Tag Archives: media

My work for Equal Times

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I started working as the Baltic correspondent for Equal Times in January 2013. Equal Times is a global news, opinion and campaign website about work, politics, the economy, development and the environment (Facebook, Twitter). My articles published:

Anti-violence protection – an issue confined to bedroom and shower?

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[The original of this article was published in Delfi. It was translated for public procurement purposes. All rights belong to Delfi.]

Half-truth is worse than an open lie. Unfortunately, it is namely the half-truths that are used to juxtapose the Council of Europe Convention on preventing violence against women, family violence prevention and combat, with the widely-discussed Gender Loops programme and other methodologies that are used to raise awareness on gender-related social nature based on public expectations rather than that based on biological nature. Continue reading →

Men – between nature and prohibitions

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[The original of this article was published in Delfi. It was translated for public procurement purposes. All rights belong to Delfi.]

Manliness is natural but so fragile that a little equality ideology or a babe in arms can disrupt it like a house of cards. Such conclusion can be made after listening to the defenders of normative manliness. On one hand, the strength drawn from the past should follow and lead men on a certain strictly defined path only because nature deems it should be this way. On the other hand, the features of a real man must be nurtured and by no means admitting that manliness and womanliness are socially created. Such a mess occurs in the discussions regarding genders. Continue reading →

Women’s invisible disadvantages

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[This article was published in Atgimimas in February 2009 (in Lithuanian). It was translated by professional translators for public procurement purposes. The copyright of the original article belongs to the publisher of Atgimimas, Pilietinės minties institutas, and the copyright of this English translation belongs to Gravitas Partners. The archives of Atgimimas are no longer available online.]

Statistical data about the situation of women in Lithuania might not correspond to everyday experiences of a typical reader, yet the effects of this far from satisfactory state of affairs are felt by the entire society, says Daiva Repečkaitė.

 According to a recent survey published by DELFI, two thirds of people who newly emigrate from Lithuania are women – and reasons behind that, say interviewed experts, include not just the “glass ceiling” in their professional lives, but also gendered violence and solitude. Continue reading →

A woman and a washing machine

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[This article was published in Atgimimas in February 2009 (in Lithuanian). It was translated by professional translators for public procurement purposes. The copyright of the original article belongs to the publisher of Atgimimas, Pilietinės minties institutas, and the copyright of this English translation belongs to Gravitas Partners. The archives of Atgimimas are no longer available online.]

Recently, the results of a new study have been published in the media showing that Lithuanian women have better jobs and are better educated, compared to other EU countries. Nevertheless, while they are well-qualified and have jobs, their wages are far lower than that of their male counterparts and there are much fewer women in executive positions. The Lithuanian labour market remains highly segregated both horizontally (in terms of professions) and vertically (in terms of hierarchy, within an industry or a company). However, could the occasional discussions about this issue bring any change if we are bombarded by hordes of medieval stereotypes day after day? Continue reading →

Media analysis resources

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[Entries from 2008 are imported from another blog]

I really love the book:

Allan Bell. 1991. The language of news media. Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, MA : Blackwell.

I just wish I had more time to really read it, and not scan it. It’s too detailed sometimes and presents rather common-sense facts, but I see it as a good description of the news-making process, and it perfectly arranges and conceptualises my own experience of working for the media. Just look at these elegant expressions:

“lexicon of newsworthiness” of the leads
“telegraphic syntax” of the headlines
headlines and their metaphors “stamp the newspapers individuality”

Another nice article on the media:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10584600600629711

These media theories are scarily true – I recognise the same patterns in my own work, which I did before CEU.

A woman’s worth – three cents a minute

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[This article was published in Atgimimas in February 2009 (in Lithuanian). It was translated by professional translators for public procurement purposes. The copyright of the original article belongs to the publisher of Atgimimas, Pilietinės minties institutas, and the copyright of this English translation belongs to Gravitas Partners. The archives of Atgimimas are no longer available online.]

“I am Ericsson and this is my wife Sonia Ericsson – only three cents per minute,” says a neatly coiffed blond man. In the next shot, grinning “Sonia” is already seated on a table, manifestly ready for whatever is going to fetch her the paltry three cents.

Never mind that the “client” in this commercial did not ask for “Ericsson’s” soliciting services, nor his wife’s (who does not even speak for herself), they only needed a phone. A worthy businessman must cater to his clients’ unexpressed desires – they, the providers of services, know better what their clients want than the clients themselves. And an enticing “sonia” of one sort or another is an absolutely indispensable addition to a handset, a record-player or a refrigerator. Continue reading →