EPpy Awards 2008 Finalists: No Sign Of Blogging Women

Arianna Huffington, co-founder and executive editor of The Huffington Post, is giving a keynote address tomorrow at the 2008 Interactive Media Conference and Tradeshow here in Las Vegas. She is one of the most outspoken female bloggers in the blogosphere.

Yet at the EPpy Awards, held by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek to award the best online media-affiliated websites and blogs, there is a distinct dearth of female blogger finalists!

Let me just say, the EPpy Awards finalists page does not have any links to the nominees’ websites and/or blogs. I had to google each and every blog…I almost cried when the thought occurred that I may have to look at all the newspapers’ sites also.

Moving on. ::dab dab::

The categories for Best Blogs are in business, entertainment, news and politics, and sports. It was only in the entertainment category that 2.5 of the nominees are women. They are: Pop Candy from USAToday, HandStamp from the Houston Chronicle and Kristin2Go from the Houston Chronicle.

In the sports category, there are four female bloggers on one blog called The FanHouse at AOL Sports but they only have a once-a-week video post while the rest are dominated by men.

So what gives Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek? You invite Arianna Huffington to do a keynote , but don’t nominate any female bloggers?

If you have a blog in any of the above categories and are blogging while female, post a link to your blog below!

Edited to add:

How could I forget to not give props to my fellow female bloggers in JOUR310?

Celebrities and Philanthropy
What’s On YouTube
Run with the Rebels (UNLV Sports)
Blog-Cast (Podcast Reviews)
Animal Rights in Las Vegas
Better Than E! (Las Vegas Gossip)
UNLV Parking
Health and Science
The Seoul of Las Vegas
The UNLV Neighborhood
MySpace
Sex and the City (Prostitution in Las Vegas)
Social Networking
Women’s Health

Semester in Review: A Personal Report

Things are starting to wind down at my desk. Well, sort-of. I have a 10 page paper due on Monday on literary representations of Algerian women through the works of Assia Djebar. Then a two day final at the Editor & Publisher Awards (EPpy Awards) and Interactive Media conference. There I can hopefully score a JOB at the online desk of a cool online newspaper or at an award-winning blog.

This summer has a huge question mark hanging over it. Although I will be going to the University of Nevada, Reno’s graduate program in interactive and environmental journalism next semester, what I’ll do with this summer is way up in the air.

I’m torn between leaving the city to work for a pittance at an awesome online rag or getting a temp job here and really dedicating myself to covering feminism in Las Vegas. Both are ambitions; both come at some price.

Whatever that decision is, I couldn’t have done it without the guidance and trailblazing attitude of my prof, Charlotte-Anne Lucas. Thank you so much for your encouragement, enthusiasm and generosity. This class taught me what I needed to know to get started in this online venture. It’s a rocky path for wanna-be journalists these days. But as Ms. Lucas put it, when it comes to your future you have it “make it up.”

That’s exactly what I intend to do.

To any of my loyal readers, please stand by for more reporting. Because it will be finals week soon, I’m going to be a bit MIA. But expect awesome things from the Interactive Media conference (totally gonna Twitter Arianna Huffington)!

Until then!

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And Now For Something Completely Different: Online Journalism Degree Programs

In my quest to create an interactive multimedia slide show, I hit a wall. Originally, I wanted to use Flash to tell my major story (Your Options). Unfortunately two things prevented me from doing that: (1) I don’t know how to use Flash and no one at the library is proficient in it so it would have taken me a billion years to learn it and (2) WordPress.com doesn’t support Flash.

This got me thinking. What do I have to learn in order to be proficient in Web 2.0? A computer science degree? A semester at the ITT Technical Institute?

At the University of Reno’s Reynold’s School of Journalism, they have über-focused their master’s program to cover interactive journalism and environmental issues. Lucky me – I got accepted.

As my prof Charlotte-Anne Lucas posted on her blog the other day, some newspapers have a snotty attitude towards the online crowd. But if this is the wave of the future – where can you get that education?

Here’s an semi-exhaustive list of ACEJMC accredited J-schools offering coursework in interactive journalism.

Some university websites weren’t easy to navigate and that made it difficult to discern (a) what degrees they offered and (b) what courses were related to online journalism. Also, it was difficult to see how in-depth Electronic Media concentrations were in teaching online reporting. Those are the caveats, please enjoy!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but…World Economic Forum Error in Global Gender Gap Report

I think the World Economic Forum’s report on the global gender gap has a major error. Let’s see if you can spot it:

Did you find it? Yes, it says that women in the U.S. received the right to vote in 1965! I know I’m terrible at history, but as a feminist, I’ve memorized a list of facts (the feminist mantra?) that can be recited upon request. One of those facts is that women received the right to vote on August 26, 1920 when the 19th Amendment was ratified to the Constitution.

