Welcome to the Who Makes the News? 2005 Three Weeks of Global Action on Gender and the Media Diary Blog!

Comment from Charles Chisala on 25/04/2006 3:31 pm:

Sorry for poor communication from Zambia. I have had problems accessing the internet but I have been keenly
following the Who makes news campaign. Here the activities involved articles in the newspapers and talks.
On 10th March, 2006 the main report, summary and CDs of the GMMP 2005 were handed over to GEMSA-Zambia which intends to come up with a number of activities to desseminate the findings and trigger follow-up work with various interest organisations and institutions.
We will ask for a cover letter from WACC to help us mobilise resources for this wonderful work.
The findings have already been made available to GEMSA-provincial chapters in five provinces. With resources available we intend to carry out an intensive awareness campaign and concrete projects
around GMMP 2005.
Thanks
Charles Chisala
GMMP Country Coordinator
Zambia

Comment from Galina Petriashvili on 10/03/2006 12:43 pm:

yesterday (7March) press conference on gender and media
in Georgian International press center was the final even in frame of Tree
weeks, organized by GenderMediaCaucasus
Journalists' Association. We discussed about:
why women journalists do not write about women?
what kind of discrimination we have in our careers?
mail and female career in journalism - what is difference?
what is our professional risk?
what is the subject of our fight today in media and in society?
There were comparatively many journalists (including the mail journ.) and
they were more interested in subject - so hope that we have the result of
our little efforts during 3 Weeks. We are sure ready to participate in
GMMP-2010 and
in all regional or global actions on genger and media!

Galina (Georgia)

Comment from Marlies Hesse on 10/03/2006 10:09 am:

The Three Weeks Action campaign of WACC provoked a very positive response in Germany. Simultaneously with the report 'Who makes the News' the study 'Präsenz von Frauen in den Nachrichten' was published. At the same time the Journalistinnenbund forwarded a press release which was considered in the media. Several contributions compared the international results with the German data.
In the print-media and online-sector the following publications referred to
GMMP: dpa, afp, Focus-Online, Newsroom, Aviva-Pressedienst, Informationen
für die Frau, M – Menschen machen Medien, Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspolitik.


There were two live-interviews in the radio: with Birgitta M. Schulte in 'Venus' (WDR 5 at 19 February) and with Marlies Hesse in 'Markt und Medien'
(DLF, equally at 19 February). Another interview with Marlies Hesse where she informed about the success of GMMP was with the private broadcasting station 'Dreyeckland', Focus Europa, located in the region between Germany, Austria and Switzerland. On 5 March Marlies Hesse will be interviewed in the media report of the WDR.

Prof. Dr. Jutta Röser is going to present GMMP on 16 March in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Northrhine-Westfalia in Düsseldorf, Marlies Hesse is scheduled for the same task in the city of Wolfsburg on 17 March. Both events relate to the International Women's Day.

Results published on: www.journalistinnen.de

Comment from Lucía Lagunes on 09/03/2006 5:31 pm:

Hola mi nombre es Lucía Lagunes soy directora de la agencia de noticias multimedia CIMAC, con sede en México, una tarea fundamental de CIMAC es contribuir a equilibrar la información que se transmite en los mediso de comunicación, las imagenes y mensajes que se emiten en torno a las mujeres, hemos hecho un porgrama de radio sobre el lenguaje sexista que se utiliza tanto en los discursos políticos, pues ahora estamos en plena contienda electoral, y hablamos del lenguaje sexista en los medios.Seguramente en muchos países a propósito del Día INternacional de la Mujer, miles de informaciones se dieron, donde está el centro de la información en nosotras como víctimas, como mujeres pasivas, sin contar la historia que hemos escrito para hacer valer nuestros derechos. Ahora en CIMAC estamos realizando un monitoreo sobre medios de comunicación y participación política de las mujeres de los resultados ya les haremos llegar.

Comment from Myriam Horngren on 09/03/2006 4:44 pm:

Well, it's 9th March and the Campaign has now wrapped up. But what a wonderful experience it has been and here at WACC we are thankful and awed at your mobilisation, your hard on the ground and overwhelemed by all the comments and activity reports we have received. Like most of you we are astounded at the success of this campaign and this is all very much thanx to all of you who agreed to take part and come together from all over the world to work everyday a little more towards gender equity in all areas of life! You have been EXTRAORDINARY!!!! We will gather the last web update for this week tomorrow and send it round. Then the team here will take a short break and we will be back in early April to see with you all how to move things forward and capitalise on all your efforts for the future. We hope that when conversations start about the future you will be as enthusiastic as you have been in the past 3 weeks. Although the campaign is ending, we sincerely hope that this is only one more milestone towards an already fantastic friendship and that we will carry on working together in the future, every time with more impact.
Again it has been a real pleasure to work with you all and as we say in my country, this is not "Adieu" but a simple "Au revoir et a bientot"!!!!

