Media essays

Women in agricultural media

By Simone Smith

(Feature -- 2004)
Go make your own cup of tea
Women in agricultural media
The role of women in media has evolved over time; in agricultural media, women have come ahead in leaps and bounds. But does the glass ceiling still exist? Simone Smith investigates
It is early on a weekday morning amongst the cattle, buyers, livestock agents and carriers is a woman. She follows the sale closely, noting each pen's cattle, price and buyer. She then interviews some stock agents for their opinion of the sale and the latest market trends in the area, before negotiating with some buyers for a picture with their new purchase.
A woman as a rural journalist is a common sighting in sale yards these days, but it wasn't so long ago that women were not considered competent or knowledgeable enough to be agricultural reporters.
Speaking from her Melbourne based writing business Ann Burgi says there was “not a big future for women in the media…it was just inappropriate that we were there.”
Burgi worked for Melbourne based agricultural newspaper Stock and Land during the '70s, when these attitudes towards women were still common.
Recounting this time at Stock and Land, she said it was when “every woman that did well, gained ground for all women.”
In what she describes as a fairly normal progression through the paper, Burgi said she “would not call herself an agricultural journalist.”
Her time at Stock and Land saw her beginning at the property reporting section, then moving into rounds, stud sales and general news before taking on the position of sub editor coordinating the organization and production side, where she was directing staff movements.
Being involved in organization and production is a huge responsiblity for someone with previous aspirations to do veterinary science, but just fell into her media job. “I came during the mid '70s when there was a beef bust, I was thankful to have a job…(I) didn't give a dam what it was,” says Burgi.
Describing her position as “remarkable” at the time, she tells the story of her first job interview for an ABC rural cadetship, after completing a Bachelor of Agriculture at Melbourne University.
“While men were being asked about wheat trading and international politics, I was asked 'how would I cope with a farmer making a pass at me?'” Explaining that this was an acceptable question at the time, she talks about other incidents were a woman was not as important as a man in the same job.Fear of a woman
Taking a phone call while at Stock and Land, she remembers the person asking for the editor, then the stud stock reporter and when they finally ran out of options they asked “Is there a man in the office I can speak to?”
At times Burgi recalls she was the only woman in the room at meetings and it was the norm that the girl in the room made the tea. Laughing she said some people's attitudes were like: “My god! What do we do with her (when she turned up for interviews)…they were more uncomfortable than you.”
“Some interviewees believed as a female they could push me around…with someone like that, you have to command respect.” Asking whether she ever defended herself, she explains that by pushing the issue you were seen as behaving badly and as a reporter you had to represent your newspaper. You have to be “aware of the implications of being to picky about it.”
The positive side of being a woman in agricultural media is that “if you did well in your job you earned the respect and the right to do it…if you did your job well you got the credit,” says Burgi. She also stressed that as a woman she received the same pay as the men and was never subject to harassment or treated with disrespect.
Considering herself as having a biased point of view, Burgi feels that her opinions are based on knowledge from her generation and the fact she has moved out of the industry.
Although Burgi has created and is currently running her own business, which she describes as “one step sideways from (the paper),” she doesn't regret following the agricultural reporting path and sees it as a good training ground for prospective journalists.
Having no ambition herself to become an editor of an agricultural paper while working in the industry, she believes that it is now possible for any woman who wants to be an editor, to prove herself and step up to take on the position.
Not just for boys
Carlene Dowie is one of these women who have successfully climbed the ladder to the position of associate editor in the Rural Press publication, Australian Dairy Farmer. She has job shared the position of editor with her husband Alistair for the past five years, after returning from maternity leave.
Asked if she considers herself in a high position for a woman, she answered, it is a “senior position (associate editor) for anyone in the industry…regardless of gender.”
Prior to this editorial position Dowie utilized her journalism degree and for the past 20 years has worked in a range of positions with Stock and Land, The Land and within other Rural Press magazines.
“People probably think of agriculture as male dominated,” says Dowie, but she disagrees. Using dairy farming as an example, she suggests that it is a whole family business, with women contributing equally.
Looking into the future she believes that “If women want the job (in the media) and are interested, they will be able to get it,” there will be nothing stopping them. She feels editors are hiring the best candidate for the job regardless of gender.
Media-take a look at yourself
Desiree Savage strongly disagrees. In her article titled “Our Dirty Secret” published in the Autumn 2003 addition of The Walkley Magazine, she highlights that the media is still “very much a man's world.”
Focusing on the media industry as a whole, she singles out the male domination of ABC radio to illustrate her main point.
ABC “Still (have) a perception that women's voices do not transmit authority as well as men's,” she writes.
The International Women's Media Foundation and the Women's Foreign Policy Group uncovered issues for women journalists in a 1997 report. Out of the report came the notions that “women only want to cover women's' events,” and that “women cannot understand complex issues,” explains Savage. She believes these notions are behind the many reasons women are not assigned to certain stories and not considered for some jobs.