Just to double check:

(From ourdocuments.gov, emphasis mine.)

On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment, and 2 weeks later, the Senate followed. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, the amendment passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920, changing the face of the American electorate forever.

I’ve emailed Desirree Mohindra of the WEF to see if they are aware of the problem. Or, if they consider the right to vote by some other standard…

When the French Government Hits You Up for Money, They’re Nice About It

Last year, I spent 8 months in France teaching English to middle schoolers. Because I’m on their books, I got a lovely letter from the French Tax Man asking me to pay up.

With the request for 40 percent of my income plus my soul, they had this coverful flyer with the silhouette of the Mariane explaning to me exactly how my 40 percent and soul would be distributed.

Some of you may not speek French, so let me break it down for you:

Most of the money goes to research (82.3€ million) and to other territories of France (53.6€ million). Smaller porportions go to the European Union (18.4€ million), housing development and ecology (16.1€ million) and employment (24.5€ million).

They get most of their tax moneys from what we like to call sales tax (TVA) that totals 135.7€ million a year. About half of that (60.5€ million) comes from income tax. Basically, the consumers and workers pay the bulk of the bills.

I should do a comparison between the U.S. and France – what is more important to whom?

That’s your foreign tax lesson of the day!

Your Options (Major Story)

You may need to put up the volume.

Clarification 4/25/2008

I just realized that I didn’t tell you all HOW I got all this information!

What I did was devise a set of questions to ask the Southern Nevada Family Planning Clinic, Planned Parenthood and the Women’s Resource Medical Center. Basically, the question was – “What do you tell a girl who comes in and says, ‘I think I’m pregnant!’?”

Each organization had very different discussions.

After calling the family planning clinic, I spoke with nurse Satoko Brilis. She said that after it’s determined the girl is pregnant through a pregnancy test, Brilis then refers the girl to various programs. If the girl wants to be a parent, Brilis gives her a list of prenatal care and gynecologist offices. Likewise for adoption. During the discussion, abortion is not mentioned at all. And when asked about abortion clinics, Brilis refers the girl to the yellow-pages.

It’s interesting that a public health institution doesn’t have a list of board certified abortion clinics. This puts girls at risk of coming a cross a clinic that one source who has gone to clinics in the yellow pages told me is “less than sanitary.”

At the Women’s Resource Medical Center, I spoke with director of client services, Anna Maria Serra-Radford. As I walked into the back office, a cup of urine was set next to the bathroom door in a tray made of a box cover. In a separate room, the ultrasound machine was freeze framed on an image that strongly resembled a fetus, while plastic models of fetuses were set up on a shelf. The back was filled with donated baby clothing.

Although Serra-Radford maintained a neutral tone throughout the interview, the pamphlets she handed me told a different story. She said that she gave girls this information to help them make their decision.

The information in the pamphlets contained seriously biased language. They made no qualms as to what decision is best. As I said in the video, rather than explaining objectively the risks and benefits of each choice, even in a pro-life situation, the materials strongly suggested adoption. Other information on abortion and contraception gave a grim impression on either.

At Planned Parenthood, I got a different vibe. I met with Laura Deitsch, program manager and educator. Deitsch goes around the valley giving presentations on sexual education. My meeting with her is part of a different kind of education she gives – options education. When I walked in, Deitsch began a role-play in which I was the desperate teenager.

At the beginning of the conversation, Deitsch asked me what I wanted to know more about. And if I said I didn’t want to talk about abortion or adoption, she wouldn’t bring either of those up.

The pamphlets she gave me offered a more objective portrayal of each choice. One choice over the other wasn’t favored.

It sounds like I’m the PR person for Planned Parenthood, but this was the only place of the three where I found the most resources and most accurate, unbiased information.

From a purely critically analytical standpoint, Planned Parenthood offers the best options for pregnant teens.

LINKS

From MedlinePlus

Abortion

Adoption

Prenatal Care

Organizations in Las Vegas

Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada – Adoption Services

Baby Your Baby Program – Prenatal Care

Birth Control Care Center (not to be confused with the First Choice Pregnancy Service located right next door)

Organizations mentioned in video:

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains

Southern Nevada Family Planning Clinic

Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Women’s Resource Medical Center and First Choice Pregnancy Services

Gonzales v Dunkle via CitMediaLaw.Org

Trolling through a handy new feature on the Citizen Media Law Project (it allows you to search for legal threats across the nation on issues involving the media and free speech), I found this case:

Gonzales v Dunkle

The U.S. Attorney General filed a lawsuit against John Dunkle for threats he made on his website against an abortion provider. According to the synopsis on the website, Dunkle posted the name, home address, and a CSI proof way to kill the abortion provider.