Espanol: Fue una experiencia fenomenal por la WACC trabajar con todos ustedes en las ultimas 3 semanas. El exito de la campana ha superado culaquier ambicion que teniamos y es gracias a ustedes en todo el mundo que se hizo posible. Entonces, de parte de la WACC un gigante MUCHAS GRACIAS a todos!!!! Y sinceramenete esperamos que esta experiencia se consolida en una experiencia que nos ayuda a seguir trabajando juntos para llegar poco a poco a una verdadera justicia entre los generos! Asi que vamos a tomar una pequenas vacaciones y volveremos en Abrila para abriri mas discusiones sobre el futuro, sus ideas y sus planes. Otra vez, muchisima gracias y felicidades a todos por su trabajo y ese gran exito!
Y como decimos en Francia, no es "Adieu" pero solamente "Au revoir et a bientot!".

Myriam Horngren
WACC Advocacy and Network Coordinator

Comment from Manju Thapa on 09/03/2006 6:20 am:

On 7th March, we, Asmita Women's Publishing House, Media and Resource organization (ASMITA) conducted an interaction program in Biratnagar, the second lagest city of Nepal. We presented the findings of GMMP, 2005, global report and its Nepal report. Main participants of the program were journalists and media consumer women. The program was excellent. Journalists shown their deep concern to the findings of GMMP and confessed their weeknesses on clearity of gender perspective. Media consumer women directly interacted with the journalists and asked them about the wrong and unfair presentation of women in media. Journalsits complained that women are not ready to be the source of news or give their opinions on any event. Women protested the blame and said they are ready to give comments on any topics. Then, journalists said that they will consciously give space to women's voice and views in news in the coming day. The program was quite interesting and useful for both type of participants.

Comment from Claudia Florentín, Argentina on 08/03/2006 9:20 pm:

El 6 de marzo tuvimos la grata sorpresa de que nos llamaran de
Radio Internacional de Canadá que hace programas en varios idiomas y nos
entrevistaron grabado por casi media hora; la periodista es Paloma Martinez
y además le pasé el contacto de las compañeras de Canadá para que se
informen con ellas de lo local.

El miércoles por la tarde saldremos en vivo en Radio Mitre en el programa de
Lorena Maciel y Jorge Halperin a las 14,30 de Argentina. Nos asombra la
repercusión del tema ya que ha superado nuestras expectativas, se ve que
estamos sembrando también lo que otras y otros cosecharon hace años, esta
mañana se lo decía a Carlitos Valle.

Este es un esfuerzo de tantas y tantos que si una no logra verlo, pues, está
otra vez utilizando los eternos sistemas patriarcales de
invisibilizacion---y en eso si que no queremos volver a caer!!!

Además, el editor de Clarín opinó en base a nuestra nota el 3 de marzo y el mismo día salimos al aire con Daniel Tognietti en radio, una prestigioso periodista y esta mañana en Radio Am del Plata se ocuparon del tema.

Esta semana Clarín saca P/12 en sus suplemento Las 12 y la Nación cubrirá ese día el evento. Estamos contentas compañeras/os y queremos contarselos.

Comment from Lekan Otufodunrin on 08/03/2006 5:39 pm:

THEY DON'T KNOW IT'S WOMEN'S DAY

Like in other parts of the world,Nigeria is marking today as the International Women's Day. Unfortunately the media(Newspapers) don't seem to be focusing enough on an important day like this to draw attention to the marginalisation of women in our society.
I scanned through nine daily national newspapers in Nigeria today and this is what I found out.
Only one, Vanguard considered it worthwhile to dignify the day with an editorial commet.
Only three of the papers-Comet,Daily Champion and Businessday, gave a mention (inside pages) to the press conference by the nation's Minister of Women Affairs Mrs Maryam Ciroma on in commemoration of the Day.
Only three papers, Daily Independent,Daily Champion and The Guardian published full page feature articles on the Day.
The only editorial in Vanguard which is regarded as women friendly in its content is titled Recognition for womenfolk.
The paper stated "It is indeed time for the nation and Africa to start thinking and planning in terms of giving women their dues in the society. The gender prejudice in spite of relatively few exceptions, is still very prominent".

Comment from Anna Turley, WACC on 08/03/2006 3:00 pm:

Happy International Women's Day!
Feliz Dia Internacional de la Mujer!
Feliz Dia Internacional da Mulher!
Bonne Journee Internationale de la Femme!

