Special Lecture on topic “Women in the Media: Challenges and Opportunities”  

Chandigarh, September 19, 2024: Under the aegis of the Alumni Interaction Series, Department-cum-Centre for Women’s Studies & Development organized a Special Lecture. The Speaker of the day was Veenu Sandhu, Senior Associate Editor, Business Standard, and also an alumna of the Department who spoke on the topic, “Women in the Media: Challenges and Opportunities”.  

The talk commenced with the speaker reminiscing her journey, about 2 decades back when women’s representation in media was meagre. At that time, women journalists were mostly advised to take up gender stereotypical beats, like, news anchoring, domestic issues, cinema, popular culture, fashion design, cooking, etc. However, in contemporary times, women journalists are writing on a range of areas. The heartening development is that more men journalists are also covering women’s issues. 

Three types of newsrooms, in contemporary times, with trend towards more men-predominant newsrooms was discussed. As a woman journalist, she suggested listening to one’s inner voice in the field, and building human relationships by women journalists. Recollecting her past experiences, she emphasized on building human sensitivity, and listening to one’s inner voice, and not hesitating in taking help was stressed upon. She corroborated the gendered discourse by citing UNESCO Reports, latest media statistics, etc. The virtues of integrity and commitment in the face of challenges faced by the media personnel was also discussed.

In the life of a woman media personnel, the perennial debates of emotions vs rationality, less grassroots issues reported by mainstream media, reporting of violence against women in remote areas, hardships faced by journalists, especially women journalists, issues of diversity in society and media reporting were discussed threadbare in the post-lecture discussions. The speaker concluded her discourse by advocating media personnel to be good students of society, and, inclusion of historically marginalized sections, women in media. 

Prof. Pam Rajput, Professor Emerita, chaired the lecture and in her presidential remarks, discussed the achievements and impediments of women working in media. Through her lived experience, she lamented the lack of practical training in newspapers in her graduation days in journalism. She called for a total change in mindset to have more inclusive and egalitarian space in media profession. 

Earlier, Prof. Manvinder Kaur, Chairperson  and  Dr. Ameer Sultana, Associate Professor, welcomed and felicitated the Speaker. The former introduced the distinguished speaker and apprised the students regarding the talks on significant issues, to be organized on a regular basis in the Department.

The Special Lecture was attended by a total of 65 participants, comprising of faculty and students across social sciences disciplines. The formal vote of thanks was proposed by Dr. Rajesh Kumar Chander, Associate Professor.