Mediated Communication and Commoditization of the Female Gender: Discourse Analysis Indian News Magazines

Abstract

This paper explores gender representation in three English news magazines from India and the social discourse thereby generated. It endeavors a discourse analysis by deconstructing the narrative built by the news magazines. It tries to analyze if gender stereotypes, including sexualisation and commoditization of women, are being perpetuated in the news media by exploring the gender constructs in these news magazines through the method of critical discourse analysis (CDA). The women characters of these stories can never really break the jinx of 'male gaze' of social narrative. The sub-texts of these stories conform to the hegemonic clutch of patriarchy. Media are instrumental in conveying and portraying gender stereotypes and other patriarchal and hegemonic 'values' about women and femininity. They also conform to culture in depicting of women as sex objects or commodities which are usually young, slim , beautiful, sexy, passive, male-dependent, and often incompetent, dull and dumb. The article looks at all these gendered texts in the light of language, social constructs and frames in order to understand the schemas involved.