TIMELINE OF MEDIA / CULTURE ISSUES FOR WOMEN

a work in progress

Compiled by Ariel Dougherty ArielCamera@gmail.com 575.740.5868 March 20, 2017

Woman, then, stands in patriarchal culture as a signifier for the male

other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies
and obsessions through linguistic command by imposing them on the
silent image of a woman still tied to her place as the bearer of meaning,
not maker of meaning. - Laura Mulvey, Visual and Other Pleasures 1973

Challenge for Women's Media Summit

solely expand job opportunities in one singular,
and increasingly flawed, media system
Angela Gibson, c. 1920, a pioneering film vs. create a means to actually effect and make a
director who ran her own studio in North
Dakota, back in the day when film
just media for all #mediajustice
production happened in communities
thoughout the country. She developed her
own stock, among her many film tasks.
KEY : gains feminist gains set backs

1792 US Post Office mail subsidies for all newspapers, and building of postal roads. Betw 1790 &
1800, trippling of community newspapers, from 92 to 234; by 1840 1,400. Reduced rates
remains in effect today for media. Women Make Movies (et al) could never have survived/done
distribution without this 'break'.

1896-1920 Alice Guy Blach (1873-1968) is revered as the first director and writer of narrative fiction
films who experimented within the new art form in many ways. During her career in France and the US she
directed over 1,000 films. Yet today she, and her works, are almost completely unknown. Some 350 works
have now been unearthed. Stay tuned for a forthcoming documentary BE NATURAL, though there is
already, THE LOST GARDEN: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blach
https://www.nfb.ca/film/lost_garden_life_cinema_alice_guy_blache/ Since the '70s women's film festivals
have showcased her films. NYFWT's Preservation committee has worked to preserve some of her films.

1919 Mary Pickford et al (performing artists) found United Artists.

1932 As First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt held press conferences often only with women reporters.

1934 Communications Act mandate to deal with diversity. Women's ownership widely accepted
along with minority ownership in the late 1970s. But progress, is a very slow, uneven slog. Inroads
especially from 1978-1995 were due to a defered tax on distressed-sales of broadcast properties to
minority owners. Minority ownership went from 1% to 3%. Women's ownership maxed at 5%
but the data remains spotty. When Republicans took over Congress in 1995 they attached to a
health insurance reduction bill for freelance workers an amendment to get rid of the FCC tax-
certificate program. Bill Clinton signed the law, eliminating the most effective govt program to
promote minority ownership of media. (NFAtP pg335) Diversity at a standstill now (see 2011 3rd
Circuit decision). Also see 2014 article: http://www.colorlines.com/articles/under-pressure-fcc-
stops-asking-questions-about-media-diversity How conservatives manipulate the media and stahl
progressive action and even inquiry.
1946 Bigelow v. RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., 327 U.S. 251 (1946) Supreme Court held that major Hollywood distributors
had engaged in an antitrust conspiracy preventing certain independent movie houses from showing first run films.

1948 United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., 334 US 131 ended a ten year process with Dept of Justice.

Timeline Culture/Media by Ariel Dougherty page 1

 Landmark United States Supreme Court antitrust case that decided the fate of movie studios owning their own
theatres and holding exclusivity rights on which theatres would show their films.It also change the way Hollywood
movies were produced, distributed, and exhibited. Remains a landmark decision in vertical
integration cases. Also seen as the first nail in the coffin of the old Hollywood studio system.
1949 The Filmmakers, independent studio founded by Ida Lupino, former long-term-contract female star at
Warner Bros. Founded, in part, in defiance of the nascent vertically integrated studio system, in Lupino's
view, the market called for social-problem B films grounded in realism. (Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in
the Hollywood Studio System by Emily Carman) Lupino's Filmakers movies deal with unconventional and controversial
subject matter that studio producers would not touch, including out-of-wedlock pregnancy, bigamy, and rape. She
described her independent work as "films that had social significance and yet were entertainment ... based on true
stories, things the public could understand because they had happened or been of news value." She focused on
women's issues for many of her films and she liked strong characters, "[Not] women who have masculine qualities
about them, but [a role] that has intestinal fortitude, some guts to it." (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Lupino)

1961 President Kennedy established the Commission on the Status of Women. Many states follow.
(How many still operate today?? NM eliminated ours when first female, but Republican and
Latina, governor came into office, in 2010)
1964 Civil Rights Act Title VII Equal Employment Opportunities

