By Mary Ellen Dowd “Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence. Absence means symbolic annihilation.” George Gerbner Representation is a key aspect of individual empowerment in a society that so highly values media as a forecaster of culture. It becomes increasingly more difficult for an individual or group of individuals to find value in…
By Mary Ellen Dowd The current pandemic has isolated nearly every person globally from interaction with family, friends and most notably, strangers. This limited interaction with the outside world has undoubtedly left time for self-reflection, and for some, self-scrutiny, say researchers. “Certainly during the initial spring lockdown period, our screen time increased, meaning that we…
By Sneha Singh Don’t go out in the sun or you’ll get tanned. Oh no, you are tanned. Try this whitening cream. If you don’t use these creams, bleaches, chemical peeling treatments and fairness injection, how are you going to compensate for this “unfortunate” complexion. And if you think just making your face white is…
Last Friday, 13 August, femLENS launched the five months project – Narva mediaLAB. The lab is aimed at different groups of people – youths and families, the elderly, as well as bloggers and media professionals. Over the next five months we will hold regular meetings and cover topics such as: mobile phone usage and safety,…
Today is six years since the first femLENS workshop in Balgaddy, Dublin, Ireland! In 2015, femLENS founder and workshop facilitator, Jekaterina Saveljeva, had the vision to diversify the field of photography and empower women to tell their stories through documentary photography. The objective of femLENS was, and remains to this day, to help women believe…
We are pleased to share some exciting news! femLENS, with the support of German embassy in Estonia, is opening a media lab in Narva, Estonia, for the next five months! During these months we will organise: – Documentary photography workshops for all ages – Portfolio reviews for more advanced photographers – Work with family archives…
By Rupali Ovhal The media representation of under-represented groups has long been a topic of debate. A non-dominant category, such as people of colour, people with disabilities, people from a lower socio-economic status, people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, people of a non-mainstream religion, and retirees are all considered to be under-represented groups….
By Mary Ellen Dowd A trade union can be defined as a collective of workers, banding together to improve conditions and pay, address safety concerns, discrimination or inequalities, provide work-related services and give voice to workers in an industry or work place. Unions have protected workers from unfair treatment and harsh conditions since the late…
By Sneha Singh Illustration by Magdalena Xochitl Burtnik Urueta A pregnant OnlyFans star was recently in the news for planning to live-stream a birth for $12,000, and also offered to sell her breast milk. 39-year-old Carla Bellucci said that it was lot of money to refuse. It was certainly one of the most distasteful news stories…
By Jessica Couloute Illustration by Magdalena Xochitl Burtnik Urueta Part of illustration: ‘A Woman’s Work Is Never Done’, See Red Women’s Workshop. Reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Text in Russian reads “Down with kitchen slavery! Give us a new way of life!” Women make invaluable contributions to the workforce. Whether they…