I can hardly belive that today is the last day of the Who Makes the News? campaign. It has been absolutely wonderful to witness all the hard work of hundreds of women and men around the world coming to fruition in the last few weeks. Thank you all so much for all your efforts. This campaign would not have happened without you all.

We are also very encouraged by the level of media coverage that has occured. I have done some more radio interviews today and I know that many of you are being interviewed today also.

Please do not forget to send us a brief summary of the activities that you have organised and any photos you might have so that we can post them to this site. It is really inspiring and encouraging for others to be able to see the work you have been doing.

Please do keep visiting this site and remember, the Who Makes the News? campaign is only the beginning.

Take the GMMP 2005 results to your media to start a dialogue with them on the need for the fair and balanced representation of women and men in the news and who know, by GMMP 2010 we may see that both women and men make the news!

Very best wishes to you all.

Anna Turley (WACC)

Comment from Alejandra Davidziuk on 08/03/2006 8:29 am:

Hola a todas!! muy feliz dia!! espero que pasen una excelente jornada a pleno trabajo y con mucho entusiasmo.
Un abrazo,
Alejandra

Comment from Oscar Garza on 07/03/2006 10:33 pm:

La presencia de la mujer en los medios de difusión que existen en El Salvador es mínima o casi nula, como miembras de equipos de trabajo de comunicación seguro cuentan con un buen número, esencialmente en noticieros y programas de entretenimiento que se producen por estos canales.
Los noticieros cuentan con un equipo de trabajo de reporteros y reporteras que antes veíamos como equilibrado y en el tiempo cercano ha ido siendo conformado básicamente por hombres y solo los presentadores son un hombre y una mujer…

Para el caso de los programas de espectáculos o de variedad si nos encontramos con que se trabaja regularmente con mujeres; con imagen y personalidad determinada, esencialmente muy jóvenes y dispuestas a vestirse de forma de “lucir su cuerpo”, es la razón mas sólida por la que se les contrata y no por su capacidad, las mujeres que se mantienen en estos espacios como ejecutivas son familiares de los propietarios y los espacios de trabajo se reservan básicamente a hombres.

En radio y prensa escrita se da el mismo fenómeno que en la televisión y los espacios mejor remunerados siguen estando en manos de hombres, así como la producción y dirección de programas, los periódicos abren espacios de trabajo a mujeres en áreas como relaciones publicas y ventas, que si bien son determinantes para las finanzas de las empresas, estas no retribuyen esto con remuneración adecuada o en equidad respecto de los trabajadores masculinos.

Desde mi perspectiva particular y eso lo reafirmo; como lector, escucha o televidente; la aparición de las mujeres en los medios como noticia, no esta en dependencia de los mismos sino de las áreas en las que se destaquen o resulten objetivo de la noticia, así, el alto nivel de delincuencia seguramente afecta mas a hombres, como victimas o hechores; pero cuando la victima o hechora es una mujer la línea editorial amarillista de los medios nacionales destacan la noticia, cuando el hechor o victima es un hombre parece cotidiano o natural. Para el caso, los crímenes o delitos que se comenten por pandilleros son comunes en las noticias, situación a la que se eleva perfil noticioso cuando aparecen mujeres como victimas o hechoras, la presencia de mujeres que se muevan en el ámbito profesional o de conducción de organismos y organizaciones de la sociedad civil tiende a ser muchas, pero son relegadas en los medios por un par de personalidades masculinas en sus áreas de trabajo, para el caso en el caso medioambiental hay muchas mujeres trabajando procesos pero los voceros de la lucha medioambiental siguen siendo dos hombres.

En el ámbito económico igual al margen de la capacidad de trabajo y de propuesta que se manifiesta en profesionales del ramo, los mayores niveles de influencia siguen siendo de hombres. analistas políticos, políticos, etc.


