A couple readers have commented online that we are only showing photos of female graduates in The Tribune, adding: “Note to Editors, females are not ornamental objects. Thanks.’’
After reading this, I did a quick survey. The readers are correct; we have portrayed female high school and college graduates more often than men. But it’s a huge leap to conclude that we’re treating women as “ornamental objects.’’ I believe these photos, along with all of our stories on outstanding graduates who have excelled or overcome obstacles, are inspirational – and demonstrate great success.
For those keeping score, here are the results. (I don’t think I’ve missed anything):
Tuesday, May 22: one photo and story, man
Saturday, May 26: two photos, both women
Saturday, June 2: two photos A1, woman and man; B1 photo and story, woman
Sunday, June 3: photo and story B1, woman
Thursday, June 7: two photos, men and women
Friday, June 8: three pictures of high school graduates (the two larger ones featured women, the smaller one featured men)
Saturday, June 9: one picture, women
Wednesday, June 13: two pictures, men
Friday, June 15: two A1 pictures (larger one featured two women and one guy more prominently, smaller one featured men), one on B1, featuring women
My conclusion: In terms of sheer numbers, we published six pictures of men, 11 of women. In terms of size, the edge goes to the women too. Beyond this, we have published features of high school and college graduates, and they’ve been pretty well split among men and women.
For broader context, from time to time we conduct gender audits in our newspaper to see how often we portray or quote women vs. men. Typically, white men receive more coverage than women.
P.S. Don't forget to pick up our Sunday Tribune where we'll have a special section listing the names of all high school graduates in the county, as provided by the schools. Plus, we'll cover Cal Poly's graduation ceremony then too.
-- Sandy Duerr
Friday, June 15, 2007
"Females are not ornamental objects"!
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1 comment:
I think the point is not in the stories in which that person was featured, but more the random photos taken by (usually male) photographers of (usually cute) girl grads. Perhaps the real issuse is the lack of female photographers in the newspaper biz.
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