قضايا المرأة في الصحافة الفلسطينية دراسة تحليلية مقارنة على عينة من الصحف اليومية
Date
2009-06-15
Authors
سمر شاكر خالد شاهين
Samar Shaker Khalid Shaheen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Al-Quds University
Abstract
The thesis covers women s issues in the Palestinian press. It conducts an
analytical, comparative study, using three daily papers: Al-Quds, Al-Ayyam and
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida. The sample of the study consists of every issue published
by the three papers during 2006, totalling 1071 issues.
The aim of the study is to identify the importance these papers attach to women s
issues, the attitude towards these issues, and possible solutions for them.
Moreover, the study attempts to identify the roles of women that these papers
focus on, and whether there is a link between this and the local reality.
The study also identifies the differences in the coverage of the issues, and points
to the shortcomings of the coverage and treatment of the issues. It also makes a
contribution to developing a media vision for how to cover women issues
effectively.The study uses the descriptive approach. However, it also uses a survey,
comparison as well as the historical approach. The researcher used a
questionnaire which included questions related to form and substance of the
coverage by the three papers.The collected data are analysed using various statistical software and techniques,such as SPSS (the Predictive Analytics Data Collection Software), Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Spearman Rank Order Correlation, frequency and percentages.The study shows that the three papers have greater interest in the treatment of non-traditional issues (63.7%), while the traditional issues receive 36.3%. Social issues receive 47.5% of the interest, while political issues get 29.4%. Health issues receive the least inertest: 5.5%.
Moreover, the study shows that the issues covered by the three papers are linked
to the reality of the Palestinian society (74.7%), while unrelated issues amount to
25.3%. As regards the roles of women, working women receive 21.5% of the
attention; the activist women get 20%; and the mother 15%. Female Members of
Parliament receive little attention: 3.1%. Similarly, women who made sacrifices
receive only 1.3%.
One conclusion in the study is that the papers cover issues without attribution to
sources (51.5%). Coverage initiated by male amounts to 33.8%, and by a female
14.7%. There is a statistical function regarding the political and social issues on
the one hand, and the person initiating the coverage on the other hand. The
positive coverage amounts to 64.1%, the negative 22.1%, and the neutral is
equivalent to 13.8%
The coverage which targets broad readership is equivalent to 37.8%. This
indicates that the three papers see women issues as a societal matter which all
members of the society must be interested in. Coverage targeting women readers
is equivalent to 37.8%, while the coverage aimed at officials amounts to 12.4%.
The three papers give priority in the coverage to news item (68.3%), pictures
(15%), and articles (4%). Interest in features is minimal: 0.1%. Moreover, the
coverage is relegated to the internal pages (93.6%). Only 5.5% of the coverage is
on the front pages, and 0.9% on the back page. The coverage which includes no
solutions is equivalent to 60.95%, and the rest, 39.1%, is converge which
includes solutions. As regard space, the three papers give women issues only 0.35% on average.However, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida gives space equivalent to 0.48% of the total space.Al-Ayyam gives 0.32% of its space, and Al-Quds gives 0.30%.
In the light of the conclusions, the study makes several recommendations
which include the need to use a variety of forms to achieve better interaction by
the readers with the coverage. Also, the papers need to develop plans for their
coverage in order to achieve a balanced reporting which includes the roles of
women, their achievements and their responsibilities so that women are fairly
viewed by society. Moreover, the papers need to provide larger space for the coverage of women issues, taking into consideration the situation of Palestinian women. The papers should give priority to issues of development and improving women s conditions in the fields of health, education, culture and politics.