1 GENDER REPRESENTATION IN INDONESIAN ONLINE NEWS (A STUDY ON DETIKNEWS.COM) Widiya Yutanti, MA University Of Muhammadiyah Malang A. Background of the Study We live in a world that is stratified along lines of gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, disability, sexuality and location, and in which privileges, disadvantages and exclusions associated with such categories are unevenly distributed. We also live in a world which is increasingly saturated by media and information and communication technologies (Gill 2007: 7). The proposition above underlines the two elements of gender and the media which, together, have represented a long- standing area of concern for critical media scholars and feminists in the world over the past five decades. Studies of gender in the media show that there is gender imbalance in the way in which the world is represented (Azeharie 1997; Brook & Herbert 2006; Cunningham et.al 2004; Cullity & Younger 2009; de Bruin 2000; Gill 2007; van Zoonen 1994). Gender imbalance occurs in many aspects of media practice, such as inequity in the number of males and females as professionals and decision makers in media organisations, gender differences in media use and consumption and even a disproportion in the representation of the two genders in media content including entertainment, advertisements and news. It is becoming a serious issue because the media have a significant influence on individuals and the culture. Debates on the representation of gender in the news media often relate to various cultural and ideological aspects. Indonesia is an example, where a majority of the society is dominated by the patriarchal value system which consequently results in gender bias in many aspects of life, including news media production. Moreover, there are blatant stereotypes in newsroom cultures where a masculine culture dominates news media production. According to Pierre and Nilsson (2004), there is a dichotomous dimension in journalism between male and female genders; the former are usually concerned with topics and issues covered in hard news while the latter are usually more involved in soft news. Hard news includes issues believed to be important to men because they relate to spheres in which men dominate such as politics, the economy and business. In contrast, soft news includes issues related to the social sphere which women are more familiar with, such as education, health care, lifestyle and human interest. An impact of the Indonesian patriarchal value system in news media production is the small number of female journalists working in the media. Female journalists are significantly underrepresented in the Indonesian news media, accounting for less than 20 percent of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI)’s 14,348 members (PWI, 2010). Similarly, a study by Independent Journalists Alliance (Aliansi jurnalis Independen/ AJI) found that Indonesian female journalists are less than 30 percent of total Indonesian journalists (Luviana 2012). The serious under-represented of female journalists in Indonesian media newsrooms strongly indicates that Indonesian media newsrooms are dominated by male journalists. Therefore, gender imbalance undeniably occurs in news media coverage, not only in traditional media, but also — it seems highly likely — in new media outlets known as online news portals. brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by UUM Repository