2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 The Concept of Gender
Gender is not the same as sex. Gender is a product
of cultural constructs. Gender is socially and
culturally constructed, and it is not an accidental
result of sex, nor does it have a fixed form of
expression. Gender can be considered as a cultural
meaning carried by biological functions, but it does
not need to be consistent with sex (Butler, 1999).
In 1993, at the workshop on Chinese women and
Development issue held by Tianjin Normal
University, the concept of "gender" was introduced
intensively by members of the Chinese Society for
overseas women's studies (CSWS) and became one
of the centers of discussion. Since then, "gender" has
become a concept and category of women's studies
in Chinese Mainland. After the Fourth World
Conference on Women in 1995, the spirit of the two
United Nations documents signed by the Chinese
government, the Platform for Action and the Beijing
Declaration, was disseminated in China, and "gender
mainstreaming in policy-making" became a familiar
topic for women's organizations and researchers at
all levels (Wang, 2001). This also proves that the
concept of gender does not come from the works of
one or several people, but the collective creation of
Feminism: we can understand gender as a system or
as a social relationship. The concept of gender is
meaningful only when it is used for specific analysis
under specific conditions (Wang, 1997).
Around 2000, discussions of "gender" became
more prevalent within China, but most of them still
belong to introductions and initiatives. In 2001, the
women's research center of the Party School of the
CPC Central Committee hosted a symposium on
"gender and public policy". The seminar focused on
gender and education policy, gender interests,
resource allocation and government responsibilities,
gender and family policy, gender and political
participation policy, public policy, legislation, and
gender equality mechanisms. (Li, Ying, 2001)
At the same time, there are many criticisms.
Some studies believe that gender theory reveals the
root causes of gender inequality, but feminism falls
into the dilemma of eliminating differences or
strengthening differences. These viewpoints provide
some fresh perspectives for this study. However, if
we examine the concept of "gender", we will find
that even the so-called "citizenship" is the result of
the interaction between state power, social relations,
and media discourse, and it still lives in the category
of "gender". Although it has been criticized and
questioned from the inside and outside of feminism,
it has also encountered the challenge and influence
of various new trends of thought. Some
characteristics of “gender”, including full of
differences, developability and pluralism make it
complex, “gender” is still the central concept of
Feminism (Liu, 2001).
The concept of gender was introduced into the
research field of Chinese Social Sciences, which
quickly triggered an upsurge of research in the
academic circles. The developmental, pluralistic,
and critical attributes of the concept of "gender" help
it quickly enter various research fields and produce a
lot of problem-oriented research. At present, there
are rich discussions on gender and gender equality,
public policies, legal norms, social reality, education
and so on.
2.2 Research on Gender From the
Perspective of Journalism and
Communication
The concept of gender is naturally closely related to
journalism and communication. Since it was
introduced to Chinese Mainland, this concept has
been closely combined with the study of Journalism
and communication. Scholars in this field include
Bu Wei (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences),
Jiang Hong (Anhui University), Liu Bohong
(Women's Research Institute of all China Women's
Federation), Cao Jin (Fudan University) and others.
News and communication scholars have made
fruitful discussions, which not only provides a fresh
perspective for China's news and communication
research, but also explores powerful critical tools,
which expands the vision of news and
communication, and increases research topics. To
sum up, the combination of Journalism and
communication research and gender is probably
more obvious in the following studies:
Firstly, media reproduction of female images.
Media reproduction is a frequently used and new
theoretical tool in journalism and communication,
and the correlation between gender and media
reproduction will certainly give birth to many
investigations related to media reproduction of
female images. For example, Liu Bohong, Bu Wei,
Liu Xiaohong, Jiang Hong, and others are scholars
who carried out the discussion of female image
media representation earlier.
Secondly, the concept, behavior, and policy
advocacy. Women's programs with a sense of
reflection on gender issues can reflect women, the
relationship between women and men, social,