1965 United Church of Christ (Rev. Everett Parker) with two local men challenges license of
WJTV and WBLT in Jackson MS on failure to address public interest of its Black
community (45%). Most experts thought it would fail, because usually challenges only made
headway from businesses with substantial interest in agency's decision. FCC denies petition
(May 20th, 1965) based on procedural standing of the petitioners. Immediately petitioners went
to federal court. Stunning and historic decision in 1966 by three-judge panel of District of
Columbia Court of Appeals (included Warren Burger, who would later head Supreme Court):
The Communications Act of 1934 did not create new private rights. The purpose of the act was
to protect the public interest in communications...Congress gave the right to appeal to persons
aggrieved or whose interest are adversely affected by Commission action....But these private
litigants have standing only because of the public interest [emphasis in the original].

1965 NEA & NEH established. Johnson said at the time .it is necessary and appropriate for the
Federal Government to help create and sustain not only a climate encouraging freedom of
thought, imagination, and inquiry, but also the material conditions facilitating the release of this
creative talent. Second chairperson of NEA was Nancy Hanks, appointed by Nixon.

1967 FIRST FEMINIST MEDIA DEMAND Media overhaul (end objectification of women)
among 4 demands by Shulamith Firestone & Jo Freedman at National Conference for New Politics.

1968 Kerner Commission: By failing to portray the Negro as a matter of rountine and in the
context of of the total society, the news media have, we believe, contributed to the black-white
schism in the country.

1968 Experimental short film SCHMEERGUNTZ by Gunvor Nelson and Dorothy Wiley provides
spark of idea that lead to the Miss America Pageant Protest, Sept 7, 1968.

1969 Women Make Movies forms, first as production arm of the women's liberation movement;
Works only with women only crews (training & vision/aesthetics) 1972 incorporates as
educational teaching and distribution outlet. Today among most self-sustaining organizations to
emerge from the 2nd Wave. In the mid 1970s WMM was one of 69 separate women's film/video
groups throughout the US. (CFFVO papers at Schlesinger Library, Ariel Dougherty papers)

Timeline Culture/Media by Ariel Dougherty page 2

1970 -74 Founding of Feminist Press (1970); Our Bodies Ourselves (1970); New Day Films (1971);
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (1972); Women's Studio Workshop (1974) & hundreds
of other media/cultural groups, most that did not survive, like Woman's Building in LA.

1972 Education Amendments - Title IX Prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that
receive federal funds, to increase educational and athletic opportunities for females in schools and
colleges nationwide. Dougherty starting in Fall 2015, begins to call on librarians in college lectures to
purchase 50% women books/media as per Title IX. [caveat: it can't be cirrculum related.]

1974 American Film Institute initiates its Women's Directors Program with the mission of providing women a
platform to create a film and to influence the Hollywood structure. Forty plus years later while its has
helped with the former has it accomplished the later?

1975 Ms. Foundation for Women establishes policy (stated in brochures of period) not to fund
women's media or culture. Sets stage for (almost) all other women's funds to later follow,
defacto policy, effecting $65M (+/-) per annum that goes to women's projects. Yet, Ms. Fdn, at
the time, put money behind founder and Board member Marlo Thomas' Free To Be Me and
You. project.(Huge CONFLICT OF INTEREST) One major exception among women's funds
was Astraea that has always supported Lesbian filmmaking. (WMM first distributor served on
Astraea's first Board of Directors. Founder, ED of Astraea seved on WMM's Board in 1980s.)
1975-77 INTERNATIONAL VIDEOLETTERS a bimonthly (bicycled/bused) video news
exchange evolved among 14 US & foreign feminist communities produced by 26 women's
media groups. This was pre-public access and every video makers' dream to circulate tapes.
Included feedback. Done by shear will to communicate, relied on no funding, and was almost
completely unreported during the time period. Six to ten tapes are currently known to survive.
1976 Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium (NAPBC) started, the original corporate
name for NAPT (later also known as Vision Makers Media, the library of works). 1990 gets $$
from CPB, $500,000 annually to create productions for PBS.
1977 Donna Allen and Dana Densmore, A Radical Feminist Analysis of Mass Media 3 core feminist
principles: 1) No attacks on people 2) More factual information 3) People should speak for themselves.
(Extensive lists of women's media wifporg/womens-media/womens-media-list/womens-media-list-a-i/)

1977 - The National Women's Conference of November 18-21, 1977, held in Houston, was the first
meeting of its type in the United States since the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York,
in 1848. 2,000 delegates w/ additional 15,000 to 20,000 observers. The conference was authorized by
public law and supported with federal funds. State conventions, which drew some 130,000 participants
nationwide, were held from February through July 1977.
MEDIA: Called for more women in media jobs, especially leadership positions. Revisited in 1985.

