WOMEN IN NEWS MEDIA ARTICLES: AN ANALYSIS OF REPRESENTATIONS

Aaliyah Xyla L. Abellana, Kirvy Nieva S. Guance, Maurene Ann A. Pevida, Phyll Jhann E. Gildore

Abstract


In Philippine news media, women are represented in numerous ways, shaping perceptions of their roles and identities among the public. The study analyzed how women are represented in news media in fifty articles from the five most prominent online news platforms and utilized Halliday and Matthiessen's (2004) Transitivity Analysis, which identifies six processes: material, mental, verbal, relational, behavioral, and existential. The Social Actor framework developed by van Leeuwen (1996) was also employed, categorizing actions into deletion, role allocation, and substitution. The results revealed that women are ascribed to material, mental, verbal, relational, and behavioral processes. Furthermore, the social actions analysis revealed that women are often activated through participation and personalized through functionalization. Through the analysis, women are represented in media articles as victims, voices of empowerment, perpetrators of crimes, symbols of empowerment, and critics of themselves. This study implies sensitivity within our educational institutions regarding the learning materials provided to our students and raising awareness about gender equality to challenge biases, discrimination, and stereotypical practices within the classroom environment. Lastly, with women's implied identities uncovered, the pivotal role of media in shaping gender roles and identities, particularly evident in Philippine media portrayals of women, reflects the complex dynamics of gender representation in the media narrative.

Keywords


women, representation, news media, social action analysis, transitivity analysis

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v9i1.703

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