Creo que es un situación en la que las mujeres y los organismos que las agrupan deben poner atención ya que una buena parte de la responsabilidad por la situación es suya; en un país en el que la mayoría de la población son mujeres y en la que se supone que el ejercicio de elección determina la responsabilidad de la conducción política, como es posible que el partido mayoritario de izquierda cuente con menos del 20% de representación femenina en su bancada?? Quienes deciden al interior del partido a quienes respaldar? Como se puede ser ajeno al ejercicio de equidad de genero en el momento de apoyar a su representación?, como se delega en hombres la toma de decisión sobre asuntos que atañen a la mujer? Particularmente pienso y observo que hay una actitud de confrontación mas que de establecimiento de puentes entre los géneros, sin considerar que entre los miembros del genero masculino habemos hombre dispuestos a respaldar la lucha por la equidad y el respeto de los derechos de la mujer, se hace necesario dejar de lado la actitud confrontativa de algunos organismos de mujeres y considerar como aliados o hacer trabajo en busca de la sensibilización del genero masculino respecto de la forma en que se margina en todos los ámbitos de la sociedad a las mujeres.
Sin hacer de ello una responsabilidad unidireccional de hombres sino en busca de la propuesta que nos convierta en aliados

Comment from Lekan Otufodunrin on 07/03/2006 8:18 pm:

During our advocacy work on the the GMMP 2005 report,two facts were emerged which should be of interest to us all.
There are too few women journalists in Nigeria. As large as the Nigeria media is (it is in fact rated as the biggest in Africa) we only have only two women editors of national newspapers. None of them edit a daily, the two edit Saturday editions of their publications.
The second point to note is that some of the few women in the media usually plead their gender as an excuse for not taking on crucial editorial tasks. With this kind of attitude, it may just be difficult to have women at the very senior editorial positions where they can influnce media coverage of women.

Comment from Heidrun Wulf-Frick on 07/03/2006 3:15 pm:

I am a member of the German Journalistinnenbund.

I work as a freelancer for the newspaper "Badische Zeitung" in
Freiburg/Breisgau (black forest) and I send a little message about what the female journalists of the Badische Zeitung are planning for the International Womens day at march,8

The female journalists of the Badische Zeitung/Black forest/Germany will
edit the complete newspaper for the international womens day at march,
8, without their male collegues. For this day they will throw a "special
view" ("Der andere Blick") on the world - a view with female eyes. They
also invited freelancers and women from other professions to write and
to organize.

At march, 8., please look at:
www.badische-zeitung.de (sorry, only members can read the articles).

Heidrun Wulf-Frick (Germany)

Comment from Tanushree Gangopadhyay on 07/03/2006 10:31 am:

it is great to be connected to a group monitoring media. I am a mediaperson working in print media in India and would also engage with your programme

Tanushree

Comment from Tanushree Gangopadhyay on 07/03/2006 10:31 am:

it is great to be connected to a group monitoring media. I am a mediaperson working in print media in India and would also engage with your programme

Tanushree

Comment from Ana Silvia on 07/03/2006 3:30 am:

Me llamo Ana Silvia, soy de Guatemala, es la segunda vez que participo en esta importante iniciativa de WACC. La semana pasada se hizo una presentación de los resultados del monitoreo a nivel global y también de nuestro país. Estos datos son una herramienta muy valiosa para evidenciar lo que hace mucho tiempo hemos denunciado las mujeres, que los medios no reflejan nuestras vidas reales, que continúan planteando estereotipos alejados de la cotidianidad de las personas. Como plantea Alejandra se presenta a las mujeres como elemento decorativo, o como víctimas. Estos roles ocultan los aportes positivos de las mujeres en muchos campos y ofenden la dignidad de muchas.

Pero me alegra que cada vez se sumen más colegas -mujeres y hombres- a esta tarea de visibilizar, reconocer y valorar a las mujeres en todo el mundo.

Comment from Alejandra on 06/03/2006 4:46 am:

Jacqueline, que alegria leer tu mensaje en el blog. Y si, a veces es complicado ir contra la avalancha de contenido en ingles pero bueno, de todas formas celebro que podamos entablar un dialogo en español. Creo que especialmente en nuestras tierras las mujeres tienen en su mayoria (salvo ciertas excepciones, por su puesto) un lugar "decorativo" en los medios, cosa que me gustaria que se debatiera mas.

Comment from Manju Thapa on 05/03/2006 6:45 am:

Yesterday, on 1st March, the radio program entitled 'Sahaastitwa", literally means 'Coexistance, focused on gender issues and aired on Radio Sagarmatha, interviewed with me regarding the GMMP, 2005. The program producer gave the due coverage to the GMMP campaign and findings of its report. We also published the Nepali findings in Nepali lanuage which was also widely discussed there.

Today, we are sending the Press Release with Key findings of Global report and Nepali report to various media. Let's wait how media gives coverage to it.

Comment from Lekan Otufodunrin on 04/03/2006 8:35 pm:

Dear friends,
I want to quickly share my personal experience of how the media can avoid unde reporting women.
In the Sunday paper- Sunday Comet I edit in Lagos, Nigeria it suddenly dawned on me and my team that we have not featured a woman in our cover interview for the magazine section of the paper.
We agreed that we should get a woman and this last Sunday (March 5, 2006)we had on our cover Professonr Jadesola Akande, one of the very few women Vice Chancellors and Professor of Law Nigeria has produced.
Who says there are not enough women experts to interview as the GMMP 2005 report indicates if the media really try.