1978 - Black Filmmakers Foundation, to redress the institutional disenfranchisement of black

filmmakers and black audiences.

1979-1985 The Original Six. Susan Bay, Nell Cox, Joelle Dobrow, Dolores Ferraro, Victoria Hochberg, and
Lynne Littman through the Director's Guild of America attempt to challenge Hollywood studios on sex
discrimination. Ultimately a judge rules that the women's complaint has merit, but the suit through the
DGA stood in contradiction of the interest of the majority of (male & white) members of the DGA. The
action stopped there. For a brief period diversity compliance via Title VII went into effect, but waned
over time without legal standing and committed leadership.

Timeline Culture/Media by Ariel Dougherty page 3

1980 During last month of election Heritage Foundation released a report written by William
Bennett, that NEA & HEH support had become excessive and usurped private sector support.
In particular four groups become singled out: minorities, so-called social change groups, rural
orgs and women. All their applications during 1981 are stacked outside the Chairman's office in
the halls of the building that is ironically now Trump International Hotel in DC.
1980 Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), since its 1982 Silk Screen festival, a member of the
National Minority Consortia, designated by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
(CPB) to provide diverse programming to the Public Broadcast Service (PBS). Since 1990, more
than $3 million has been granted to over 150 projects.
NOTE: Minority Consortia never included women in its definition or process as say the FCC did starting c.
late 70s or so. I asked Lillian Jimnez on this recently. She used the word ethnic in response.

1981 William Bennett becomes chairman of NEH (under President Reagun). First act is to attack
From the Ashes.....Nicaragua dir by Helena Solberg-Ladd as unabashed socialist-realism
propaganda. Prior Solberg-Ladd had made the highly successful EMERGING WOMEN.

1981-86 Despite increases in support for NEA, by 1983 grants for women's cultural organizations
declines, from peak of $269,200 in 1982 to $177,600 in 1983*, even below 1979 amounts. See data:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/139761091/A-Women-s-Arts-NEA-Early-1980s &
https://www.scribd.com/doc/139763195/B-Women-s-Art-NEA-Early-1980s From here out
Dougherty becomes very critical on how this created defacto policy against support for women's
culture (and media.) Especially see 1998 Women Make Movies entry. No change was made at this time in
Ms. Foundation policy from the mid 1970s to address federal arts decline of support for women artists. In
various artists' forums in the period Dougherty spoke about what was happening to WAOs: If you don't
protect these groups, you are next. Even fellow members in artists space community labeled women's work,
derivitive, and paid no heed to approaching (re-heated) culture wars. (Also see 2012 entry).
* This, despite data that showed in the 1970s women entered artist workforce 3 times more than men; and 2.5 times
faster than any other workforce. Yet, women artists in era only earned 33% to what male artists earned ($4k/$12k)

1984 Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 known as the Betamax case
Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the making of individual copies of complete television
shows for purposes of time shifting does not constitute copyright infringement, but is fair use.

1985 Dougherty testimony (see pages 6 & 7

https://www.scribd.com/doc/139763195/B-
Women-s-Art-NEA-Early-1980s ) submitted for
Reauthorization of NEA & NEH and leads to
women becoming special constituency. Hollow
victory.

1985 Allison Bechdel, cartoonist, draws comic series

DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR, creating a
simple feminist test by which to judge a movie for
its women-identified content.

1987 Elimination of the Fairness Doctrine at FCC.

HUGE change. Ushers in wave of vitriol on talk radio, especially, and origins of term
feminazi.

1988 ITVS completion funds for single nonfction public television programs on any subject, and

Timeline Culture/Media by Ariel Dougherty page 4

 from any viewpoint. Special legisation attached to CPB after huge lobbying efort of independent
fm community. Airs through program Independent Lens.

