Interview with Jim Macnamara, Professor of Public Communication
Page 2/3
HSS: And speaking of passion, what is it about public communication that interests and enlivens you?
Jim: Public communication to me is so fundamental in our society and particularly in a democratic society. In a participatory democracy, you could argue that you couldn't actually have a participatory democracy without public communication. People need to know what is happening and people need to be exposed to a diverse range of views if they're going to make informed decisions and of course, in democracy we ask them to make decisions.
Jim speaking at the launch of his book Media and Male Identity: The Making and
Remaking of Men in Sydney, which was accompanied by a photo exhibition of
men by Belinda Mason-Lovering
I've also been very fascinated by not only the positive things about public communication but I'm motivated that I see a lot of public communication does not work - there's a lot of advertising and a lot of public relations work that is not well-measured, that may not be effective. So there's a great challenge in understanding this, that takes me into areas like audience research which I find very interesting because public relations and public communication practice today is not just about processes - producing videos or producing websites. It's about understanding audiences, about understanding people - and that's still an area where we're all learning, there's a long way to go to grow our knowledge in that area.
HSS: You say that people need to be educated through a diverse range of views - what sort of view is presented in your book, "Media and Male Identity: The Making and Remaking of Men" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)?
Jim: My research was focused on the media and the way gender is portrayed in the media - I agree with feminists that female gender has not been portrayed in the media perhaps the way it should be. But there's an assumption that male gender is being portrayed positively and favourably towards men. My research shows that that's actually not the case and I put the supplementary argument that if certain portrayals of women can be counter-productive in our society, then it also holds that negative and certain types of stereotype portrayals of men can also have potential impact.
I did rigorous research across a very large sample of media content and what was unearthed was some quite serious issues that in no way detract from what the feminist studies have shown about gender portrayals of women.
But what they do is challenge the assumption that men have it good in the media.
Men certainly occupy most positions of power in society, but what I found in the media was things that sociologists and educationalists need to have a look at because it's showing men and boys in narrow negative stereotypes - for example, boys are trouble-makers at school, men are all sports-mad and super-macho, men are generalised as violent ... and so on. Those are the messages that are out there much more commonly than positive messages.
It's a controversial piece of research that needs to be looked at very carefully. But if it is looked at carefully, I think it has an important place in our studies of gender.
HSS: I guess it is easier to push and believe those stereotypes that are directed towards men because they are not really - if at all - considered to be taboo. But when you make gender-specific comments about women, I think there is that boulder of feminism that renders it socially unacceptable, in my opinion, to make such a statement.
Jim: Yes, when those stereotypes are applied to men, unfortunately there is virtually no opposition, but those stereotypes of men are no less offensive, I mean, one of the most prominent generalised portrayals of men is that they are violent. Now, there are some men who are violent. But imagine how most men who are not violent react to being categorically branded as violent. There's a lot of men who feel great pain and shame that they're associated with a gender that is regarded widely as violent. 'Some' men are violent, 'some' women are violent - and when a woman is violent and commits horrific crimes, we don't generalise and say 'women are violent'. And I don't believe we should generalise the other way.