I. Introduction This master’s thesis represents study of female newspaper and magazine editors in Azerbaijan based on Western and Soviet definitions of journalism with explanation of local national features of this p
- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Newspapers: Vyshka, , Gancanin sesi, V. Discussion
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Old, very experienced, talented, communicative, has specific education based on the Soviet journalism school. Has extensive practice and experience in Soviet media. Understands objectivity as correctness to policy of ruling elite. Respects and cooperates with central journalistic organization, knows and understands ethical norms however will deviate if necessary. |
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Editors: 2 Newspapers: Vyshka, , Gancanin sesi, |
V. Discussion
Numerous scholars within the Western academia took close looks at how females view the journalism, particularly “internal view” on the profession and women’s role in it. On the contrary, gender studies in the Soviet Union were limited to the Marxist ideology that saw causes of female inequality in capitalism and class inequalities. The disintegration of the USSR and rise of nationalist ideologies based on Azerbaijani mentality and traditions and subsequent war against Armenian occupation of Karabakh region of Azerbaijan introduced decline of female social and political activism and their retirement from public sphere to their “natural vocations” answering gender stereotypes created by the patriarchal society. The return of the gender question was evident by the end of the 1990s when independent women’s groups formed within NGOs and supported by international donor organizations raised gender questions, however, initially limited to violence against women and sexual harassment. The movement paved the road for application of Western concepts in a new wave of studies focusing on different aspects of female activities in Azerbaijani society.
Presented thesis represents third attempt to map female journalists working in Azerbaijani media. The first attempt represented the 2010 publication “Elegant signatures” by the Azerbaijan Journalist Women Association where the above mentioned organization compiled and published biographical details of known female Azerbaijani journalists. The second research is a result of collaboration between the International Journalist Federation and Azerbaijan Journalists Union within a two year project (2010-2012) aiming to map female journalist community and involving 200 journalist respondents. Findings of the surveys implemented by the two organizations manifested in a form of a 43 pages long leaflet “Gender question in Azerbaijani media” printed in 2011.
It is possible to argue that our research, although implemented with a much smaller budget and in a shorter time frame brings more representative results through better methodology, conceptualization and sample selection. Even though the 2011 survey states that only 10 out of 90 editors are women (JuHI 2011:4-5) our research through the purposive sampling technique was able to secure participation of 15 female newspaper and magazine editors. In contrast to the second research, our third in the row did not limit itself to descriptive journalistic interviews with editors but through analysis of structured in-depth interviews presented a typology of female editors in Azerbaijani printed press: idealist practitioner, pragmatic practitioner and old-school professional.
Yet, our strength is also our limitation since the results of our research cannot be applied to all female journalists in Azerbaijan representing only the slim editorial segment of female journalistic community working in printed daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly and bimonthly newspapers and magazines with circulation numbers above 1500 copies.
Moreover, the financial burden also dictated our selection of qualitative over quantitative methodology resulting in dominance of the in-depth interview technique above the rudimentary quantitative questionnaire used to collect additional demographic data. On the other hand, decision to employ several young female interviewers that managed to built trust and conduct in-depth interviews simultaneously ensuring return of filled out questionnaires by female editors brought fruitful results.
All of this is not to say that the research did not meet any complications on its way. One of the biggest challenges was adaptation of the research conceived within walls of Masaryk University located in the Central Europe to the reality of Azerbaijan, the country possessing different culture and traditions. For example as it was mentioned in the Subchapter II.3.1 the cultural incompatibility made itself clear as soon as the first respondent was approached and thoughtfully conceived in-depth interview brought only disappointing series of dull yes and no answers since researcher did not consider cultural differences in implementation of questioning of a woman by male interviewer.
Even though this problem was later solved through employment of young female interviewers the main problem remained: some questions considered standard procedure in the West found no response in Azerbaijan. For example a standard question regarding stances towards abortion used to measure general values of respondents was not even considered during the research project preparation since researcher did not expect to receive answers for this question from the respondents.
Nevertheless, we consider that the inquiry successfully achieved the main goal it proclaimed providing answer to the main question of our research through elaborate typology creating a useful insight on the small community of women editors that exist in Azerbaijan. Moreover, while answering to the secondary questions of the research we first of all mapped this segment of female journalist community, provided information on female editor’s stances towards ethical self-regulation and journalistic organizations in Azerbaijan, placed female editors within the context of the Azerbaijani society and pinpointed their influence as members of elite.
Rendering female editors of newspapers and magazines our inquiry provides an inspiration for farther scholars to carry on the effort of pioneering media research in Azerbaijan. It is fair to say that a good research should create more questions that it answers and this is the case for our research as well. During the course of our research we discovered that female editors represent highly trained and experienced caste of journalists, however, as soon as this discovery was formulated a reasonable question appeared: what is the relationship between these old-school professionals and female journalists currently working in all positions below the editorial office. Do female editors exert influence on their younger and less experienced female subordinates and if yes, how does their appointment change work of newspaper or magazine in terms of male-female relationship?
Of particular interest for farther research is the phenomenon of extortion journalism in Azerbaijan. Our research extended findings on this trend by discovering that extortionist journalism was not just a product of the post-Soviet decline in professional values and morale but existed well before the collapse of the Soviet Union and perhaps existed as soon as Azerbaijan was introduced to the press.
Yet, the most fruitful direction of farther research is a comparative research of female editors in neighboring countries of Georgia and Armenia. Possessing different cultural values, caused mainly by religious differences , these societies nevertheless are built upon the same Caucasian cornerstone - strongly patriarchal family. Thus, due to non existence of data it is first of all necessary to ask: What types of female editors in regard to professional standards exist in Georgian and Armenian printed newspapers and magazines? Besides obvious secondary questions that will be given it is also interesting to research: How female editors of these three countries are interacting and what are their common values?
In our opinion such extensive area research, if implemented, will not only extend global academic knowledge to this area of the world but will also have its practical implications if comparing media systems of three countries.
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