Savage explains the issue as something that is “often brushed aside” within the industry despite the media's role and responsibility to expose scandals. She is critical of the way in which the media highlights the lack of women in corporate roles, but refuses to look at themselves as an organization.
Career or Children?
According to a report on women in the media by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance in 1996, Savage writes, “Nearly 60 per cent of respondents believed women's promotion opportunities were affected by childcare responsibilities.”
“Some wait to start a family until they have established a career, others forego children altogether.”
Praising The Age newspaper in Melbourne for having a constructive attitude towards women in media, she still feels the industry needs to examine this problem as a whole.
The Age allows for part-time work and “it also helps that journalism is a flexible industry, with hours not restricted to nine to five.” The underlying concern for Savage is that these women who opt to work part-time will never be “highly promoted,” and therefore being set-back in their careers of they choose to have children.
Carlene Dowie expanded on this issue and labeled it “the biggest barrier for women.” Her concern is that “a woman would have to make a choice, and put her career absolutely first,” if she would want to become an editor. The job is full time and it is full on hard work, as well as the high expectations.
Savage describes The Shepparton News, a large regional daily paper in country Victoria, as setting a good example for women in media. With a “woman managing editor, a woman deputy editor and a woman co-chief sub editor,” she views the country papers as “strongholds for women.”
This can only mean good news for the agricultural sector as regional dailies are considered as the best training ground for agricultural journalists. These papers provide training in a rural environment with experience in all areas of the paper as well as creating awareness of issues affecting rural communities.
Age is the issue
New to the job, Catherine Miller from the Stock Journal in South Australia is confident about the future of women in agricultural media.
As a younger journalist she feels that age is the biggest respect issue when working in the agricultural media. “Many people in our team (The Stock Journal) are pretty young (and) the average age of farmers is about fifty, but when we ask questions the farmers start to realize we know what we are talking about.”
Working as the South East of South Australia's regional journalist, Miller has an impressive agricultural resume. After completing a Bachelor of Agricultural Science she worked as a wool buyer for GH Michell and Sons and in the Elders Risk Management Division in Adelaide.
Miller explains that the whole editorial team at the Stock Journal is female with the exception of the editor and the West Coast regional reporter. Listing Deanna Lush the livestock editor and Kate Dowler the cropping editor as notable women within the paper, proves that there are some females in roles with greater responsibility at the Stock Journal .
Television
ABC's Landline “Australia's national rural issues program” is another example of women working in the agricultural media at a high level. Joanne Shoebridge is one of the presenters and her journalistic experience both in Australia and abroad is extensive.
Having worked for B-Sky-B's Sky News and BBC World-TV overseas as well as having produced the NSW ABC news bulletin during the Sydney Olympics, Shoebridge is proof women can be as successful as men.
The other two women reporting for Landline are Pip Courtney based in Melbourne and Prue Adams from Adelaide, who also have impressive journalistic backgrounds.
Adams was awarded South Australia's Rural Journalist of the year in 1997 the year after she joined Landline, having previously worked in Mt Gambier in the states South East.
Despite the wealth of experience between the female reporters, Landline is another example of men dominating editorial positions. The executive producer is male, and the women reporting staff are out numbered three to four by their male counterparts.
In perspective
A quick scan over other rural weekly newspapers shows that Landline is not alone in terms of having a male dominated editorial hierarchy.
Every Rural Press weekly newspaper in Australia has a male editor and general manager. Even the News Limited opposition to Rural Press, The Weekly Times follows this trend, having a male editor and deputy editor.
Exploring the print media outside of the agricultural sector places this male domination into perspective.
Other than the News Limited owned Sydney Times, which has a woman deputy editor most other large metropolitan daily newspapers also have male dominated higher end editorial positions. The Mercury in Tasmania has women editing certain sections of the paper, but the top positions remain male territory.
Anne Burgi predicts that it will not be long before women are challenging men for the managerial and editorial positions within the rural media. “Probability shows it is going to happen,” she commented, referring to the increase of women in media university courses and journalism cadetships.
She believes times have changed from when “a woman failing was more noticeable than a man failing at the same thing,” suggesting that women are an accepted and equal part of agricultural media these days.
Carlene Dowie sums it up. There “simply aren't these issues anymore…whether a woman can handle a store sale or get mud on her boots…it doesn't cross people's minds.”
It certainly isn't crossing Catherine Miller's mind. When asked where she sees herself in five years she replied “I would love to specialize in livestock journalism and be one of Rural Press's stud stock journalists or livestock editor.”
In ten years time she suggested that she might work for Rural Press in another state or at one their New Zealand publications, but was not sure.
Miller was sure about the future of agricultural media and the role of women within the industry though. Her optimistic outlook can give hope to all prospective journalists, “I believe the talented journalists will continue to get good stories and challenging roles regardless of their gender.”
Women are beginning to tap at the glass ceiling, which has previously obstructed their rise to the top within the media industry. If the attitude of these women who have worked within the agricultural media is anything to go by, it won't be long before women knock the men off the editorial positions they have held for so long.
The glass ceiling is slowing beginning to crack.

