Although it is unfortunate it is not surprising that women are the minority within the new media industry. People are often deceived by the few female faces and voices that are on the news or radio into believing that women have indeed made a equal mark for themselves within the news. For example the radio consist of “94 percent of companies owned and run by men; women comprise only 10 percent of general managers, only 15 percent of programmers, and only 15 percent of the on air talent”. The numbers seem to not make sense at first but when I took time to think about the radio stations I listened to it did make sense. If someone chose to listen to a radio station for a full 24 hours and tally how many female and male personalities they heard, the number of women would be significantly smaller than that of the men.  “Only one in four communications/media jobs created between 1990 and 2005 were filled by women. The only area where the share of women increased was in the newspaper industry—the lowest paid industry in the sector, where many of the women are employed in the part time telephone sales positions.”

            When learning of the history behind famous female anchors such as Katie Couric and Barber Walter it is often devastating. These women encountered a series of obstacles only because of their gender. Obstacles other male anchors did not have to go through and to add insult to injury their success undermined by their appearance and feminine make up.  The moral of this story, when you’re a woman you’re damned either way.

            The lack of women within the media is detrimental to women audiences. Women as a minority within media means that topics essential to women are of low significance and coverage.  For example, if a company that is a source of news, is owned by a man and a majority of it workers are men, this affects the content of news that is provided by that company. “News ain’t really the news.” Fear not my fellow advocators there is hope.  The Internet allows for a series of alternative and inexpensive means of providing news to a mass audience. Although youtube.com is viewed as one of the most popular outlets, blogs are vastly becoming an essential means of news. Over the years blogs such as blogspot and tumblr have grown in popularity. To make a blog is free of cost which is an important factor to their success. I personally have a tumblr and tumblr has similar characteristics to twitter. If you come across a blog and is part of the tumblr community you can choose to follow that blog. By following that blog you will always be linked to that blog and are able to see their post updates. Tumblr allows you to “reblog” post which further allows news to spread and reach a larger audience.

            Feminist blackboard is a tumblr that I recently began to follow. Feministblackboard is a prime example of the usage of blogs as a means of news and information. The blog is not censored nor is it only catered to feminism within America. Feministblackboard provides a series of information, news, and images that are reblogged by others. Images such as sexist ads, to feminist rallies, and important female figures are posted on the blog.  Blogs such as these are essential to the blog community because there are not many blogs that are catered to such topics. On October 27, 2011 Feministblackboard posted about  “the plus size princess” Disney idea. According to the blog the idea would be put on hold. Many believe that the idea is not a good idea because it would teach young girls that it is okay to be unhealthy although 14 is the average size of a woman. I was unaware of such news until I read it on the Feministblackboard. That post went hand in hand with our class discussion on body image and the role of fairy tale princess and Barbies. The blog formulates its own opinion about princess movies stating “I’m merely saying it would be interesting to see a princess who is capable and successful without needing a man to accompany her on her journey.

            Feministblackboard provides interesting content within the blog. Alternative media provides a certain freedom that mainstream media does not; freedom of censorship and freedom of contents. Tumblr gives you the freedom to blog anything. Not only is the means of publication alternative but so is the news itself. What makes blogs different from youtube and twitter is that fellow bloggers do not need to know you identity. Similar to websites and publications your blog and its contents is the primary source of interest not who you are.

            The role of gender plays an extensive role within this blog. It is a feminist blog. There are many discussions of the role of women and men in given settings. One particular post that I found interesting was the “Women in Television Part One” post, interestingly enough “I Love Lucy” is the default picture of that post which says a lot and adds a sense of comedy. The roles of gender are presented throughout the blog. A celebration of women is an essential role of the blog to. Is important for us as women to know the struggles and triumphs of women through out history. Ellen Johnson Sirlea was the first female president of Liberia. This is something I was unaware of until read the blog. Feministblackboard is a keen example of the usage of alternative media.

Photo: Taken from "Slut Walk" source http://feministblackboard.tumblr.com