Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, Director of the Center for the Study of Women In Television and Film at San Diego State University, has released a new report on the representation of women among film critics. I live in the Washington D.C. area, where the Washington Post buy-outs of 100 of its once-900 newsroom staff eliminated two film critic positions, leaving Ann Hornaday as the only full-time critic on staff. The movie critic for the nation’s largest circulation newspaper, USA Today, is Claudia Puig (pictured), now that long-time critic Mike Clark is concentrating on DVDs. And most movie features for USA Today are written by Susan Wloszczyna.
But Dr. Lauzen’s research shows:
Contrary to the myriad prognostications of media observers and writers, film criticism is not dead. It is, however, hurtling into a new era in which professional critics share space with amateurs, and credentialed journalists find multiple platforms for their reviews. Through web sites such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, formerly print-only film critics and writers now supplement their traditional audience with a whole new generation of on-line readers….
Of the newspapers featuring film reviews in the fall of 2007, 47% had no reviews written by women critics, writers or freelancers. In contrast, only 12% had no reviews written by men critics, writers or freelancers. Overall, 70% of the individuals reviewing theatrical film releases in Fall 2007 were male and 30% were female. In addition, men wrote significantly more film reviews than women. Men wrote an average of 14 film reviews. Women wrote an average of 9 film reviews.
These imbalances may be slightly tempered by the fact that women critics, writers, and freelancers wrote for newspapers with marginally higher circulations. The average circulation size of newspapers with women writing reviews was 348,530. The average circulation size of newspapers with men writing reviews was 294,760….
Overall, these findings suggest that film criticism in this country’s newspapers is largely a male enterprise, echoing the heavy male dominance behind the scenes and on screen in the film industry.

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FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein, who will be casting the deciding vote in the proposed merger of satellite radio stations Sirius and XM, has been opposed to the merger in the past, but has agreed to vote in favor with some important conditions. The companies must agree to a six-year price cap and make one-quarter of their satellite capacity available for public interest and minority programming. The Associated Press reports that Adelstein commented, “It’s critical that if we’re going to allow a monopoly, that we put in adequate consumer protections and make sure they’re enforced.” AP reports that:

The companies have faced a tough challenge in gaining approval because the FCC, in creating the satellite radio industry in 1997, prohibited the only two licensees from merging. In an effort to prove the combination is in the public interest, lawyers for the companies volunteered to submit to a number of conditions, including a three-year price cap, a time frame Adelstein would like to see doubled….Adelstein is seeking 25 percent of the companies’ satellite capacity for public interest programming — 10 percent for noncommercial programming and 15 percent for minority programming. That potentially would work out to about 75 channels.
Adelstein is also asking for additional changes to encourage competition and public interest programming and an enforcement scheme instead of the voluntary approach currently proposed.
Those who want to comment on the merger or on Adelstein’s proposal can do so on the FCC’s website.