Comment from Maria João on 03/03/2006 4:14 pm:

All five national newspapers gave full pages to the issue (of the GMMP findings) and some local ones have interviewed me, also giving large preeminence to the project.
Next Thursday I will be participating on a TV show in the national television called "Clube the jornalistas" to be broadcasted on the 8th of March. The programme, dedicated to journalism issues, which is about 45 minutes, is entirely about the project. Besides myself, there will be two journalists participating.
Last week, quite unexpectedly, I have also participated on a one-hour radio
show in one of the national radios (TSF: Forum Mulher) which again was fully
dedicated to the project.
It's wonderful to see the effort of so many people getting the attention it deserves.
Maria João (Portugal)

Comment from Myriam at WACC on 03/03/2006 9:58 am:

Well done everyone, you are all amazing!!!! Between the postings on this blog where you are all letting us know what is going on, the reports of activities (you can check the first few ones we have received: http://www.whomakesthenews.org/wh...e_news/national_campaign_activities) and the press coverage you are all able to gather, http://www.whomakesthenews.org/pr...om/what_the_media_say/media_coverage, and the Media Monitring blog next door where they are keeping a watch on the media, I think you are all doing an amazing job! And being stuck in London, it really feels great to hear from you all. Just to let you know, over 50 events would have taken place around the GMMP around the worls since the campaign started on 16th February. This is more than we ever dreamed of and again, you are all amazing! If you haven't done so yet, please send us your report of activites, pictures, press coverage, etc... we are really hoping that this site will be able to gather as much of your archive to ensure that these efforts can grow and can be built on. Additionally, please register to our info list: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/whomakesthenews. Not only do you get the info on the net given to you by email (for those with little access to the web) but you get updates everyday! We also hope that this list can be a place where we can meet and strategise beyond 8th March. So join us!

En Español: Entiendo que uno de los problemas de esa campaña y de las acciones globales en el corto plazo es la imposibilidad de comunicar en varios idiomas. No hemos tenido suficientes recursos para traducir todo lo que queriamos. También hacemos un diario por email en la lista: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/whomakesthenews . Y se puede tambien utilizar la lista para compratir las experiencias cuando no se tiene buena conexion a la web y despues nosotros podemos subir el email al blog. Nos pueden escribir tambien dierctamente a: info@waccglobal.org. Y por favor, sientanse libres de mandar fotos, articulos y reportajes para poder compartir sus actividades. Eso nos permitira conservar un archivo de la campaña y sobre todo construir para el futuro, de manera mas abierta quizas, teniendo en cuenta de manera mas practica el tema del idioma.
Un abrazo fuerte, en solidaridad!
Myriam

Comment from Lekan Otufodunrin on 02/03/2006 6:06 pm:

Dear Again,
Greetings from Lagos, Nigeria. This morning I had a wonderful experience at the Univerisity of Lagos located in Nigeria's former capital during the presentation of the GMMP 2005 report to the Masters students in the department of Mass Communication.
The outcome of the research expectedly generated a lot of debates on why women are under-reported and mis-represented in the media between two groups that I prefer to describe as "male chauvinist" and "women rights activists". There were however "moderates" and sympatisers for the plight of women.
It took the moderating influence of the Fullbright scholar from United States Professor Richard Mbayo who is the class teacher to ensure a "ceasefire" over the issues arising from the research.
The highlight of the discussion included the following:
*The Gate-keeping theory of Mass Communication is very suited to explain the outcome of the media monitoring.The people who control the media (men in this instance) will determine the output based on their perspective and biases.
*To correct the imbalance noticed, not only should more women be involved in media gate keeping functions, there is need for a redefinition of news valuesto a point that it will be broader than what is is presently.
*Women should be willing to take up more tasks to avoid been relegated to "soft" beats.
*Male journalists should be more informed about gender issues by reading books and other publications on the issue like The first Sex by Janet Fisher.

Thanks to Professor Mbayo for the opportunity to share on GMMP reports with his students.

Comment from Jacqueline Arreaza, Guatemala on 02/03/2006 3:24 pm:

Alejandra, y compañeras. Creo que parte de la razón del "silencio" de nuestra región latinoamericana en este blog es por el idioma, pues muy poca gente escribe ni lee inglés. También hay que reconocer que el mundo del "cyberespacio" todavía no está bien integrado en nuestro ambiente. Pero pienso que poco a poco vamos a estar participando en las discusiones. Gracias por los saludos y ánimo con la Campaña.

