ABSTRACT
Critics tend to focus on the alleged institutional sexism within the media industries as a crucial factor behind the coverage of women. A survey by Liz Curtis (1994) found serious cases of sexual harassment of women within the BBC and other broadcasting organisations, while research by Margareta Melin-Higgins (1997) found women alienated by the dominant male newsroom culture. According to media commentator Peter Wilby, newspaper managements will only give women ‘a fair wind provided they behave like good chaps and adapt their lifestyles to a masculine pattern’ (2008c). Significantly, in November 2003, MP Clive Solely revealed under Parliamentary privilege that Rupert Murdoch’s company, News International, had paid £5000,000 to silence allegations of serious sexual harassment against Stuart Higgins, a former editor of the Sun. Soley told Parliament that Sun staff had suffered ‘sexual harassment and bullying’. ‘As far as I am aware no proper disciplinary hearings took place and other senior staff appear to have colluded with what was by any standard extremely offensive and destructive behaviour’ (Hencke 2003).