Circulations of Rural weeklies
News Limited
-- The Weekly Times - “The voice of the country since 1869” (Victoria)-75,500
Rural Press publications
-- The Land- “Your rural weekly” (NSW)- 53 918 (January-June 2003)
-- Queensland Country Life- “The Bible of the bush” 82,976 (January-June 2003)
-- Farm Weekly (WA) “WA's biggest selling rural newspaper”- 13,447 (June 2003)
-- Stock and Land (Victoria) “At the cutting edge” -11,871 (January-June 2003)
-- Stock Journal (SA)- “The farmers' bible” 15,491 (June 2003)
-- The North Queensland Register “Australia's oldest rural weekly”-(not stated)

From the Horse to the Tractor
The History of Agricultural media
Described as “the voice of the country” and the “Farmers bible,” agricultural publications have been assisting farmers since the mid 1800s.
Covering all aspects of agriculture including dairying, cropping, sheep, livestock markets, horticulture, property and lifestyle, they function as the providers of news and information to rural people and the general public.
Anne Burgi former reporter and sub-editor at Victorian based Rural Press publication Stock and Land says farmers “see the media as information to run their farms,” and unlike other forms of media, a rural journalist is not seen as an intruder.
Rural Press Limited describes itself as a specialist agricultural and regional publisher and includes magazines, newspapers in Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America, websites and radio stations.
Launching its first publication, The Land in New South Wales, Rural Press has expanded into every state and holds about one percent of Australia's media market share according to a 1997 poll in The Australian Financial Review.
The Weekly Times is Australia's largest selling agricultural newspaper as well as the oldest. Since 1869 it has been providing information for people on the land. Although its main office is in Melbourne, The Weekly Times has three country bureaus in Victoria and is distributed interstate.
Trading as the Herald and Weekly Times Limited, The Weekly Times enjoys extensive market share and strong financial backing, which is the result of being attached to the News Limited empire.
Australia's agricultural weeklies are substantial within the print market. With an estimated combined circulation of 252,703 these weekly papers work out to be almost equal with a week's circulation for The Mercury, (248,890) Tasmania's number one selling paper.
Looking to the future in 1975
The future did not always look this bright for agricultural publications. According to a seminar paper written for the La Trobe University School of Agriculture in 1975 by Ronald Anderson, agricultural media was going to become extinct in favour of rural issues coverage in mainstream media.
He predicts that this demise would be the result of “an urban dominated and increasingly urban-orientated country” and suggested “city people in general have neither the time nor the inclination to read lengthy articles or view drawn-out television programs depicting the nuts and bolts of Australian agriculture's problems or achievements.”
Despite his view that city people are not interested in agricultural issues, there is criticism regarding the mainstream medias' coverage of rural issues, suggesting that it will not be a viable alternative to replace the role of agricultural media.
These criticisms include: Mainstream medias' lack of knowledge regarding rural news and information resulting in incorrect terminology or facts, lack of time for travel out of the city, high expense for travel and journalists time and the alteration of information into entertainment through tabloid sensationalism.
Following through with the theory of sensationalism, Anderson suggests that agriculture is only heard in mainstream media when there is something wrong or bad happening, such as drought. He believes this coverage has contributed to people loosing interest in reading about agriculture, because it is perceived as farmers' whinging - yet again.
Agriculture oversupply
Suggesting that the current market (in 1975) is “vastly over-supplied with agricultural publications,” Anderson believes that these publications are of a very low standard in both presentation and reporting.
Looking at Australia's agricultural industry in general, Anderson predicts that it is also changing as a result of external pressures, such as world markets and increased domestic competition.
