Tribune's 'WomanNews' gives voice to women's issues

Newspaper Research Journal, Winter 2002 by Lueck, Therese L, Chang, Huayun

Entertainment features continued to make up a considerable amount of the editorial material. Often, however, they focused some critical attention on media's role relative to women, which contributed to the section's ability to address the second WIFP criterion: analysis of media's role to women.

A prominent inside story in the first issue took aim at television law dramas, saying that the programming did not reflect the real-life situation for women in the law profession. The article pointed out that, although only 20 percent of the U.S. lawyers were women, the producers of the evening dramas, Steven Bocho and Thomas Carter, said that they wanted an "equal balance" of men and women in their shows, and they wanted to portray women in a variety of law roles.29 A front-page story in June focused on the big screen, reporting that American films with older women as protagonists often misrepresented those women. The article cited a Boston University study that found that "the male-- dominated film industry persists in portraying an older woman as 'hag, nag, witch, or worse.'"30

Discussion of the movie "Thelma & Louise" hit the section a number of times that year. Most writers favored this movie, with one considering it "a bolt of lightning illuminating the dangerous complacency of the feminist landscape and the appalling lack of worthy roles for women on the silver screen."31 A 21-- year-old fan of this movie saw it as a trailblazer, saying, "It's not that for our generation, or for Thelma and Louise, feminism never happened. It happened. But in the Hollywood arena, the one reached by blockbuster Hollywood films, it's not happening, and it should be."31 Callie Khouri, the author of the movie's script, stated on a July section front, "This movie touches upon themes not commonly addressed in a mainstream Hollywood movie: sexism, the shaky relationship between men and women, female friendship and the continuous threat of violence, especially sexual violence that permeates contemporary American society."33 Much like the movie "Thelma & Louise," the "WomanNews" section gave attention to issues not generally addressed in mainstream media, and it approached them from feminist perspectives.

Principle #3: A non-attack approach

Whether the section was depicting women in non-traditional work roles, showing them as average or exceptional, the mix of articles expressed an attitude of sisterhood, not one of attack based on a difference of opinion or variance from some cultural ideal. This type of tone and content enabled the section to address the third WIFP criterion: a non-attack approach.

To support women-friendly alternative viewpoints, articles often relied on non-mainstream sources. For example, a story on the problem of ageism cited an Older Women's League report that urged Congress to "eliminate job and wage discrimination against older women by supporting the Family Medical Leave Act, paying equity reform, and [instituting] more federal job training programs targeted to older women."34