Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad

160 MEDIA POLICY AND GLOBALIZATION
the ‘civil society family’ ( Jensen 2005). The structural organization of
the Gender Caucus thus allowed for regional meetings with local organizations
and individuals, with an emphasis on incorporating perspectives
from the South especially leading up to the second phase of the summit.
The brief appearance of ‘gender’ in matters of primary or basic education
in the proposed topics and outcome of the WSIS, directly related to the
UN Millennium Declaration and UN Millennium Development Goals,
was thanks to intense lobbying by the Gender Caucus of the WSIS. Here
we see the formulation of political claims around both redistribution and
recognition, offering a novel perspective on framing development goals
that were unsurprisingly seen as restrictive or too ‘limiting’ by the US
delegation. 14
Feminist activists argued from the beginning that a sense of technological
determinism, insensitivity to gender inequalities and the dominance
of male ‘experts’ was rampant across all three multistakeholder bodies,
including civil society organizations that promoted ‘gender-blind and
hence male-centered’ policy interventions (Jensen 2005).
Feminist groups within the Gender Caucus raised the issue of the human
rights of girls, women and marginalized communities in the context
of the Global War on Terror; ‘We cannot hope for an information society
that promotes the highest values of humankind if we do not address
meaningfully the ways in which information and communications channels
including the media can be harnessed in the service of peace, and in
strong opposition to all illegal wars’ (George 2003). Gender justice advocates
argued for greater ‘gender sensitive infrastructure development’,
affordable universal access and sustainable and appropriate technologies,
prioritization of free and open software and attention to gender biases in
educational and employment opportunities associated with ICTs, among
other areas.
ICTs as a policy concern constitute a complex combination of education
and educational cultures for the training of specialists: organizational
and working structures and cultures for the further research and
development but also use of technology; structures for access and determination
of such use according to needs; the political economic and
cultural context within which individuals and groups can participate in
this development and use it on equal terms; and the chances for participating
in decision-making structures that influence the future of ICTs
and the mechanisms that would promote free and emancipatory expression
through such technological means. We have argued throughout that
gender is a fundamental factor of social organization, inherent in any
aspect of social and economic life, from education to the labour market
but also from the media images promoting the sales or adaptation of