Media an important tool for ethical storytelling — Pawale

Dimapur, Oct. 10 (EMN): Project Coordinator, NITI AAYOG, Prarthana Pawale, has said media is an important tool for ethical storytelling.

The project coordinator was participating in the talk on ‘Gender and Media’ organised by Multimedia and Mass Communication department, Patkai Christian College (Autonomous) at MMC studio on Monday.

An update from MMC department informed that Pawale, as the resource person, shared her experience working in the area of gender advocacy, women and child health and education for marginalised children.

Explaining the gender-media relation, she said, “When we produce stories by reporting the intersectionality between power, gender, caste, religion, we are challenging the power hierarchy and common narrative so that we don’t reproduce the existing power relations.”

“We need to acknowledge the above issues by creating awareness through these stories so that we don’t reproduce biases, after all its not just turning on the camera,” Pawale said.

She also said that media, being a mass medium, can perpetuate gender inequalities and at the same question the norms.

Quoting UNICEF, Pawale highlighted the reinforcement of gender bias in Indian advertisements and said the concept of “Femadvertising” is quite evident in the present time, it stated.

Speaking on intersectionality of gender and media, she underscored the need to be gender sensitive in media reportage.

“Underrepresentation and misrepresentation need to be addressed when media reports certain stories on caste, gender and religion,” Pawale said.

She further stated that media is an important pillar of institutions including family, religion, education and government that constructs the gender roles in the society.

Hence it is extremely important to address and talk about the gender stereotypes propagated through various advertisements, movies and story coverage, it stated. 

Pawale also spoke on NITI Aayog and its functions in the context of Nagaland, it stated.

HOD MMC, Dr Dakter Esse, said the topic ‘Gender and Media’ is of much relevance in the way a society go about in consuming the construction of images and perception of femininity and masculinity. To this end, Esse stated that media can either fortify or mitigate these gender biases.

Students from the department of MMC and Education along with faculties participated in the talk.