Form a media activism team and start making an agenda and plans for ongoing actions and media monitoring. Contact NOW to see how your team can continue participating in the Watch Out Listen Up campaign. The following questions are designed to get your group talking about women in the media, particularly on television. You can use these questions or make up your own. Take your group's answers and turn them into a challenge to the media to better represent women and to act more responsibly.
Television plays an important and powerful role in today's society and culture.
I am concerned about the lack of positive and diverse images of women, frequent occurrences of violence on television, constant sexual exploitation of female characters and socially irresponsible subject matters. The demeaning portrayal of women on television is an insult to women's accomplishments and contributions in their communities and society. With so many people watching television every day, positive programming could help to overcome tremendous prejudice and eliminate dangerous stereotypes of women. By creating strong, diverse women characters in lead roles, your network will be sending a message that women are valued for more than their appearance. Through the respectful interaction between men and women characters, your network will show that discrimination and sexual exploitation are not the norm.