A liberated ghetto for women?

Raju Narisetti — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:41:00 GMT

Hindustan Times debuts a weekly page on "the Indian woman, her concerns and dreams, stories of hope, change and inspiration." On Page 14 in 18 August newspaper, the page called Simply Woman, talks to Beijing Olympics shooting gold medalist Abhinav Bindra's mother Babli, and has a couple of other news recaps, rounded off by a health piece on artificial sweetners and a Tip of The Week for those who have "never logged on to the Internet (and) still wondering what the Web is all about."

I wonder what it says about the state of journalism if, in 2008, a mainstream national paper feels compelled to have a dedicated page for women, who, presumably are a significant portion of the paper's current readership. Seems like something that a marketing whiz, hung up on TG (target groups) and segmentation dreamt up, doesn't it? To me atleast, it also seems a somewhat retrograde step in this day and age unless it is an explicit admission that Indian newsrooms are doing a rather poor job of covering issues that nearly half of India's population care about.

Dustin Harp of the University of Texas in Austin has done an interesting look at women's pages in the US and notes that "after nearly a century of publishing explicitly named women'spages, US newspapers starting in 1969 and intothe 1970s began renaming them ‘style’or ‘lifestyle’ sections, theoreticallymeaning they were for a general audience. This research investigatesindustry discourse during this time to determinewhat those in newsrooms were thinking aboutthis transition.

The intention behind a women's page might be noble--cover more issues impacting core, clearly identified readers, aka women--but to make it a ghetto and not mainstream it across the newspaper is a step back. And, I really wonder would a Simply Men's page have had the same Tip of the week for those who have "never logged on to the Internet (and) still wondering what the Web is all about."

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A Romantic Realist : Abhinav Bindra

A liberated ghetto for women?