Media&Gender Monitor
Issue No. 18 - March, 2008.
A publication of the World Association for Christian Communication
1. From Media Monitoring to Training for Advocacy
For the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), that ‘greater goal’ is gender-balanced media, an intervention at the discursive level that can potentially contribute to stemming, indeed reversing, gender-based discrimination in practice. Comparative analysis of the results of the GMMPs of 1995, 2000 and 2005 evidences little positive change in selected indicators of gender in media. In the context of news-making, in news content and in journalistic practice, gender bias and negative gender stereotyping have continued unabated. Read more
2. GMMP 2005 Phase 2 Workshops: Overview
The regional ‘gender and media advocacy’ training workshops are a follow-up to the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2005, the most extensive global research into gender in the media ever undertaken. The study mapped the representation of women and men in the news media in 76 countries. The results of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2005 show that women are dramatically under-represented in the news. Only 21% of news subjects are female and women’s voices are rarely heard in the topics that dominate the news agenda. Read more
Por Lic. Marcela Gabioud
Cuando se habla de género suele tomarse como referencia la situación de las mujeres en términos de desigualdad frente a los hombres. La cuestión de género se basa en la construcción histórica y social que asocia a un conjunto de roles y valores con uno y otro sexo, implicando cierta jerarquía entre ellos, determinando lo que la sociedad considera “femenino” y “masculino”. Las relaciones de género pueden definirse entonces, en términos del juego entre prácticas históricas que se distinguen de acuerdo a lo femenino y lo masculino (teorías e ideologías, incluyendo creencias religiosas), prácticas institucionales (como el estado y el mercado), y condiciones materiales (la naturaleza y distribución de capacidades materiales a lo largo de líneas de género). Léer más
4. Pacific Region: Re-affirming media’s role in the struggle for gender equality
The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) co-organized the workshop with femLINKPACIFIC: media initiatives for women, in Fiji in October, 2007. Established in 2000, femLINKPACIFIC develops and implements a range of women's media initiatives, such as taking a small mobile radio unit out to women and the communities, femLINKPACIFIC offers a "safe space" for women to articulate and exchange their viewpoints. Read more
5. Gender and Media in Nigeria
By Theresa Nkem Fab-Ukozor, Imo State University Oweni, Nigeria. Presentation at the Anglophone Africa regional workshop on 'gender and media advocacy', Nairobi, December, 2007.
An X-ray of media coverage of gender issues in Nigeria depicts an inglorious image of women's exclusion or marginalization. Several non-governmental organizations have over the years joined efforts with the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) via the Global Monitoring Project (GMMP) to create awareness as it concerns the under representation of women in the news. However, women have continued to attract poor visibility to the point that they are most of the time excluded in coverage that affects their lives as individuals. Read more
6. L’état du genre dans les médias en République Démocratique du Congo’
Présenté par Françoise Mukuku, Radio OKAPI/ SI JEUNESSE SAVAIT, RDC,Dakar, décembre 2007
La République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) est un pays ayant un vaste potentiel médiatique, je dis bien potentiel car les chiffres que je vais vous donner vous montreront qu’ils y a encore d’avantage à tirer des medias présents. Il y a environ 150 radios dans le pays. Parmi elles, une seule couvre tout le pays et ce n’est pas la radio nationale mais RADIO OKAPI où je travaille, un partenariat entre la mission des Nations-Unies au Congo (MONUC) et la Fondation Hirondelle en Suisse. Lire plus
7. Gender and Media in The Solomon Islands
By Lisa Horiwapu, Vois Blong Mere Solomon, Solomon Island.