Salon.com wrote a blog post about it aptly titled: Don’t like abortion? Shoot a provider in the head.

Pay Lilly Fairly

UPDATE

Please take this poll: Should the Fair Pay Act have been passed?

via Wall Street Journal

In a 56-42 Senate vote, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act did not advance. Women, minorities and disabled people still have only six months to report pay discrimination and file suit.

C’est la vie…

—

Tomorrow, the Senate will vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passed by the house in July of 2007.

Democratic presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may be flying in to Washington D.C. to vote in favor of the act.

According to the National Women’s Law Center, women only make 77 cents to every dollar men make. Let’s break that down.

The NWLC has a handy fact sheet ready to tell us just how much of a difference those 77 cents are make out to be when you consider salaries.

• High school educated men make an average $33,074 while women make $21, 609.
• Men with B.A. degrees made $55,425 to women’s $38,221.
• “The median annual earnings of women ages 15 and older working full-time, year-round were $32,515, compared to $42,261 for their male counterparts.”
• The worst state in the union is Louisiana where women make 66% of what men make.

In order to close the wage gap, the Lilly Ledbetter act proposes to:

• …require the EEOC to survey pay data already available and issue regulations within 18 months that require employers to submit any needed pay data identified by the race, sex, and national origin of employees. These data will enhance the EEOC’s ability to detect violations of law and improve its enforcement of the laws against pay discrimination.
• …establishe a competitive grant program to develop training programs for women and girls on how to negotiate better compensation packages, and directs the Secretaries of Labor and Education to integrate the programs developed into education and job training programs under their respective jurisdictions.
• …equalize wage disparities between jobs that are segregated on the basis of sex, race, or national origin, but require equivalent skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions.
• … provide punitive and compensatory damages to victims of wage discrimination. It also prohibits retaliation against individuals who exercise their rights under the law.
• …require all employers to keep records of the methods they use to set employee wages. Employers must also provide yearly reports to the EEOC that describe their workforce by position and salary as well as gender, race, and ethnicity.

To read more about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, click the following:

National Women’s Law Center: Fair Pay

Ledbetter v. Good Year Rubber Tire & Co.: Supreme court case that led to the Fair Pay Act. Basically, the decision was that employees have 180 days to report wage discrimination. Any time after that, they were not able to be compensated.

Joan Blades and Lilly Ledbetter comment on Huffingpost.com

Stay tuned tomorrow for the Senate’s decision!

How Nevada Ranks

While covering and researching stories on women’s issues in Nevada, statistics are constantly being lobbed at me. And often, they don’t look good.

NOW (National Organization of Women) and Planned Parenthood agree that the U.S. needs to change sexual education programs to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unintended and teen pregnancy and sexual assault. So how does Nevada rank?

27th highest in reported cases of AIDS in 2005.
27th highest in reported cases of chlamydia.
16th highest in reported cases of gonorrhea.
4th highest in reported cases of syphilis. (To be fair, there were only 4.7 cases in 2005.)

The CDC notes that women are 2.8 times more likely to contract gonorrhea than men.

(From the Center for Disease Control)

Nationally, of high school students who are sexually active, 63% report using condoms and 18% report using birth control pills (data from 2005).

In Nevada, we are about on par with national statistics. However, our abortion rates in 2000 were one and half times more than the national average for women ages 15-19.

(From the Public Policy Office)

In 2006, a study by Guttmacher Intstitute found that teens (women aged 15-19) made up 11.3% of pregnancies in Nevada. That makes us the top in the nation of teen pregnancies. We are eighth in the nation in the number of teen births (61 per thousand).

(Guttmacher Institute via About.com)

What is Title X?

Last month I blogged about a federal funded program known as Title X, better known as family planning.

This fund is granted through the federal government to local and charity family planning clinics. In Las Vegas, the Southern Nevada Health District’s family planning clinic, the Huntridge Teen Clinic and some Planned Parenthood affiliates are funded by Title X.

Title X was enacted in 1970 as part of the Public Health Service Act. In 2007, Congress approved $283 million in funding. Once the funding reaches state governments, counties have the opportunity to “match” funding. That is, they can use state funding to support family planning services.

Because of this funding, low-income families have greater access to services like birth control, STD testing and vaccinations. Planned Parenthood offers a sliding scale based on patient income.

For more info, check out these sites:

Center for Reproductive Rights: Title X Family Planning

Office of Population Affairs: Family Planning