Beyond Bylines: Media Workers and Women's Rights in Canada (original) (raw)

2013, Feminist Media Studies

In Beyond Bylines: Media Workers and Women's Rights in Canada, communications historian Barbara M. Freeman takes a wide-reaching view of journalism to include all forms of media, including print, broadcast, public relations, film, as well as alternative press and even public relations. The book is a collection of essays that examine the role of women journalist activists over 130 years. Seven snapshots are presented in chronological order, tracing how female journalists have been able to use their position as media workers to advance the women's movement. Freeman challenges readers to adopt a wide definition of "journalist" as well as byline "to include women who were not news reporters or who worked outside the mainstream media" (p. 1). The book is positioned as "bio-critical" and interdisciplinary. Freeman examines the conditions and times in which the women worked and, examining their texts "so that their intentions can be understood," she also "investigates the gendered media language and images of their social milieu" (p. 2). To examine these varied time periods and historical records, Freeman relies on archival material, as well as oral history interviews. Perhaps because of her training as an historian and journalist, Freeman tends to emphasize the biography and chain of events rather than provide a deep reading of the texts of the media workers she highlights. This could, in part, be due to the lack of material to work with, most notably in Chapter 4 regarding the first female executive at CBC, Elizabeth Long, where texts and archival material are sparse. Instead of offering an analysis of the content that was presented on CBC's women's programming at the time, Freeman focuses on Long's management skills and interpersonal relationships. While interesting, it is somewhat unsatisfying, and it would have been more germane to see examples of what Freeman describes as Long's ability to "subversively introduced 'equal rights' talks along with the household hints offered to the female listeners of CBC national radio from 1938 to 1956" (p. 10). Later chapters focus more on interviews with the subjects and offer the context for their work and political aspirations. The chapter on aboriginal filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin provides perhaps the best discourse analysis. The main strength of the work is Freeman's ability to tell the story of these very different women. Well written with lively prose, the book brings to life the time and circumstance of each of the women featured. Where it falls short is to answer broader questions of how women journalists have made a difference in Canada or in media work itself. As much of the book focuses on women in alternative media or public relations, it does not inform the reader much about the broader successes that women have achieved and how these came to pass. Due to the historical nature of the first half of the book, it is unclear what influence the publications had in the popular mind. Certainly the first two chapters that focus on early commercial newspapers give some sense that these women's voices could have been important in the struggle for equality;