Comment from Reka Safrany on 01/03/2006 7:24 pm:

Hi Everyone,

I am pleased to report that the publication of the national results in Hungary has attracted the interest of a lot of media professionals as well as members of other NGOs. After the press conference on 16th February, a TV station and several online newspapers published a summary of the international and the Hungarian results.
Since then, we have taken part in two discussions with women journalists, and we have been asked to describe and comment on the results on two radio programmes.
It is exciting to see how the critical GMMP findings have been so welcome by journalists themselves, some of whom have shown interest in developing their critical thinking and their sensitivity to the gender aspects of the news.
We would very much like to hear about other monitoring groups' experience with talking to journalists and involving them in workshops and other training events!
And thanks for all the coordinators of the project for producing such a great common tool for advocacy!
Best wishes, Reka

Comment from Stefania on 01/03/2006 4:50 pm:

The GMMP was presented today in Italy, at the University of Padova. The round table (some four hours, chaired by the GMMP Italian coordinator Claudia Padovani) is still going on! So far, the "authorities" from the university and the province (of course, women) praised the GMMP and offered their participation for the next steps, underlying how women issues are still THE issue at various levels: policies, university (here, at the University of Padova, only the 3% of ordinary professors are female; 6% of associate and 20% of researchers...), society...
Loredana Cornero from the Italian public television RAI brought in the experience of a journalist inside the biggest Italian tv; Sanja Sarnavka from B.a.B.e. (Be Active Be Emancipated) from Croatia told us about their experiences and their initiatives (great ones!); Monia Azzalini presented the Italian report; Stefania Milan (me!) on the three weeks of action and the London roundtable of the 16th of February; Ilaria Gheno (University of Padova) on the GMMP and the building of advocacy networks; and Grazia Cotti Porro who presented the call to the social and political forces in occasion of the European year of equal opportunities (2007! TO KEEP IN MIND!!)

So: a bunch of women on the table, a lot of energies and passion.. well, first of all I think the GMMP had the great consequence of creating synergies and networks! Second, it is now time to use the data for advocacy and to establish a dialogue with the media and the journalists.. Now, here there is the debate.. and the most pressing question seems to us to be HOW TO WE INVOLVE THE MEDIA/JOUNALISTS? how do we communicate with them beyond the "newsworthly" potential of the GMMP (the statistics as news.. so, a short report, and then forget about it..)

Our concerns regard also the cultural/media differences.. Alvaro Duque from the University of Turin, who also participated in the GMMP, observed that probably in Italy the format of the media roundtable adopted in London for the lauch of the report would probably not work!

The monitoring here in Italy was done thanks to three universities. And training of future journalists seems to be one of the way of getting the gender stereotypes challenged. So, universities and schools of journalisms have a crucial role in shaping future journalists more sensible to gender issues...
Stefania, Italy

Comment from Alejandra Davidziuk on 01/03/2006 4:34 pm:

Hola a Tod@s,
me pregunto por que mis compañer@s latinoamerican@s estan tan silenciosos en el blog... sabemos que ya se realizo un Taller en Cuba y un programa especial en TV en El Salvador. Esperamos que los proximos talleres, mesas redondas y programas de radio a realizarse en Colombia, Venezuela y Argentina tengan los mismos exitos.
Un saludo a tod@s y bienvenid@s a la campaña!
Alejandra

Comment from Glory Dharmaraj (USA) on 01/03/2006 12:05 pm:

Yesterday, partnering with Women's International Tribune here at the Church Center for the UN, we launched the GMMP with the U.S. National Report.

Rosanita "Annie" Serrano did her presentation on GMMP & the Asian Region, Colleen Lowe Morna did a presentation on South African countries. I did my presentation on both the GMMP and the U.S. National Report and advocacy efforts.

The discussion following the presentation were on concerns and questions relating not only to images and roles of women on media, but also to the larger issues such as how the new communication technologies have impacted women and media, women's use of media under the new technologies, and peace and women and so on. There was even a request that WACC address the issue of how new technologies have impacted women's use of media.

In the U.S. context, peace and women is a key issue. We, in the United Methodist Women's Divsion, are much engaged in the peace & security issue.

My office is coordinating a media monitoring on peace along with a professor in Washington State University.

We will keep you posted.

We hope that the momentum will continue to impact advocacy efforts on behalf of women's representation and gender equity in media.

