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Show The Thunderbird Monday April 15, 1985 Page 3 Cranston: women still stereotyped in media Africa dance by Kris Johnson collects $802 In the realm of media I hope that we can reach a recognition that people are not stereotypical, that women and men are able to be superior according to their individual motivation, their individual talents, and their individual endeavor, and not by their gender. Thats what Pat Cranston told an SUSC Convocations audience Thursday. Cranston, senior professor of broadcasting in the University of Washingtons School of Communication, addressed the subject of women in the media. She entitled her lecture Images and Icons. Cranston talked about the stereotyping of women in the media and how they dont get the recognition they deserve. If we look at newspaper content today, research indicates a disparity in the number of representation of each sex across the various sections of the paper, she said. When women are presented as professionals, she continued, it is either in the lifestye section or the obituary section. There the press is willing to recognize that they are or were professional women. Cranston quoted many statistics in her lecture, asserting that women hold a low profile in the media. Overall research indicates that newspapers are written primarily by and about men. Ninety four percent of the front page stories are reported by men and 94 percent on the columns written are by men, she said. Nobody made it until the projected hour of 6 a.m., but dozens of the 400 students at Fridays USA for Africa dance pushed themselves into the early, early morning and contributed $802 to the famine relief charity. The Executive Council will forward the profits from the dance to USA for Africa, an organization founded by American recording artists to raise money primarily for famine victims in Ethiopia. Dancers lasted until about 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, but about a dozen night-owl- s hung cround to watch video movies aso provided by the Executive Council. It was worth all the effort we put into it, said Alan Bailey, social affairs vice president. I anticipated we would go until 3 or 4 oclock, but we were willing to go all the way to 6 oclock. In the meantime, the council last week cancelled plans for a concert by rock group Toto after it could not pin down facilities. Council members had hoped to hold the concert at the Cedar High gymnasium, but those plans were negated by a school district policy prohibiting rock concerts. Bailey said the concert could not be held outdoors in the Thunderbird Stadium without having a backup location. To get a good quality concert, youve got to have it in a place like the Centrum or high school gymnasium, because youve got to have 3,000 people to break even, Bailey said. A Toto concert would have cost about $20,000. -- According to Cranston, anchorwomen in television broadcasting for prime time networks are usually hired as a publicity stunt or out of guilt due to the fact that there are so few women in the field. She also said women in the film industry and advertising are stereotyped. It seems to me that most advertising men think of females as able to do certain tasks that are not going to require too much thought, and overall that women are rather stupid and receptive, she said. I believe in the individual male and female and I think women need an oppurtunity, a chance to develop their talents, said Cranston. ' The thing I disagree with is people being held back and not allowed to use those abilities, she added. Mountain Bell Latia Johnson: more involved than she expected donates money by Tracy Girdwood Mountain Bell has pledged $24,000 toward the SUSC Centrum, the combined special events center and classroom facility scheduled for completion this fall. Mountain Bell officials Mack Lawrence, Utah vice president, and W. Dee Jensen, manager of distribution services, presented the second of four $6,000 yearly installments this week to SUSC President Gerald R. Sherratt. This donation couldnt have come at a better time, Sherratt said. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the 105,000 square foot structure were held just over a year ago, and construction is well under way. This generous Centrum contribution will go toward building amenities the finishing touches to make it a truly outstanding facility. We want to do our part and a little bit more for the building project, Lawrence said at the presentation. Mountain Bell is a part of the community we serve, and we believe that a Centrum contribution is a contribution to the entire southern Utah area. When completed, the Centrum will house a 5,300-sea- t arena, a television studio, photography and graphics studios, and a statistical computer laboratory, as well as painting and sculpture studios and several classrooms and offices. d The Centrum will be used on a basis for athletic events, concerts, conventions, cultural events and academic programs. year-roun- , For a woman who didnt plan to become involved, Lana Johnson certainly is. Her life is one of choices and changes. And it seems, from the intense interest shown in everything she does, that she enjoys her lifestyle very much. Her involvement with the colleges Convocations program, freshman orientation, the livestock business and other special projects demand a constant of priorities. And she derives a great deal of personal satisfaction in seeing things work, she better than speakers who are willing to come for less of an honorarium. Stronger personalities have appeared such as the music through department, Womens Resource Committee, and the Chamber of Commerce, which yields an increase in available monies. Selection of speakers is made by a committee, including representatives of the community, campus faculty, and students. The committee meets at least says. Johnson, who is special projects coordinator for the office of SUSC President Gerald R. Sherratt, began working with the Convocations program because, she says, she felt someone needed to. The initial response to the first lecture held in the Thorley Recital Hall in March 1983 was encouraging and the snowball has continued to roll into a enrollment of 300 students per quarter, an increase of some 60 over last years In addressing students response to a speaker, Johnson recognizes the importance of critical thinking. What they think is not nearly so important to me as that they are thinking, she said. She said she efijoys reading students comments on the Convocations card, and finds excitement that true interest is often communicated. And that is rewarding to her. Johnson grew up on a ranch in Bicknell, Utah, and after graduating from Utah State University with a teaching degree, married Met Johnson, also an educator. After a series of moves to both California and back to Utah to manage Mets family ranch, the couple moved to the Orient where they taught for three years. The Johnsons came back to the States to manage the family livestock business in Utah. We were excited to live in Cedar City because of the availability of She and Met have three boys, Taylor, Redge, and Ryan, who thrive on the varied lifestyle of their parents. Johnson feels her role of the working mother has ' SUSC Auditorium Johnson says. She notes that it would be nice to bring in a national figure each time, budget allowing. The interesting thing is that quite often when we work through agents in New York and Washington, D.C., to get national figures, the content of what they have to say is not especially any college. skiing. figures. Big names, familiar to many people, will sometimes fill the house now the once a quarter to discuss future speakers of interest to the different schools of the Lana Johnson not only directs the Convocations program, but several others as well. been enriching to her children because they have pursued her interests. She stresses the importance of a mothers outside interests to show her children that she is a thinking person with ambitions and goals of her own. I really wish that young womfn could realize that. It shouldnt be controversial, she said. |