Role of media in accelerating women empowerment

Introduction

Media is regarded as society's most significant instrument in modern time. It has the ability to reach a big audience and make an great impact on society. The effect of media on individual or society has now gone far and wide. Social media, with its constantly updated social application and networking, is an unavoidable source of public influence. By emphasizing on marginalization of women's positions in society, the media has been useful in aiding the women's emancipation and upliftment. Media plays a very significant role in Women's development. It is worth noting that the advancement of women's education and their participation in every sector has also aided media in their expansion. Media is most widely used medium for advocating gender equality and women's rights. Woman empowerment in India is a contentious concept and a sign of a difficult task ahead, as it requires acknowledging the fact that gender gap issues and discrimination against women have existed as social evil for thousands of years. Currently, women's empowerment has emerged as one of the most sensitive issues of the twenty-first century. However, in practice, women's empowerment remains a speculation and women are still victimized by different social ills in our daily lives. In India, women's empowerment is still a long way off. The falling sex ratio in India exemplifies the discrimination women face at the birthing period. The increasing violence towards women due to their vulgar representation as sex objects, is a major contributor to the rising violence. Thus, it is very important to assess the role of media in empowering women. In current scenario, print and electronic media give a balanced picture of women's different lives and contributions to society which eliminated the stereotype portrait of women in the society. In most countries, women's understanding of media, as well as their access and influence over different kinds of traditional and modern media, is still limited. Women are becoming more empowered as a result of their increased engagement and access to self-expression and decision-making through the media and new communication technology. The media's significant and beneficial role in women's empowerment and gender equality should be encouraged and explored further. Media is considered as the fourth pillar of democracy, which also serves as a watchdog over the functions of the other three pillars of democracy (legislature, executive, and judiciary). Media's role includes informing, educating, and entertaining the public and encourages citizens to engage in policy debates and decision-making. Women are considered a weaker element of society, therefore the government has created many schemes and policies to encourage women to work for themselves, such as the Nirbhaya Scheme, Nari Shakti Puraskar, Ujjawala Scheme, One Stop Centre Scheme. Government policies and programs are publicized in newspapers and publications so that women are informed about them. Aside from that, there are radio and television programmes on women's issues and growth. There are also numerous websites and social networking sites that promote women's empowerment in India. Media and new communication technologies boost women's participation and access to self-expression and decision-making, paving the road for women's empowerment. Thus, media has a key www.extensionjournal.com role in empowering women by providing information. Women's contributions have been accepted in all spheres of life. In every society, they are considered as a solid pillar. Women are essential to the formation of families and contributing to the growth of a country. Women make up nearly half of the global populace (United Nations Reports, 1980). As therefore, women play an essential role to the development of the country and society. Women are equally important to the nation's development as its natural resources. Among women living in poor and underdeveloped nations, empowerment is a crucial issue. Today, every developing nation emphasizes the importance of women's development and their active involvement in the process of development. Additionally, it is often recognized that in addition to managing women are leaving the house, bearing children, and working to make money from traditional Laboure in the fields, industrial work, or smallscale businesses management organizations. According to Velu Suresh (2012), women's empowerment is also regarded as an active process that gives them the ability to recognize who they are and play a significant role in socioeconomic development. Knowing that gender inequality and discrimination against women have existed as social evils for thousands of years, women's empowerment in India is an issue of contention and an indication of a challenging task. Today, the One of the most important problems of the twenty-first century is the empowerment of women. However, in practice, women's empowerment remains an illusion. In our daily lives, we observe how women are affected by a number of social ills, such as child marriage, illiteracy, low female status, gender imbalance in employment, and more. Hygiene and sanitation, the dowry system, and sati practices, among others. Women struggle in all areas of life, including work, health care access, and property rights. In India, women's empowerment remains an empty have dreams. The bias that exists against women at the time of birth is clearly depicted by India's falling sex ratio. Although becoming famous in any field, women face daily harassment from their environment. They are the targets of crimes like rape, kidnapping, dowry, and kidnapping and extortion mocking, sexual harassment, molestation, etc. Approximately forty percentage women In India, domestic violence affects victims.

Objective

To study the micro level influence of each individual media elements on perceived importance for women empowerment.