1990 The NEA Four - Karen Finley, Tim Miller, John Fleck, and Holly Hughes - Grants were overtly
vetoed (by Chairman John Frohmmayer in June on the basis of subject matter after the artists had
successfully passed through a peer review process. (see 1998 court case decision)

1994 NEA while couched in terms of budget cuts, eliminates individual artists grants due largely to
conservatives objections over various kinds of arts projects: Ms. de Genevieve's photos concentrate
on women's bodies and how they age, while Ms. Alpern's photos peered into the goings-on in the bathroom
of a strip club. (NYT November 3, 1994)

1994 Coining of term Reproductive Justice : US Groups of women of color after attending the 1994
International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt convened in Chicago to analysis what
they had learned from their interaction with groups and how women's rights was used extensively in international
circles but absent in US activists work. They crafted a new framework, Reproductive Justice to become a
transformative power in building a Human Rights vision inclusive of all people. In short, RJ is the belief that
women of any class, race or ethnicity should have the right to three things: the right to have an abortion, the right
to have a child, and the right to parent a child. Loretta Ross, a major proponent of the term, has traveled widely to
broaden many people's understanding of such inclusiveness within Human Rights lexicon. This framing has
HUGE impact and potential for expanding human consciousness around evolution of media
rights to include media justice. (read Andrea Smith and Zakiya Luna, especially regarding RJ)

1995 March, 200 women media professionals met in Toronto to devise recommended strategies which they
hoped would be forwarded by the Fourth World Conference on Women (WCW) to strengthen women's
status and role in relation to the mass media. The recommendations addressed obstacles to increased
involvement of women in the media and denounced the trivial use of violent images of women . Also
foundation for Global Media Monitoring Project, every five year global survey of media and gender.

1995 Beijing the Fourth World Conference on Women (WCW) Platform J -A.Increase in participation and
access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of
communication. & B. promotion of a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media.
Considered at the time a watershed moment for media and ICT policy advocacy by the womens movement.

1996 NEA cuts funding to the states by 40%, decimating many states' arts agencies.
1996 Telecommunications Act resulted from 2 decades of efforts by industry to dismantle regulations.
Weakened FCC policies in serving public interest and crippled communities to challenge the white
narrative in news. Paved way for biggest media mergers in history. In Radio: prelaw 50 radio
companies owned 800 stations; postlaw ten companies owned 1300 stations.
1997 Establishment of Women's Film Preservation Fund within New York Women In Film &
Television. Most signifcant entity to perserve history of women's film culture.
1998 National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, 524 U.S. 569 Finley et al (includng NAAO) won at the District Court
and Court of Appeals, but lost at Supreme Court. The majority opinion is remarkably vague with regard to what
exactly the statutory language entails. It seems that a panel and the Chairperson could find a particular project
indecent and void of respect for diverse beliefs and values and yet still award the grant on the basis of the projects
artistic excellence. Souters dissent readily disposed of this reading as inconsistent with the text and legislative
history, as well as redundant because another statutory provision already required the Chairperson to consider
diversity in selecting the panels (both lower courts found this also compelling).

1998 Women Make Movies after 15 years of straight NEA support, funding is rejected, due to
American Family Associations objections. The right wing group sent every member of
Congress edited clips of WATER MELON WOMAN, claiming it pornography.

Timeline Culture/Media by Ariel Dougherty page 5

1999 National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), national membership
organization that addresses the professional needs of Latin@ content creators. Created and
lobbyied off the federal dime Lillian Jimnez because supported by CPB.

1999 Creative Capital established to fill in gap from the elimination of individual artists grants from the
NEA. Since then $40 million committed in financial and advisory support to 511 projects representing 642 artists.
2004 Alicia Foster in book Tate Women Artists documents that only 11% of Tate artists were
women, 7% of collection were works by women.
2004 Sisters Jessica and Vanessa Valenti found the on-line feminist blog feministing. Jessica describes
Feministing's purpose as "a way to get through the mommy filter" and make feminism more
accessible to young women through giving an Internet presence for young feminists. It was among
the first of literally thousands of online sites for feminist discussion and exchange. May they thrive.

2005 OLATOKUNBO OLUKEMI LANIYA publishes, STREET SMUT: GENDER, MEDIA, AND
THE LEGAL POWER DYNAMICS OF STREET HARASSMENT, OR "HEY SEXY'' AND
OTHER VERBAL EJACULATIONS in Columbia Journal of Gender and Law Vol. 14: 1
pg 110: 1) While media is often described as a mirror to society, it is more of a funhouse mirror,
which does not reflect perfectly, but distorts and re-characterizes, in tum affecting the manner in
which society sees itself and responds to the image it perceives.
2) Popular mainstream culture, as portrayed by the media, fosters an environment that perpetuates
street harassment.
3) case: women as or have non-value the general subjugation and objectification of women is
ubiquitous in media--from radio, television, and film, to newspapers and magazines. Contrastingly, it
is not commonplace to encounter a serious engagement of issues of gender dynamics, such as street
harassment, in the mainstream culture or media.
pg 111 4) Yet the public, consciously or unconsciously, looks to systems like media and the law to
understand their grievances and possible resolutions.[97] Curiously, this writing of Laniya has been
cited numerous times regarding her analysis on street harassment. But thus far I have found nothing
that specifically refers to her media analysis as a part of the context of this violence, which is by far
the more significant aspect of what she synthesizes. Why?

