gender equity in broadcasting for women in an interview with Gartner that will air on WSIU-TV’s “InFocus,” which will air at 9 p.m., Friday, March 11. The segment will rebroadcast at 12:30 p.m., Sunday, March 13.
Global Markets in Local Color (World Heritage Yard Sales)
Assistant Professor Sarah Lewison, Department of Radio-Television, College of Mass Communication & Media Arts, SIUC
Monday, February 14th - 1:00 p.m.
Communications Building Room 1032
Sarah Lewison lived for six months in 2008 in a small village in northwest Yunnan, China - the ancestral home of the Naxi people, who are one of the 56 ethnic minorities recognized by the People’s Republic of China. In her presentation, Lewison will describe the Naxi culture and discuss the lived reality of the Naxi, who are beset with the same contradictions and challenges facing many indigenous populations in the outer peripheries of development.
Lewison will focus on the contradictions faced by the Naxi through representations made of them by tourism industries, contrasting the common commercial tourism vernacular with approaches used by NGOs interested in land conservation and finally with a Naxi-owned ecotourism business. Lewison will also speculatively connect these representation strategies to an international tendency toward heritage commodification and management that operates in alignment with incursions of neoliberal privatization.
Assistant Professor Sarah Lewison is a producer, artist, and writer whose work examines power, economics, and political subjectivity. Lewison’s research about media aesthetics, social history, sustainability, and culture has been published internationally. She holds an MFA from the University of California-San Diego.
FREE EVENT – OPEN TO ALL. Contact Laura Germann at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 618-453-6876 for more information.
Please encourage students to check out the MCMA Spring 2011 Class Preview Day this Friday. It is a great opportunity for a "sneak peek" at what is being offered. Any help you can give in getting the word out would be appreciated.
Want the chance to check out a Spring 2011 course ahead of time? Take advantage of the College's Spring 2011 Class Preview Day this Friday, October 29th in the COMM Building.
The following classes are being showcased. Each participant will be given a ticket upon the conclusion of any session which may be turned in for pizza at 12:30. Program brochures will be available in COMM 1032 the day of the event.
This is a FREE program.
Session I 11:00-11:20
MCMA 396/JRNL 419 Publishing on the WWW/Online Journalism Stoner COMM 1205
RT 489 003/MCMA 497 001 Gender, Militarization and Media Brooten COMM 1032
JRNL 337 Video/Online Journalism
Session II 11:30-11:50
RT 357 Media Promotion Wall RT Conf., Room
CP 260 Understanding Visual Media Felleman COMM 1122
MCMA 563 Globalization, Culture and Media Brooten COMM 1032
JRNL 410 Multimedia Project: Reports Recktenwald COMM 1205
Session III 12:00-12:20
JRNL 435 Advanced Graphic Communication Veenstra COMM 1205
RT 489 001/MCMA 555 002 Media in the Lives of Childhood and Adolescents Lemish COMM 1032
RT 305
CP 452
Lunch 12:30-12:55
Session IV 1:00- 1:20
RT 461/digital graphics classes Multimedia Production
CP 102
Session V 1:30- 1:50
RT 489 002 Blaxploitation Films of the 1970's Lawrence COMM 1046
CP 470D Generative Art Spahr COMM 1122
MCMA 555 004 Policy Reporting and Research Freivogel COMM 1032
Questions? Contact Deborah Tudor at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
As published in the Southern Illinoisan
Young women made event a success
To the Editor:
Recently, a truly amazing group of young women participated in a unique experience on the campus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Faculty from the Departments of Cinema-Photography and Radio-Television and the School of Journalism volunteered their time, energy and considerable talents to offer girls from all over the state of Illinois (and Detroit, Mich.) the opportunity to be part of the very first Girls Make Movies Camp.
The College of Mass Communication and Media Arts would like to thank everyone involved, especially SIUC faculty members, Angela Aguayo, Susan Felleman, Sarah Lewison, Anita Stoner, Jan Thompson, Michele Torre and Deborah Tudor; SIUC alumnus and Hollywood producer, Liz Ralston; graduate students, Dasha Bondareva, Victoria Carter and Dan Elgin; Cinema major, Danielle Williamson; WSIU Broadcasting Service; and the many SIUC staff members who went above and beyond their normal duties to assist in this effort.
We are especially appreciative of Dennis Lyle and the Illinois Broadcasters Association for providing the grant funds that enabled us to offer this experience at very low cost to campers, and to the folks at Flyaway Farm and Dayshift Boutique who permitted the girls to interview and film them. Finally, we give our thanks to the campers for giving this experience their all and for learning more not only about the moving image, but about themselves.
Clare Mitchell
Assistant Dean of Student Affairs
College of Mass Communication and Media Arts
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Assistant Professor David R. Burns' creative research on memory and post-memory "Digital Media, Memories and Representation: Rebirth," was presented at International Society of Electronic Arts (ISEA) 2009 conference in Belfast, Ireland.  Burns' also screened his animation work, "Visit-US" at the International One Minute Film & Video Festival in Aarau Switzerland.
Dr. John Downing conducted a video interview via the Deep Dish TV network on the multiple terms used to define alternative media, shot at the July OurMedia conference near Medellin, Colombia.  The interview is online at the Deep Dish site, Waves of Change.   Downing also conducted an interview concerning his alternative media research by Patricia Wittenberg Cavalli, of the Federal University of Pernambuco, in the Brazilian Communication Studies journal FAMECOS.
Assistant Professor Sarah Lewison was nominated for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, a bi-annual award for artists whose work shows promise but who have not yet achieved widespread critical or commercial recognition.   Lewison collaborated with the Midwest collective Compass Group on "Region from Below: Power Plants," an installation at the Smart Museum in Chicago until January 17, as part the international exhibition "Heartland".
Associate Professor Jake Podber's book "The Electronic Front Porch" was awarded 3rd prize from the Appalachian Book of the Year Awards.
Graduate Student Achievements
MFA student Josh Gumiela presented a paper "Net Gain/Net Loss: the Googlization of Net Art in the Era of Neoliberalism" at the International Society of Electronic Arts 2009 conference in Belfast, Ireland.
MFA student Estefanía Martínez was selected to be a student volunteer at SIGGRAPH 2009 this year in New Orleans.
Download Sarah Lewison's CVVideo, social movements, environmental media, installation, live art and performance.
Sarah Lewison, Assistant Professor, is a media producer, artist and writer whose work examines power, economics and political subjectivity. Her teaching and research areas include media and social change, ecological pedagogy and experimental performance. Her video work includes the documentary Fat of the Land which screened on PBS and in museums, festivals and community spaces worldwide, and is nationally noted for stimulating the do-it-yourself waste-grease bio-diesel movement. Prof. Lewison's writing about media aesthetics, social history, sustainability and culture has been published in Tema (Denmark), Journal of Northeast Studies (Hamburg, Germany), Area (Chicago), and "Failure! Experiments in Aesthetics and Social Practices" (Aesthetics and Protest Pub., LA). She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of California San Diego.
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