Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / April 17, 1992, edition 1 / Page 3
Part of Elon University Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Op-Ed April 17, 1992 Page 3 DistritniUKl Dy Tfiniinp Miulm Sefvtcos i'— raof? sucKef? 1 mpOFF^ ri^ ^5H ^om pa ^^THin0r Students should critically analyze Elon, student says Start with Page One Make women readers feel welcome The Pendulum offers this Ellen Goodman column as an introduction to this Monday's speaker: Marcia Ann Gillespie, ^ho is speaking on "Sexism in the Media" at 7:30 p.m. in Whitley. When you arc through reading this column, lurn back lo Page One and count. Count the number of limes men are referred to in the stories that lead the newspaper. Count the number of times Women appear. Then take last week’s papers out of the pile in the corner of the kitchen. Check the bylines. Check the photos. How many boys, how many girls? Now put the papers back in the recycle bin, or in the bird cage, or in the kindling box. Wherever. Compare your tabulation with the fourth annual report just released by the Women, Men and Media Project at the University of Southern California. The folks there surveyed the front page and the local front page of 20 newspapers for tlic month of February. They camc to the unsurprising and unhappy conclusion that women -- 52 percent of the population - show Up just 13 pcrcent of the time in Ellen Goodman Ba.ston Globe the prime news spots. Lest you think this is just a reflection of reality, even the stories about breast implants quoted men more often than women. Women's names appear qq the stories more often than in the stories. Even so, two-thirds of the bylines on front pages were male and three-quarters of the opinions on op-ed pages were by men. To complete this, uh, picture, less than a third of the photographs on front pages feature women. This small statistical reminder comes just in time for the American Society of Newspaf>er Editor’s annual convention. In Washington editors talked about America and the World, economics and politics, readers and non readers. Which brings them back to gender. One of the less heralded facts of declining newspaper readership in the 1990s is the emergence of a gender gap among people under 35 years old. Young women are seven to nine points less likely to be daily newspaper readers than men. It would be nice to blame this on the infamous time crunch in young women’s lives. Nice to find yet another reason for men to lift the double burden: Share housework, save a newspaper. But full-time working women arc more loyal newspaper readers than women who are part-time workers or homemakers. It turns out that women across the board are more likely than men to feel that the paper doesn't speak to them. Or about them. As Nancy Woodhull, a founding editor of USA Today who now runs her own consulting firm says, "Women around the country really notice when the press doesn't report their existence. It's like walking into a room where tvobody knows you're there. If you have choices, you don't go into that room anymore." The scarch for a welcome sign to hang on the newspaper door has brought up the question of "women's pages." Back in the 1960s, these pages were the ghetto to which women, children, food, home, and family were restricted. In the crest of the women’s See Goodman, Page 4 To The Kditor: Generally I am characterized as one who leaps at the opportunity to criticize Elon for any action or policy which contfadicts fundamental justice and is unbecoming of an institution of higher learning. Students who know me, think my views and arguments are legitimate, but the degree of anger needs lessening. Therefore in the following passage I shall not express my displeasure with: the Honor Code, Elon's membership lo Alamance Country Club, the so-called library, the Maynard House, apathetic students or ihc meager attempts at a liberal arts education we (as students) receivc. This smattering of my personal grievances is just the lip of the problematic iceberg, however, there is another noteworthy flaw in the Elon community infrastructure: the disenfranchisement of students from the decision-making processes. I first noticed the light-hearted way the Administration looks upon recommendations by students when I followed the progression of the condom vending niachine issue. The Student Government Association passed a bill asking for condom vending machines to be put in dormitory bathrooms in discrete places. This resolution was supported by the faculty at one of iheir weekly meetings. However, when it camc before the Administration carrying both student and faculty support, the matter was still denied. Another issue worthy of confronting is the process of amending the student handbook. Last year the Office of Student Affairs asked the Student Government As.s(Kialion to form a committcc for the purpose of meeting with a dean conccrning changes in the Student Handb^x)k. After discussing the trivial issues for a while, the dean was given suggestions about the implementation of the Honor Code. None of ihc student recommendations were incorporated. The most recent act of oppressive input and domination See Analyze, Page 4 Students blame Pendulum for poor coverage of their candidate To The Kditor: As newly elected Student Government Association, (SGA), senators. We feci ihc need to express concerns about the recent SGA elections and the future. First, we were disappointed in the lack of coverage given by The Pendulum. The elections were April 2, 1992. Our question is why didn't The Pendulum do more to covcr the pre-clection campaigning? We know, for a fact, that campaigning started three weeks before the election. In our opinion, there should have been more extensive coverage. Second, we were very surprised and disturbed when reading the article (Mooney ... April 10, 1992) about the election. In a two column article, John Denning's name was mentioned only twice, not counting the headline. This was a disgrace to a wcll-dc.scrving candidate. This year's election drew a record number of voters, which we believe is due to a overwhelming desire for subsistence in our S.G.A. Mike Mooney did win the election, and we do congratulate him... but he only won by 20 votes, which is why we were surprised The Pendulum didn’t give more exposure to John Denning and the issues he presented. Third, we also believe that it was, and is, ihe obligation of The Pendulum to report the names of the newly elected Senators, if for no other reason than to familiarize its' readers with information they deserve to know. We hope these concerns and Sec Coverage, Page 4
Elon University Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 17, 1992, edition 1
3
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75