SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
 número34The Men´s Shed Movement: The Company of MenMarginalidade e alternativa: Vinte e seis filósofas para o século XXI índice de autoresíndice de assuntosPesquisa de artigos
Home Pagelista alfabética de periódicos  

Serviços Personalizados

Journal

Artigo

Indicadores

Links relacionados

  • Não possue artigos similaresSimilares em SciELO

Compartilhar


Ex aequo

versão impressa ISSN 0874-5560

Ex aequo  no.34 Lisboa dez. 2016

 

RECENSÕES

Gender in Focus: (new) trends in media, edited by Carla Cerqueira, Rosa Cabecinhas e Sara Isabel Magalhães. Universidade do Minho, Braga: CECS, 2016, 240 pp.

Roberto Martinez-Pecino*

 

*Social Psychology Department, School of Communication and School of Psychology University of Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain

 

The media are certainly one of the hallmarks of our society as it has been clearly reflected for instance in the UNESCO Grunwald Declaration. Therefore, they deserve scientific and academic attention, study and research. This is the case in the book of this book review: Gender in Focus: (new) trends in media, edited by Carla Cerqueira, PhD, Rosa Cabecinhas, PhD, and Sara Isabel Magalhães, PhD. To delve into this work we should first contextualize it, starting with the editors and then, the framework in which the book is framed.

The book Gender in Focus: (new) trends in media is backed by three editors with a highly recognized career, of which we highlight some aspects: Carla Cerqueira holds a PhD in Communication Sciences. She got a competitive postdoctoral grant that allowed her to develop her activity at the Communication and Society Research Centre, University of Minho, Portugal, as well as at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, and at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Netherlands. She has also been vice-chair of the Gender and Communication Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). Rosa Cabecinhas holds a PhD in Communication Sciences with specialization in Social Psychology. She is Associate Professor at the Social Sciences Institute of the University of Minho, Portugal, and Researcher at the Communication and Society Research Centre. She has been former Deputy-Director of the Communication and Society Research Centre, head of the Communication Sciences Department and head of the Master Program in Communication Science, among others. It is also worth noting that she has been principal investigator (among others) of the competitive research project, funded by the Portuguese Science Foundation: Gender in focus social representations in Portuguese generalist newsmagazines. Sara Isabel Magalhães holds a PhD in Educational Psychology. She got a competitive postdoctoral grant that has allowed her to develop her academic activity at University of Porto, Portugal, and University of Sevilla, Spain. She is member of the board of the Portuguese Association on Women Studies.

In this analysis about gender, feminism and media, the editors offer the reader a book where it is worth noting its international character, with the involvement of scholars from different countries, as well as its interdisciplinary and intersectional character. It also combines the authorship of scholars with a wide variety of experience ranging from junior to senior.

Together with the guarantees of the well-known career of the editors and under the umbrella of the aforementioned research project led by Dra. Cabecinhas, this book gets its final inspiration in the International Conference (entitled like the book): «Gender in focus: (new) trends in media», that took place in the beautiful city of Braga, in the north or Portugal, in 2014. Over 100 participants from 22 different countries met in that International Conference. Thus, the book encompasses a selection of articles presented at this conference that with its international, interdisciplinary and intersectional character shed light and let us deepen in the fascinating media field from a feminist perspective.

For that goal, this book present a four-section structure: Section I – Gender and Communication, Section II – Gender Representations, Section III – Gender and News, and Section IV – Gender and Media Reception.

The first section leads us with a wide and generalist approach, beginning with the article «Stasis and Shifts in feminist media scholarship» prepared by Carolyn M. Byerly (Howard University, USA), where the author emphasizes the need of going beyond the study on women representation to the causes of those representations.

Afterwards, Antonio Fernando Cascais (New University of Lisbon, Portugal) analyses de problematizations, methodologies and intersections in the study of gender and communication. Finally, in this first section Zara Pinto-Coelho and Silvana Mota-Ribeiro (CECS, University of Minho, Portugal) present a critical overview of the current discursive practices about gender, sex and sexuality in two open access communication journals published in Portugal.

Section II about gender representations begins with the work prepared by Claudia Álvares and Adalberto Fernandes (Faculty of Medicine, Lusófona University and University of Lisbon, Portugal) about the biopolitical intersections of discourses on human life and female body analysing two media representations of two cases of young women diagnosed with vegetative state for a long time in USA and Europe. Yaisa Janssens (Ghent University, Belgium), analyses whether the existing schemes for self-regulation are effective and successful based on the Belgian situation. Section II finishes with the work of Orquidea Cadilhe (University of Minho, Portugal) by analysing how Cher's music videos contribute to elaborate on gender narratives.

In Section III, Gender and News, Maria Joao Silveirinha (University of Coimbra, Portugal) highlights the need to include the insights from a feminist ethic of care when dealing with emotions, care and gender in the construction of news. Nuria Fernandez-Garcia (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) examines gender treatment in print coverage of ministers politician. Finally, Carla Baptista, Ana Cabrera, Carla Martins and Teresa Mendes Flores ((FCSH-UNL, CIMJ; CIMJ; ULHT, CIEG, CIMJ, ULHT, CIMJ, Portugal) through content analysis and interviews analyses female political and journalistic representation.

In Section IV – Gender and media reception, Adrija Dey (University of Hull, UK) analyses the role of information and communication technology and social media on gender activism in India. Carla Ganito and Cátia Ferreira (CECC-FCH, Catholic University of Portugal) analyses gender and the uptake of digital reading.

To conclude the book a biography of the authors complement the text.

In sum, through an international, interdisciplinary and intersectional selection of articles presented in these four sections (Gender and Communication Studies, Gender Representations, Gender and News, and Gender and Media Reception), the editors invite the reader to reflect, analyse and deepen understanding about gender and the (new) trends in media. Thus, they contribute, as they highlight at the beginning of the book, to enrich a bigger picture, to bring insights into this research area, and to help answering the question of where we stand today in this field.

Creative Commons License Todo o conteúdo deste periódico, exceto onde está identificado, está licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons