Ammu Joseph (born 26 September 1953[1]) is an Indian journalist, author, media analyst and editorial consultant based in Bengaluru.[2][3] Joseph writes primarily on issues relating to gender, media and culture.[4][5][6] As a feminist journalist she examines both the coverage of women by media and the experiences of women working in media.[7][8]
Joseph has authored multiple books and UNESCO reports, in addition to writing for both mainstream and web-based media. She has received national and international awards for her feminist advocacy and work on gender sensitivity.[3]
Joseph began her career as a journalist in Mumbai with a mainstream women's magazine, Eve's Weekly, which she served as Assistant Editor for four years (1977–81).[10][12][9][11] She later worked with Update (a business magazine) and Woman Today (a women's magazine that Aroon Purie of India Today planned to launch but did not).[13] She was a full-time Magazine Editor at The Indian Post in Mumbai until 1986, editing the Sunday magazine of the daily newspaper.[9] In 1988 she decided to move to Bangalore and continue her work as a freelance/independent journalist and writer.[2]
In 1994, Ammu Joseph and Kalpana Sharma published Whose news? the media and women's issues, examining the coverage of women in media as it related to high profile issues such as tests for sex determination, rape, dowry deaths, sati, and the rights of Muslim divorcees to maintenance. This work highlighted the extent to which news media focused primarily on violent atrocities against women, rather than addressing their work, health concerns, or position in society.[14] Women were often doubly victimized by their treatment in the media. Joseph also notes that sensational stories tend to selectively show 'people like us' as victims, and 'others' as perpetrators.[15] In later work Joseph has continued to foreground ways in which media coverage sensationalizes or ignores women. For example, coverage of disasters such as tsunamis tends to focus on the experience of men and to ignore the ways in which women are affected, which can lead to policy discrimination in terms of material aid and health care.[16]:299[17]
In the book Women in Journalism: Making News (2000) Joseph documented the experiences of 200 Indian women journalists, including language issues, sexual harassment, and unequal pay. She organized regional workshops in 2000 and 2001, leading to the foundation of the Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) in 2002.[10][2][18] Joseph was a co-editor of the NWMI website.[19]
Joseph served as Regional Coordinator for South Asia for the International Women's Media Foundation's Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media (2011).[20] Joseph has worked closely with UNESCO, serving as Coordinator for India for the Global Media Monitoring Project (2010 and 2015),[21] the longest longitudinal research initiative on gender in news media.[22] She was among the principal drafters of UNESCO's Gender Sensitive Indicators for Media (2012).[21]
Joseph played a key role in the pioneering project that led to the 2020 report on the situation of women working in the film industries of southern India, Shift Focus: Women Shaping the Narrative in Media and Entertainment. Joseph is a co-author of the resulting report, Shift Focus: Women Shaping the Narrative in Media and Entertainment (2020).[23]
Joseph was an editorial consultant with the Concerned for Working Children, Bangalore, helping to launch a wallpaper for street and working children, among other publications.[24][25] She was also editorial consultant for Voices for Change, a quarterly publication of Voices/Madhyam Communications, a Bangalore-based NGO focusing on communications in and for development.[26] She served on the board of Oxfam India, a not-for-profit organization registered in India, for nine years, up to 2020.[3]
Joseph has taught journalism at several institutions of media education. She was on the visiting faculty of the Sophia College Polytechnic, Mumbai (1981–85)[10] and the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai/Madras (2000–2003),[27] and has been invited to deliver guest lectures at other journalism schools.
Joseph co-authored UNESCO's preliminary report Towards Media and Information Literacy Indicators (2011),[31] and was a major contributor in drafting UNESCO's Gender Sensitive Indicators for Media (2012).[32] She was India's regional report author for Inside the news: challenges and aspirations of women journalists in Asia and the Pacific (UNESCO, 2015).[33] She served on the Advisory Group for World trends of freedom of expression and media development (UNESCO, 2014).[34] Joseph has contributed chapters to the UNESCO reports Media and Gender: A Scholarly Agenda for a Global Alliance (UNESCO/IAMCR, 2014)[35][36] and Re|shaping Cultural Policies (UNESCO, 2015, 2018).
She has contributed chapters to The Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Journalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013);[37] the Learning Resource Kit for Gender-Ethical Journalismand Media House Policy (WACC, 2012);[38][39]Missing Half the Story: Journalism as if Gender Matters (Zubaan, 2010);[40][41]Fleeing People of South Asia (2009);[16]21st Century Journalism in India (2007);[17] and Tsunami communication (2004).[42]
Joseph has contributed to many mainstream publications and web-based media,[43] including Citizen Matters,[44]Deccan Herald[45]Economic & Political Weekly[46]India Together,[47]Money Control,[48]Nieman Reports,[49]The Citizen,[50] and The Hoot.[51] Under the pseudonym "Uma", she wrote the fortnightly "Spaced Out" column for children on current affairs and social issues in The Hindu's Young World from 1990-1998.[52][53][19]
↑ Bajpai, Shailaja (1997). "English Women's Magazines". In Media Advocacy Group (ed.). An Analysis of Women's Magazines(PDF). New Delhi: Centre for Advocacy Studies. pp.1–38.
1 2 Joseph, Ammu (2009). "Gender, Media and the Tsunami". In Basu, Sibaji Pratim (ed.). Fleeing People of South Asia: Selections from Refugee Watch (1sted.). London: Anthem Press India. pp.330–335. ISBN9788190583572.
↑ Waite, Wendy L. (15 April 2004). "Staying A Professional Journalist". Vital Speeches of the Day. 70 (13): 400–405.
↑ Rajeesh Kumar, T. V.; Vethanayagam, S. Anand Lenin (4 March 2025). "Freedom of Expression, Dissent & Unionism among Journalists in a Regional Language Television Industry in India". Journalism Practice. 19 (3): 609–631. doi:10.1080/17512786.2023.2197416.
↑ "Ammu Joseph". Women Unlimited. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
↑ Joseph, Ammu (2010). "Gender, media, and tsunamis". In Fuller, Linda K. (ed.). Tsunami communication: (inter)personal/intercultural, mass media, and philanthropic responses: historical, technical, ethical, and development communication. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. ISBN9781572738171.
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"What's Your Ism? Ammu Joseph on pioneering feminist journalism in India", The News Minute, 15 Jan 2025.