Gender and Mass Media, English.docVIP

Gender and Mass Media: Representation of Women’s Images in Television CommercialsIrina A. Ilchenko (translated by Olena Prykhodko) Introduction: At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Ukraine is undergoing complex and lengthy political, economic, and social transformations related to a gradual change from an administrative and command model to a democratic model of society, including the construction of civil society. Such transformations are accompanied by the necessity to create a democratic culture of society and its integral part—gender culture. A powerful tool to create and communicate gender democracy and gender culture of society are media-technologies which have become an integral part of people’s everyday lives and part of Ukrainian culture. Mass media are able to legitimate gender ideas and notions shaped by gender politics and ideology, and to increase the probability of their reception by audiences. The efficacy of gender culture formation depends both on state gender politics and on gender strategies and ideology of mass media and the images presented by them. The importance of this module is defined by a necessity to re-think gender aspects of mass media in Ukraine and, in particular, of TV commercials as one of the most effective tools of gender construction and socialization. A review of Ukrainian advertisement context (1990-2004) through the lens of gender permits us to observe gender culture of the society during the past 14 years and evaluate its dynamics. A comparative analysis of American and Ukrainian TV (commercial) contexts presents common and distinctive traits in gender culture and politics of both countries.Target audience: Masters level students of journalism, sociology and other social science fields, as well as journalists who are interested in gender research.Academic Aims: To reveal the role of TV commercials in creation of gender stereotypes, to develop analytical skills for deconstructing the gendered nature of TV