With best wishes!
Glory
>

Comment from Sharon Thelemque on 01/03/2006 11:12 am:

Gem Plus will launch its national GMMP 2005 report in May, but this week we will publish an article in the Daily Nation and we will during a 15 minutes programme, dealing with women issues, analyse the situation of women and the media.
Sharon Thelemaque (Seychelles)

Comment from Stefania M. on 01/03/2006 11:04 am:

The Who makes the news campaign is progressing.. and the word spreading around. The global report and the Italian results will be lauched in Italy today with a round table at the University of Padova. The event will be coordinated by Claudia Padovani, the GMMP coordinator for Italy, with the participation of the organisations involved in the monitoring of Italian tv, newspapers and radio news programmes (Osservatorio di Pavia and Arcorpari, RAI). Local authorities will also participate.
We will let you later know how it goes!

Comment from Manju Thapa on 01/03/2006 7:39 am:

Hi, everyone. Hope, Three weeks actions are running well everywhere. Here, in Nepal, we have preapared a National Glimpses of GMMP, 2005 and now the document is in the printing press for publication. Within the deadline, we are going to release both the documents- National Glimpses and Global Key Findings through national and regional media. We are also going to organize an interaction program in the Sub-Metropolitan city of Nepal- Biratnagar coming week. I will write the details after completing the programs.

yes,Anna, I got the CDs of full report. When can we receive its printed version ?

All the best and wish for the success of three weeks initiatives.

Manju Thapa,Kathmandu, Nepal

Comment from Lekan Otufodunrin on 28/02/2006 5:21 pm:

Hi all,
I am a journalist from Lagos Nigeria who has been studying the GMMP latest report and doing my best to give it some publicity. The project is very commendable as it helps the media know how they are doing regarding coverage of women and issues concerning them.
Not many media organisations evaluate their coverage so it is good for concerned organisations like WACC to initiate a report like this.
So my advocacy efforts on the 2005 result has inculded two publications- an article and news report in the Sunday Comet, a national circulating newspaper which I edit.
As Coordinator of Journalists for Christ, a group of Christian journalists working in especially secular media, I ensured that our February Fellowship focused on the outcome of the GMMP survey.
We had an interesting discussion and in the spirit of the advocacy work, we had a three woman panel that led the discussion.
Just today, a fullbright scholar from the United States, who is a professor of Mass Communications at the University of Lagos, agreed that the GMMP report should be discussed at his Post Graduate class on Thursday.
I am looking foward to the presentation and will keep you all posted.

Bye for now.

Comment from Anna Turley on 28/02/2006 3:04 pm:

Hello again,

I have just finished participating in the cyberdialogues on GMMP 2005 organised by Gender Links, South Africa as part of their participation in the Three Weeks of Action.
There were participants from throughout Southern Africa, the UK and the USA and it was really interesting to hear other people's views on the global GMMP 2005 results, how they compare with the results at the regional and national level and to share strategies and ideas for change. It was also very useful for WACC to hear ideas for how GMMP can be improved and built upon for 2010! Many thanks to Gender Links for organising this.

You can read a summary of the cyberdialogues soon by going to:

http://www.genderlinks.org.za/page.php?p_id=300

Let us know what you think!

Comment from Sandra on 28/02/2006 1:55 pm:

Hi all,

I thought I would tell everybody about an exciting new application that should be available for the 3 weeks next year. The Monitoring Made Easy tool by Media Monitoring Project, has been developed and customised for a Southern African audience to make monitoring for gender issues easy for all gender / media organisations. This easy-to-use programme has extensive guides on how to monitor, capture and produce reports on monitoring. We trust that it will make regional monitoring projects easier as the methodology is already standardised. If you want more information, please email me – sandrar@mediamonitoring.org.za or go to http://mediamonitoring.org.za/cms/files/MMEblurb.pdf . This application will help us build on the momentum and monitoring information gained through the GMMP. Best, Sandra

Comment from William on 23/02/2006 6:03 am:

Hello All
MY name is William and I run the Media Monitoring Proejct in South Africa. We hope you are enjoying the GMMP results and finding them fascinating. It was really wonderful to participate in a global civil society action! I look forward to engaging during the coming weeks of action

Comment from Anna Turley on 22/02/2006 6:59 pm:

Hello everyone,

I can't believe that the first week of the Who Makes the News? campaign is already over. How time flies when you are having fun! Already 19 events all over the world have taken place as part of the campaign and there are lots more to come. For those of you who are organising campaign events, please don't forget to send us information on how it went and any photos you might have.
Here at WACC we are busy engaging with all of you over e-mail and by phone to try and support your work. We have also begun thinking about how to maintain the momentum generated by this campaign so that when we do GMMP 2010, we will finally see some change. Here's hoping!
Look forward to hearing from you.

