Report finds women still overlooked in media

Women's presence in the media is on the rise worldwide but generally women remain significantly underrepresented in the media, claims a new report from the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). According to its findings, women constitute 24% of the individuals interviewed, seen or heard about in mainstream and print journalism—an increase from 17% as found in the 1995 inaugural report. However, only 16% of all stories focus specifically on women.

This preliminary report, "Who Makes the News?," represents the media representations of women for one particular day, November 10, 2009, in 42 of the 130 participating countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean Region, Pacific Islands and Europe. The final report, which will include the data from all the surveyed countries, will be released in its full form in September, 2010.

The report analyzes 6,902 news items and 14,044 news subjects, including people interviewed in the news. The current report does not incorporate internet news, which will be included in the final report.

The study finds that 27% of news stories presented on the radio are from female reporters, making radio the least likely venue for female representation. In comparison, 35% of stories in newspapers are reported by women.

A trend exists with the content of news stories as well, with women being more likely to report on arts, entertainment and lifestyle rather than politics, economics and crime, which are more often covered by men.

The topic of science and health has seen a significant increase in women's input, however, with women’s visibility rising to 37% this year from 22% in 2005.

The report also examines female stereotypes and finds that women are five times as likely as men to be portrayed in their roles as wives, mothers, and other stereotypes. However, significant improvements to this problem can be seen in Latin America, which leads as the region with the highest percentage of stories that challenge stereotypes (14%) as well as the region with the lowest percentage of stories that reinforce stereotypes (24%).

Case studies are also used to represent gender sensitivity or lack thereof in the media. Included are a story from Denmark about Michelle Obama which characterizes her with typical female stereotypes and a contrasting story from a Zimbabwean newspaper which depicts rural women in gender-conscious manner.

The report suggests the creation of gender and media curricula and modules in schools, journalism training institutes and centers to begin to improve the gender imbalance in the media. The report also includes more specific recommendations such as compiling and encouraging the use of regional directories of Women Experts to better represent professional women in news stories.

The GMMP stems from the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at the United Nations Fourth Conference on Women, which called for increased participation and access of women to the media and a reduction of female stereotypes within the media.

The project is coordinated by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), an international nongovernmental organization that promotes social change through communication and is based in Canada and the United Kingdom.

To download the report, click here.