Beach’s text talked about the under representation of women and minorities in television news (97). After I finished typing the post about KARE 11 News at 5, it occurred to me that I should have paid more attention to what reports/news each anchor and reporter was giving. It would be interesting to study what information females present and if it is different from the material males are presenting (in a co-anchored news broadcast).
Have students watch local news broadcast. Take notes on what stories are presented by each anchor. Put the stories into categories (news, weather, human interest, entertainment etc). Are the human interest or entertainment stories presented more often by men or by women? If one gender is more common given certain types of stories, what does this say about the role of women in television broadcasting or in our society? Consider Katie Couric and Connie Chung (or other major female anchors) and how they are perceived in society. What stations are they on? How many viewers do they get? Compare their national status to that of local anchors.
In Anchorman (though set in the mid 1900’s and a comedy), the character Veronica Corningstone is given crappy reporting assignments because she’s a woman. In the CBS show “How I Met Your Mother”, Robin starts out as a reporter who is reporting on things like the oldest hot dog stand in New York or else broadcasting at 4am. (Show clips from each)
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Anna, I like your idea of asking students to analyze the news broadcast for types of stories presented by men versus women. I agree that it would be neat to find statistics in terms of viewership, popularity, and maybe even salary for well-known female anchors such as Katie Couric. It would also be interesting to compare the statistics to those of well-known male anchors. I’m interested in thinking more about how to use the clips from Anchorman and How I Met Your Mother while teaching this lesson. I think that using these clips as hooks to engage students in the lesson about gender roles in the news would be really effective!
ReplyDeleteGood lesson Anna!
ReplyDeleteAnother idea might be to have students compare two broadcasts (or portions of broadcasts) by national news anchors, such as Katie Couric and Brian Williams. You mentioned comparing ratings, and this would be another opportunity for students to make male vs. female comparisons, especially since Couric's ratings are lower than Williams. Is it tied to gender? How did the ratings compare NBC and CBS when CBS had a male anchor? Did Couric's gender play a role in the station's lower ratings, or is it related to job performance?
Anna, Looking at how each gender presents information does sound very interesting. You could also look at the TV show "How I Met Your Mother" and look at Robin's character and the types of news casts she is always stuck doing. It seems like she never does "real" news. This might be something I look at in my assignment for Sunday. Thanks for the great idea!
ReplyDeleteHi Anna. You had some interesting things to say in your June 18th blog. You offered good suggestions as to what a teacher should be asking his or her students with regards to putting a critical eye on news programs. I think that the “national status” of Katie Couric and Connie Chung compared to their male counterparts would be an interesting debate. I also love anchorman!
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