Comment from Myriam on 22/02/2006 5:57 pm:

Hi Everyone! Well we've been a bit silent on this side and we are thankful to those of you that have posted here and on the 2 other blogs (check the launch blog if you want a detailed accound of what happened and perspectives from those who where there). So where are we at? Well I've just had the flue and Anna is about to follow in my footsteps (it was the other way round last time!). However many of you have been preparing your own launch and awareness raising events (we will post soon from those that have already sent us news on how it all went) and if you check the events page there is quite a lot in store now. Most of the activities will start from Georgia on 23rd of this month and end with Mauritius on 3rd May, Press Freedom day by the way (maybe we all need to look at that day as well: what kind of press freedom is it if half of the world population has little or no voice?!!!). Ahem. We've also had good press coverage both of the London event, but most importantly nationally. Belgium has already mentioned the interest and Fiji went on TV (more news soon). CNN India has also done some coverage and the Netherlands has been on air. A lot more is avaialble on our press coverage page: http://www.whomakesthenews.org/pr...om/what_the_media_say/media_coverage
Please let us know of anything you see that we should post on that page. Putting the issue on the agenda is the first step to talk to and with the media. The media paying attention to their own practices can be done through the gender equity discussion. Still a few weeks to go and I am sure your events and the web activity can really start stirring up debate. So let us know! And I am glad you are finding the advocacy toolkit useful. Feel free to distribute and we sincerely hope it helps. Any feedback you have on how we could make it better is very much welcome. Feel free to psot your comments on the toolkit page: http://www.whomakesthenews.org/get_involved/advocacy_toolkit
I will go back to my vitamin c and my hot drinks for now... Speak soon!

Comment from Lindiwe Sola on 22/02/2006 11:50 am:

I have found GMMP a fabulous initiative on gender representations in the media.It produces results that cannot be disputed and any true media practitioner should take a good look at the 2005 results in order to improve their effectiveness.It will be interesting to see the responses of the media right round the world- here is a mirror through which media can take a good long look at their work.

Comment from Loga Virahsawmy, Mauritius on 21/02/2006 7:45 am:

I was interviewed in the mainstream news on Radio Plus on 16th February 2006 on the findings of the GMMP. Questions raised were why women's voices are still so low as journalists have been trained. the main problem remains that there are so few women decision taking positions especially politics but on the other hand journalists have still the very habit of asking only for the voice of the authority. I believe this was well understood. Compared to the Gender and Media Baseline Study were women voices were 17% we are not at 24% - still a very long way to go.

Would like to congratulate all the team of the GMMP for this herculean job

Loga

Comment from Gus Perera on 17/02/2006 5:36 pm:

I enjoy reading WACC Newsletters; I reviewed the Gender Media Advocacy Toolkit and had to pass it on to one of our Advocacy Partners - WIN Belize (Women Issues Network).

Our theme at SPEAR (Society for the Promotion of Education & Research) is Good Governance. We welcome any info in this area.

Regards,
Gus

Comment from Mieke De Clercq on 15/02/2006 3:10 pm:

Hi, as national coordinators for Belgium, we would like to share what's happening overhere. There already was press interest in both national and international GMMP-results. For now, we've got press coverage in 4 national newspapers, an online newsroom for women Div@zine and from regional television. Tomorrow, the event will be discussed and results will be analyzed with senior students in a womens programme at our University.
Best,
Mieke De Clercq, Frieda Seays, Bieke Tollenaere

Comment from prem on 10/02/2006 8:14 pm:

This is fantastic.Although I am a grandmother, I am very excited about the responsibility of monitoring and this idea of connecting through the three weeks to come. I live in Los Angeles where there is always a buzz on the media front.

Comment from Jeremy Depauw on 10/02/2006 2:57 pm:

Hop, in my Agregator !

My name is Jeremy, I am a phd student at Université Libre de Bruxelles (la partie francophone). I am looking forward to reading from you. I'll try to follow your work and give it some echoes in my owns blogs: http://siculb.blogspot.com and http://jdepauw.podemus.com

Regards,

Jeremy.

Comment from Anna Turley on 08/02/2006 6:09 pm:

Sure. My name is Anna and I am British. I co-ordinate the Women's Programme at WACC and have been working here for nearly five years now. I am really looking forward to engaging with everyone during the Three Weeks of Action.

Comment from sheila on 08/02/2006 8:15 am:

I think this is an exciting initiative by WACC and the GMMP - it will be great to be able to in solidarity with groups around the world during the Three Weeks of Global Action by participating in this blog - All the best, Sheila