“I believe, that Australian agriculture - like most agricultural production in the world- is still primarily a way-of-life, rather than a business,” writes Anderson. He suggests that farming is slowly becoming more business like, but the attitudes of farmers' remains un-business like.
The attitude of farmers' directly affects the news and information in agriculture newspapers. For example a business attitude could be reflected in the paper through market reports and articles regarding export.
“In theory, at least, the Australian agricultural press should be a powerful weapon for the stability, improvement, progress and prosperity of Australian farming.”
With this said, Anderson's suggestions are to reduce the number of agricultural publications, increase the training for journalists to enable them to understand complex rural issues and focus the fewer publications towards an informative role for the new business minded farmers.
Years later there is evidence that rural publications have moved with the times, and remain significant providers of news and information for farmers and rural communities.
An example of agricultural newspapers updating their images is the inclusion of magazines within the paper. These magazines contain anything from travel information in Stock and Land's Friday magazine to feature articles about the lives' of rural Australians, cooking recipes and advice columns in The Weekly Times Country Living section.
The Weekly Times also occasionally contains a twelve page lift out titled A Green Country that looks at environmental issues such as recycling, land degradation, hydroponics and government legislation, all issues that affect farmers and their communities.
Looking towards the future there remains quite a lot of agricultural publications within Australia (an estimate of about 31 publications), but even those with a small circulation appear to be needed by a niche audience.
The agricultural weeklies remain information based containing market reports and breaking news in each agricultural sector and have also expanded into entertainment and property in an attempt to broaden their audience.
With the future of agriculture in question as Australia remains in drought, there is an increased need for agricultural newspapers to act as the communicators for those farmers and rural communities suffering in silence.
The current conditions prove that agricultural papers are here to stay. Australia may not be riding on the sheep's back anymore but farmers and the rural communities to which Australia has gained its identity, remain generally forgotten by the mainstream press.
There is a place for agricultural newspapers, because after all someone has to speak for rural Australians in an urban dominated world.

Agricultural facts
The facts below from a 1997/98 Australian Bureau of Statistics report and a 1998 ABARE enquiry, provide a brief guide to what sort of people read agricultural magazines and newspapers. This information also highlights how significant Australia's agriculture sector is.
6.9 million people in Australia do not live in cities
630,000 people in Australia live on farms
Australia produces $28 billion worth of agricultural products
The value of Australia's rural export sits at around $22.1 billion
25 percent of Australia's total export merchandise comes from rural sources

List of interviews
-- Catherine Miller, Stock Journal, South Australia 22/4/04
-- Anne Burgi, Substitution, former employee of Stock and Land, Victoria 20/5/04
-- Carlene Dowie, Australian Dairy Farmer, Victoria 1/6/04

Reference list
-- Anderson, Ronald. The Mass Media and Agriculture. La Trobe University School of Agriculture: La Trobe University. 1975
-- Friday Magazine, Rural Press, accessed 7/6/04 Available from World Wide Web www.fridaymag.com.au/friday.asp
-- Landline, ABC rural, accessed on 1/6/04 Available from World Wide Web www.abc.net.au/landline/

-- Reiser, Ann and Walter, Gerry, “Agricultural Journalists” Assessments of Print coverage of agricultural news. Rural Sociology volume 59 (1994):525-537. This looks at the positive and negative aspects of agricultural media as well as the future of the industry.
-- Rural Press Corporate, accessed 27/5/04 Available from World Wide Web www.ruralpress.com
-- Savage, Desiree. “Our dirty secret.” Walkley Magazine issue 20 (Autumn 2003): 20-21. Covers the media industry as a whole and looks at the “glass ceiling” hindering women journalists.
-- The Mercury, News Limited, accessed 7/6/04 Available from World Wide Web www.themercury.news.com.au
-- The Weekly Times, News Limited, accessed 27/5/04 Available from World Wide Web www.theweeklytimes.news.com

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