2007 Am Psychological Association report: Sexualization of Girls. low self-esteem, health issues; also
effects how boys perceive girls largely as sex objects. (http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report.aspx)
2008 founding of Center for Media Justice, to organize the most under-represented communities into
a national movement for media rights, access and representation

2010 Global Media Monitoring Project (4th survey) : men were 79% of news subjects. [N]ews
continue to portray a world in which men outnumber women in almost all occupational categories,
the highest disparity being in the professions, with obvious implications for the visibility of women in
politics. [see Shorenstein study of 2016 primaries: https://shorensteincenter.org/pre-primary-
news-coverage-2016-trump-clinton-sanders/ )
2010 Healthy Youth Media Act first introduced in House by Reps Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Shelley Moore
Capito (R-WV) aimed to help girls reject negative media images targeting them. Baldwin now Senator,
still hopes to reintroduce legisaltion.

2011 3rd Circuit decision in Promethus vs FCC on its failure to enact diversity plans and that its data
collection on women & minorities is wholy inadequate. FCC remains under court order to correct its data
collection in order to comply with diversity mandate. QUESTION : IS THIS AN OPENING ??

Timeline Culture/Media by Ariel Dougherty page 6

2013 GameChangers initiated to provide equity financing to narrative feature films directed by
women. But fund sidesteps focus that the films' subject matter might best center on women.

2010 Fork Films start to award grants to

full-length non-fiction films that foster a culture of understanding and
work towards a more peaceful and just society, while utilizing powerful and artistic storytelling methods,
promote peacebuilding, human rights, and social justice, with a particular emphasis on projects that bring
womens voices to the forefront.

2011 National Council of Women's Organizations approves Women's Media Policy

https://www.scribd.com/doc/ 138120225/NCWO-Women-s-Media-Policy-2011 Media and
Technology Task Force that created policy & worked for its passage had no resources or capacity
for implementation among member groups effecting the 12,000,000 person membership.
2012 For a presentation at Sarah Lawrence College, Dougherty delved back into National Endowment for
the Arts examining its 2010 grants to women's art organizations. The total amount awarded was
$281,000, $11,800 more than the peak amount from 1982. The average award in 2010 was $21,615,
not quite 3 times the average grant of 1982. But only 13 groups received support, when in 1982 it
had been 31 groups.
2013 Some Swedish movie theatres volunteer to use the Bechdel test rating for movies they screen.
Two years later the system proves to encourage the development of more female friendly stories
that past the test. A) Two or more women; B) who have names; C) and hold a conversation
about something other than men.
2014 News coverage of girls and women's sports in 2014 was only 3.2% of TV airtime, an almost
250% decline from the peak of 8.7% in 1999, according to the 2015 5-year update of a 25-year
longitudinal study: It's Dude Time!: A Quarter Century of Exclduing Women's Sports in
Televised News and Highlight Shows from Purdue Univerity and the University of Southern
California. http://com.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/06/05/2167479515588761.full.pdf+html
2015 MARTHA M. LAUZEN, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN IN TELEVISION & FILM, INDEPENDENT
WOMEN: BEHIND-THE-SCENES EMPLOYMENT ON INDEPENDENT FILMS IN 201415 women
comprise 29% of directors working on documentaries; 18% of directors on narrative features.

NOTE: Vast majority of focus of money for independent community is on DOCUMENTARY. Crowd
funding a saving grace, where director remains in control of her production and its process.

2015 30+ years on the United States has still not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of the
Discrimination of Women (CEDAW) along with Iran, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Palau and Tonga.

2015 February, the Federal Communications Commission approves guidelines protecting Net
Neutrality as a utility under title II of the 1934 Communications Act. 3.7 Million pople
submitted public comments. This rule may become MOST bitter fight alla Trump.
2015 Martha Richards, WomensArts.org calls for policy boost:With $10 million we could have a
substantial and diverse team of smart, well-equipped women who could be paid to focus their

Timeline Culture/Media by Ariel Dougherty page 7

 full attention on eliminating barriers for women in all art forms.
2015 Sarajevo Conference Declaration works to have all EU member states reduce inequality and improve all
roles for women in the audio-visual industry. Efforts to achieve this outcome were actively worked upon
by the European Women's Audio Visual Network in conjunction with the Committee of the
Ministers of the Council of Europe in its Recommendation (2003) on balanced participation of
women and men in political and public decision-making.

