Author Name:   Pranati Shubha

Media having an access to a large audience should be an effective tool in the empowerment of women.

The Responsibility Of Women Empowerment on Media

Media is considered to be the most important tool of society in the modern times as it has the power to reach out to a large audience by mass communication and create an impact wherever it can reach, which now has become far and wide. Social media through its ever updating apps and networking is an inevitable source of influence on mass. The media at large has been instrumental though not to the degree desired in supporting the movement for women emancipation by focusing on the neglect and marginalization of the position of the women in society. Communication is extremely important for women’s development and mass media play significant role. It is to be distinguished that growth of women’s education and their entry into this business through employment has contributed to the growth of media.

If Media can be a powerful agent of change, it can be an equally powerful agent of oppression. It is without a doubt a dominant medium for advocacy of gender equality and the status of women. Yet the media can also reinforce stereotyped images of women and their roles in society. Women and their contribution to the society have always been overshadowed by the news of their hardships and atrocities inflicted upon them. It is indispensable that the print and electronic media present a balanced picture of women’s diverse lives and contributions to society in a changing world. As media has huge influence on people, it should act with more responsibility before reporting and publishing any news. Portrayal of women which is derogatory to their image by media is an evidence of lack of gender sensitivity and has called for making them accountable for such representation of women. Such instances had led the National Commission for Women to recommend amendment in the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition Act), 1986.

The government in a move to strengthen the legal machinery protecting the dignity of women, approved amendments to the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 in 2012.The aim was to include new technologies like MMS and the electronic media and some which were left outside the ambit of the Act like posters and TV serials which perpetuate stereotypes of women. Promoting a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media is very important to use it in a progressive way and avoiding the ill effects of any such medium of Media. Women's knowledge about media and access to and control over the various forms of conventional and modern media is still limited in most societies.

The increase in the participation and access of women to self-expression and decision-making through the media and new technologies of communication is in a way empowering women. The powerful and positive role that the media can play in the empowerment of women and gender equality should be supported and further explored.

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