by MARYAM BEN SALEM and ATIDEL MEJBRI
In this paper[1] we plan to understand the effects brought about by the recent changes in the field of journalism, focusing on women, on the one hand as media professionals and, on the other, as the subjects of the media. The status and image of women in the media is an issue that has often been studied, but without, however, taking into consideration the manner in which the reorganisation of the sector has affected the choice of subjects addressed by the media and the perspective adopted.
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Just like the spontaneous aspect of equality that characterised protests held between December 2010 and January 2011, specific aspects characterised the media; women effectively held all decision-making positions in television and presided over editorial meetings. Would they also have preferred to be soldiers rather than take centre stage? That is a question requiring in-depth analysis.
As the media world “became organised” around the various sectors mentioned earlier and other elements, women journalists left the decision-making positions for a variety of reasons. One could say that the Tunisian “media system”[2] itself contains the mechanisms for the removal of women from the decision-making sphere. The only ones to remain visible were field reporters.
In order to preserve positions as field reporters, a job that for a very long time was, on one hand, reserved to men and, on the other, without real professional status,[3] female journalists, most of them young, had fought a real battle.
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