2016 Jan. MacArthur Foundation awards $2.5 million to 19 film projects, largest amount ever in their 31
years of funding 300+ documentaries. Only one of the 19 project identifies a woman at its center.
2016 International Collective of Women Cinematographers forms.

2016 Press Freedom suffered its 11th straight year of decline across the globe. Only 13% of
world populations live under free press. Steep declines worldwide were linked to two factors:
heightened partisanship and polarization in a countrys media environment, and the degree of extralegal
intimidation and physical violence faced by journalists.

2016 July, Shorenstein Center Study shows coverage of Hillary Clinton, 84% negative in tone from
major media during primaries https://shorensteincenter.org/pre-primary-news-coverage-2016-trump-
clinton-sanders/ The study has no gender analysis or understanding of the omission of women from
mainstream media over decades. Rather amazing. Same study shows that Trump received about
$55MM worth of free media coverage, essentially gavel to gavel (sans negative tone!)

2016 Fall, Ralph Nader speaking before Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley said: We own
the public airwaves, but we have no outlet for our voices...If there was a set cable
channel on Labor they are going to talk about labor issues around the clock......We should
have out own media paid for by the broadcasters.
2017 NEH Fiscal Yr 2017 Media Projects: Production 1 to 3 yrs, $100K to $650K, special chairman
awards for exceptional projects of up to $1MM. Outright or matching or combination of two.

2017 March, Budget to Make America Great Again eliminates all funding for NEA, NEH and PBS.

Not a comprehensive list, but food for thought!!

www.arieldougherty.com

Timeline Culture/Media by Ariel Dougherty page 8

Persistent Challenges

@ US lacks cultural minister to lead on/work with on such issues that many other countires have i.e. no
focused governmental leadership to engage with
@ Weak or non-existent national womens machineries for policy engagement
@ Patriarchal mindset within most existing institutions government, industry & NGOs
@ Under-resourced WMOs, especially at grassroots, are unable to effectively provide specialized interventions
@ Very few womens (human rights based) NGOs advocating on policy issues**
@ As regards media, there exists aserious lack of understanding of corporate media self interest [only industry
mentioned and protected in the Constitution] vs how it is expected to serve public interest, the constant
dance for coverage
@ Accumulated erosion of (local) media (papers & broadcast) to be accountable to (local) public (due to
mergers et al) and for the political process to acknowledge changed reality and deal with it effectively.

** In VAW community maybe 70 people work full time on policy issues at federal and state levels.
NO ONE, not one person in all the US, works full time on media policy with a gendered lens.
In the opinion of this author, this may be the single most significant failure of the women's
movement!!

OVER ARCHING QUESTIONS

Relationship of First Amendment rights of media entities to public interest, especially in broadcast
(cable and satellite, potentially internet) and legal potential of UNHR Article 19 for people's right to
information, to receive and to disseminate it.

Can meat/teeth be put into the diversity clause of Communications Act of 1934?

Would passage of the ERA effect any of this?

What possibilities exist within the 3rd Circuit decision of July 2011 to demand better data
collection around diversity? (See Commerce Committee letter of

Maybe need a completely new Public Communications Act that also completely redefines the role
and purpose of the FCC.

1st Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Article 19 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) US ratified in 1992. (It went into effect

Timeline Culture/Media by Ariel Dougherty page 9

 in 1976!). Crtics say: US fails to conform domestic law to the minimum human rights standards as
established in the Covenant and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights over the last thirty years.

Article 13 forbids the arbitrary expulsion of resident aliens and requires such decisions to be able to be appealed and
reviewed
Article 20 mandates sanctions against inciting hatred

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) --- US a signator under Carter, but not
ratified by Senate (along with CEDAW) Nor has Cuba ratified.
The Heritage Foundation, a critical conservative think tank, argues that signing it would obligate the introduction of
policies that it opposes such as universal health care

CONSIDER the law that created the NEA. It states in part, Democracy demands wisdom
and vision in its citizens. It must therefore foster and support a form of education, and
access to the arts and the humanities, designed to make people of all backgrounds and
wherever located masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants.
https://qz.com/917312/why-does-donald-trump-want-to-eliminate-the-nea-and-public-funding-for-the-arts/

Timeline Culture/Media by Ariel Dougherty page 10