wfn.org | WACC Preliminary report - 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> PRESS RELEASE

**Preliminary report of the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project**

Only 24% of persons seen, heard, or read about in the news are female.

This is one of the key findings of the 2010 Global Media Monitoring
Project (GMMP) The preliminary report is being released on 2 March
2010 at a panel discussion and debate on the occasion of the 54th
session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

10 November 2009 was an ordinary day at work for newsroom staff around
the world. It was, however, a special day for volunteer groups in 130
countries across the world who were poring over their national
newspapers, listening intently to radio newscasts and closely watching
local television. Pencils and coding grids in hand, their objective
was to observe, analyze and record their findings on selected
indicators of gender in the news for the Global Media Monitoring
Project ­ the worldâ??s largest research and action initiative on
gender in the news media. The projectâ??s overarching purpose is to
bring about fair and balanced gender representation in and through the
news media.

The results contained in the report are preliminary, based on a sample
of 42 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Pacific
Islands and Europe. The findings encompass 6,902 news items and 14,044
news subjects, including people interviewed in the news.

Edouard Adzotsa, General Secretary of the Central Africa Union of
Journalists and GMMP Coordinator in Congo Brazzaville, observed during
the monitoring day that, â??News media seems to serve male interests,
attention to women is extremely negligible even though women outnumber
men nationally, women are the lifeblood of communities particularly in
informal settlements and in the rural areas.â??

> Among the key findings are:

24% of the people interviewed, heard, seen or read about in mainstream
broadcast and print news are female; only 16% of all stories focus
specifically on women.

Women have achieved near parity as givers of popular opinion in news
stories. But less than one out of every five experts interviewed is
female, and men predominate strongly as eyewitnesses and providers of
personal experience in news stories.

Almost one half (48%) of all news stories reinforce gender
stereotypes, while 8% of news stories challenge gender stereotypes.
Women in the news are identified by their familial relationships
(wife, mother, daughter) five times more often than men.

Overall, news stories by female reporters are much fewer than news
stories by male reporters. News stories by female reporters have
considerably more female news subjects than stories by male reporters
and challenge gender stereotypes almost twice as often as stories by
male reporters.

The study reveals overall that women remain grossly underrepresented
in news coverage in contrast to men, resulting in news that depicts a
world in which women are largely absent. The research also shows a
paucity of womenâ??s views and opinions compared to male perspectives
in mainstream news reports.

Abebech Wolde with the Ethiopian Media Womenâ??s Association and GMMP
Coordinator for Ethiopia said, â??We hope that what we are going to
say about the representation of gender in the media will be taken
seriously by media managers.â??â??

Comparison with results of the three previous editions of the GMMP
carried out every five years since 1995 shows signs of change towards
gender balanced and gender responsive news. Female news subjects have
increased from 17% to 24% in the last 15 years. Popular opinion in the
news is now nearly at parity, compared to 2005 when at 66%, popular
opinion was largely provided by men.

Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of
Journalists, has stated in the IFJ publication Getting the Balance
Right: Gender Equality in Journalism
<http://www.ifj.org/en/pages/gender-issues

that â??Fair gender portrayal is a professional and ethical
aspiration, similar to respect for accuracy, fairness and honesty.â??

The Global Media Monitoring Project is coordinated by the World
Association for Christian Communication (WACC), an international NGO
with offices in Canada and the United Kingdom which promotes
communication for social change, in collaboration with data analyst
Media Monitoring Africa, South Africa. Gender Links, also based in
South Africa, provided advice on refining the monitoring tools and
methodology. Volunteers taking part in the monitoring day include
gender and media activists, grassroots communication groups,
university researchers and students of communication, media
professionals, journalists associations, alternative media networks
and faith-based groups. The project is supported by the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

The preliminary report is available in English at
www.whomakesthenews.org <http://www.whomakesthenews.org/

Executive Summaries are available in English, French and Spanish.
Final global, regional and national reports will be published in
September 2010.

For further information, contact: MT@waccglobal.org