Vois Blong Mere Solomon is a women’s media NGO established in 2001. Vois works to advance the status of women through radio programmes and radio campaigns, the publication of a newsletter and the dissemination of information through networks such the regional women’s media network coordinated by femLINKPACIFIC on UNSC resolution 1325. Read more
8. Gender and Media in The Cook Islands
By Nga Teao, National Council of Women (NCW) Cook Islands
The National Council of Women (NCW) serves as a voice for women in the country, representing women on a range of boards and committees. Although the media are significant channels for disseminating information throughout the country, a critical concern is how to overcome the isolation felt by women living in outlying islands because of limited information and communication opportunities. Read more
9. L'état du genre dans les médias au Burundi
Par Laetitia NTAVYOHANYUMA, Journal Le Renouveau, Burundi
La plate-forme d’action de la Conférence Mondiale de Beijing sur les femmes a identifié les médias comme un des 12 domaines prioritaires d’action. Par le pouvoir immense qu’ils détiennent dans la circulation publique de l’information et la formation des opinions, des perceptions, des comportements et des attitudes les médias en général et ceux du Burundi en particulier constituent un enjeu des luttes pour le pouvoir et la transformation des sociétés. Lire plus
10. Gender and Media Advocacy Training Workshop for Central & Eastern Europe
Sljeme, Croatia. 26-28 January, 2006
B.a.B.e. (Be active. Be emancipated), a Croatian group advocating for women's human rights hosted the WACC regional Gender and Media Advocacy Training Workshop in Sljeme from January 26th – 28th, 2006. It was the first of its kind for B.a.B.e. which joined the WACC Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) in 2005. Read more
11. Setting up a Regional Database of Women Experts for the Arab Region
Follow-up to the Gender and Media Advocacy Training Workshop for the Middle East & North Africa Region, Amman, Jordan. 12-14 December, 2006
Results from the three GMMPs have consistently indicated that women rarely feature in the news and that when they do; they are rarely cited as experts or people in positions of authority. While men are frequently consulted to offer expert opinion, women repeatedly appear in a personal capacity as eye-witnesses, giving personal views or as representatives of popular opinion. Yet, there are a significant number of women professionals who can offer expert opinion in their fields of expertise. Read more
12. Tools for Gender and Media Advocacy
Gender and media advocacy can sometimes appear to be a daunting task. You have identified issues of concern which, among others, include the marginalisation and stereotyping of women in media portrayals in your local context, the use of violence against women to attract audiences, and the confining of women to lower positions in the newsroom. Determined to challenge and improve these, you are at once faced with some tough questions: what to do, when to do it and more importantly how to conduct a consistent, sustainable and successful advocacy campaign. Where do you begin? Read more
13. ‘Gender & Media Advocacy’: From WACC’s ‘Mission Possible’: A Gender & Media Advocacy Toolkit
Gender and media advocacy includes lobbying, campaigning, research, training, media monitoring, communication and alliance-building activities which seek to advance women’s rights and gender equality in and through the media.There are two angles to gender and media advocacy. Read more
The project implemented in 2007 by the Women’s Media Centre (WMC) in Cambodia was spurred by concerns about negative stereotyping and degrading depictions of women in print media. It is indisputable that mainstream media worldwide show little concern for gender balanced reporting, as evidenced by the results of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) in 2005. It was against this background and in view of similar patterns of reporting in Cambodian media that WMC embarked on the project. Read more
15. Proyecto: El Observatorio Ciudadano de la Comunicación, GAMMA, Ecuador
Por: Nidya Pesántez C.(1)
En el Ecuador, la constancia del movimiento de mujeres y la movilización mundial por los derechos de las mujeres, han conseguido visibilizar a la equidad de género como un elemento sine que non para el desarrollo de los pueblos; en este marco, el país ha definido y aprobado diversas leyes y políticas públicas tendientes a construir dicha equidad. Sin embargo, y aún cuando podemos hablar de progreso, las medidas tomadas no han conseguido transformar el problema que subyace a la desigualdad de género, manteniendo las brechas que se manifiestan en indicadores sociales y económicos que nos demuestran que la discriminación, la subordinación y la exclusión de las mujeres se mantiene. Léer mas
16. Book Review: Media and Gender Justice (a Reader), Student Christian Movement of India. 2006.
The ‘Media and Gender Justice’ Reader was published by the Student Christian Movement (India) in the context of the WACC-supported project ‘Christian youth initiative to re-read the media’. The Reader neatly demystifies the gender dimensions of media in an easy-to-read yet comprehensive format. The Reader is a compilation of short, thought-provoking, multi-dimensional essays on gender in and through media. Read more
17. Why Gender in Media Matters
Numerous regional and global agreements underscoring the need to include the media in interventions to counter gender-based discrimination have been developed since the landmark Bangkok Declaration was issued in 1994. The most important of these is perhaps the Beijing Platform for Action for the Advancement of Women (1995), Section ‘J’. Read more
Editorial team: Sarah Macharia, Lilian Ndangam and Gisèle Langendries