The data table shows the age distribution of 300 respondents categorized into three groups. Young age groups (18 to 25 years) represent 31.67% of the sample, indicating a significant presence of younger individuals. The middle age group (26 to 45 years) is the largest, comprising 45%, age population. The old age group (46 and above) accounts for 23.34%, indicating fewer older participants.

Occupation

The data table presents the occupational distribution of 300 respondents across five categories. Businesswomen constitute the largest group at 36.67%, Teaching follows with 25%, and Government employees make up 18.34%, suggesting a notable public sector presence. Corporate employees account for 11.67%, while professional workers, including those in specialized fields, represent the smallest group at 8.34%.

Summary

Overall, the analysis shows that as age increases, both broadcasting and internet media consumption decrease significantly, while print media shows a weak positive relationship with age The regression analysis results you provided explore the relationship between occupational status and different types of media consumption: print media, broadcasting media, and internet media.  Interpretation: For each unit increase in occupational status, print media consumption is expected to increase by 0.08 units, suggesting a positive relationship between higher occupational status and print media engagement. www.extensionjournal.com and dignity. Bala P. (2017) [1] discussed the essential components of women's empowerment that the media should appropriately report and promote. Media supporting presence in the process of women empowerment cannot be overlooked. He has also discussed how the media can aid women's empowerment by raising public awareness of many social challenges and concerns such as gender inequality, violence against women, women's health, declining sex ratio, and women's education. Vardhan, R. (2017) [7] says that media world has evolved in the previous decade, with social networking platforms such as websites, internet chat boards, and online networks increasingly replacing traditional media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, and television shows. Social media is becoming a catalyst for change. The manner in which information is communicated to and from individuals all over the world is changing. Its popularity is growing at a rapid rate in every area of the planet. The potential of online media to balance empathy and accountability for women's rights, as well as to monitor for prejudice and generalization, has been proven. It has turned out to be an excellent instrument for bringing the issues of women's rights to the attention of a wider audience. Gupta S (2018) [2] Analyses the roles of media using multiple indicators such as socioeconomic and decisionmaking influences for women. The Indian government has implemented various of programmers and initiatives for women's empowerment around the country. Women have contributed in every sector. They are proud for country and source of inspiration for others. Media play a vital role in further empowerment the women Aysha et al. (2018) Analysed the women empowerment by using a 4-point rating system based on nine factors. Women empowerment is a way of defining, assessing, and overcoming problems in a woman's life by giving her more authority over her surroundings. It is a multidimensional, functioning procedure that will allow you to comprehend their whole personality and strength in all realms of existence. Women's empowerment has been regarded as an indispensable requirement for alleviating women's suffering in industrialised countries by providing them with the same freedoms and resources as men. Women from the South Surma Upazila in Bangladesh's Sylhet area participated in the study. An example of 100 randomly selected women from a population of 420 are taken for study. The general empowerment value of women was calculated by adding together their ward predictor ratings. The relationship between the respondents' degrees of empowerment and their chosen traits was investigated using Pearson's correlation coefficient (r). The findings revealed that the majority of provincial women (50%) had a medium degree of empowerment, with 43% having a moderate level of empowerment, 5% having a minor level of empowerment, and just 2% having a high level of empowerment. The respondents' empowerment was directly connected to their age, family employment, career, contact experience, credit, and training. According to the research, women in the nation are more engaged in decision-making and private and political activities, but have a low level of versatility, capacity to participate in money-related activities, and other aspects of empowerment.

Conclusion

The role of Media is very important to accelerate Women empowerment which will lead to empowerment of women. The broadcasting Media, however, like all social media, are good and practical means to increase, through the dissemination of healthy concepts of being woman, of what is the role of women in modern society, of good examples that women give us every day, of the results they have achieved and continue to reach out to women in many fields.

Broadcasting Media could also make a strong contribution, with the implementation of media campaigns, to the dissemination of the concept of gender equality. If people see in the broadcasting media the overcome of the differences between men and women will bring him back into everyday life. The broadcasting Media have always unconsciously affected and influenced the thinking and behavior of society.

References

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7. Vardhan R. Social media and women empowerment: a sociological analysis. Int J Econ Bus Rev. 2017;5(6):117-21.