The first conference has now been held in the Women Participation through Media project. The weekend of 28-29 April, our partner Gazete Șujin organized the conference ”Women’s participation in Media” in Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey.
Gazete Sujin places the connection between language use and behavior at the very front of their work. As a website focusing on women’s news, they want to change conditions for women in Turkey to the better. By writing articles from a woman’s perspective, Gazete Șujin shows what language is used in other media outlets; a language in which sexism and a man’s perspective are the most influential. By using another language and by making a different selection in their news reporting, Gazete Șujin influences its own society and interaction between people. In this way, women’s right to security in their everyday life, women’s right to equal participation in the media and women’s political representation, will become reality.
At Gazete Șujin’s conference, the journalist Sibel Yükler held a workshop on the language used in media and how it could change. She gave examples of sexist language and ideas that appear in the media. One example is the reporting on murder of women. A headline stating something as “Woman murdered due to divorce” could be interpreted as wanting a divorce would be a legitimate reason for taking a woman’s life. It is impossible to write a headline like that, says Sibel Yükler, as there is never a legitimate reason to take a woman’s life. In their reporting on court rulings where divorce is seen as extenuating for the man committing the crime, Gazete Șujin will also criticize the ruling.
The workshop also discussed the fact that it is mostly men who work as editors and make the selection of news and that women more seldom than men are interviewed in news articles.
The Women Participation through Media project is possible due to support from the Swedish Institute.
