Gender Representation in the Media

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone who wants to be able to engage with media more critically, or anyone who wants to learn more about gender inequality, female media representation, media studies, feminist activism and feminist analysis.

What topics will you cover?

Studying gender and the media can be complex. First you’ll develop a critical toolkit for thinking about and analysing the media, including:

Key concepts and definitions

Media monitoring in fact and fiction

Once you’ve developed your critical toolkit, we’ll then put it to work. You’ll explore the representation of women in five crucial areas:

Politics

Violence

Sports

Sexualisation and body image

Feminist media and digital media

These different topics will allow you to explore the relationship between the media and gender, especially in relation to other structural inequalities including race, age, sexuality and disability. Representations of women in the media can differ across different geographical contexts.

Throughout the course, we’ll ask you to contribute examples of the media where you are in relation to these topics.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to…

Develop an understanding of key concepts for studying gender in the media, with a particular emphasis on how we understand gender in relation to other structural inequalities including race, age, sexuality and disability.

Develop critical skills for analysing contemporary media texts through a gendered lens.

Explore how the approaches considered in this course play out in your own regional contexts.

Investigate how feminist and women’s organisations have worked to challenge and change mainstream media representations.