The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) is the largest international study of gender in the news media and falls under the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). It is also an advocacy organization that aims to change the representation of women in the news media. Every five years since 1995 the GMMP collects data on indicators of gender in the news, such as: the presence of women, gender bias, and stereotyping. The most recent study, conducted in 2015, encompassed 114 countries. [1]
The idea for a media monitoring project was created at the Women Empowering Communication international conference in Bangkok in 1994. The WACC along with MediaWatch (Canada) took up the project. They had several key goals:
Coverage
The 1995 Report covered 71 countries, and was conducted by volunteers over the span of one day. Consequent studies took place in 2000 and covered 70 countries, in 2005 covering 76 countries, in 2010 in 108 countries and in 2015 in 114 countries. All of the monitoring and compiling of reports is carried out by volunteers. GMMP reports have been presented at the Women’s NGO Forum in Beijing (1995), the UN Beijing + 5 (2000), a parallel-session at the Commission on the Status of Women 2010 session, and in 100 Women BBC series 2015 "Is News Failing Women?". [2]
The 2015 Project covered 22,136 news items, 26,010 news personnel, and 45,402 total news subjects in newspaper, radio, television, internet news and news media tweets. The research discussed news subjects, personnel and content through the framework of media accountability to women . [3]
News Subjects
The report discovered that progress towards gender parity in the news has almost ground to a halt over the period 2010 to 2015: Women make up only 24% of the persons heard, read about or seen in newspaper, television and radio news, exactly as they did in 2010. Over the past two decades, the gender gap in people in the news has narrowed most dramatically in Latin America by 13 percent. Women are three percent less visible in political news stories now than five years ago. They comprise 38% of people interviewed on the basis of personal experience compared to 31% in 2005. North America has the highest percentage of women experts in the news (32%), followed by the Caribbean (29%) and Latin America (29%). In 2015, progress towards news representation that acknowledges women's participation in economic life remain elusive: While women in the real world hold at least 40% of paid employment globally, in the news world only 20% of the workers in the formal labor force are women, while 67% of the news world unemployed and stay-at-home parents are women. Portrayals of women as survivors of domestic violence have risen by more than four times across the period 2005 to 2015. [3]
Reporters and Presenters
The 2015 GMMP detected what appears to be a global glass ceiling for female news reporters as far as they are visible in newspaper bylines and newscast reports. Women have consistently reported only 37% of the news over the past decade from 2005 to 2015. Women as news reporters are most present on radio, at 41%, and least in print news, at 35%. Younger presenters on screen are predominantly female, but the scales tip dramatically at 50 years old when men begin to dominate the news-anchoring scene. At 65 years and older, women disappear from the screen as reporters and presenters. [3]
News Content
9% of stories overall contain reference to legal, rights or policy frameworks, with social and legal stories making the highest contribution to the global average. A rights angle is barely present is political and economic stories. 97% of political stories in Asia, 98% of economic stories in the Pacific region and the Middle East perform poorly on the rights-focus yardstick. 14% of stories by female reporters focus centrally on women, in contrast to 9% of stories by their male counterparts. 9% of stories evoke gender equality or inequality issues, more than double the percentage documented in 2005. Only 4% of stories clearly challenge gender stereotypes, a one percent change since 2005. [3]
Digital News
Women's relative invisibility in traditional news media has crossed over into digital news delivery platforms: Only 26% of the people in internet news stories and media news tweets combined are women. Women report five percent more stories online than in the traditional mediums combined: 42% of online news are reported by women. Gender difference in source selection by female and male reporters becomes starker in online news: Women are 33% of sources in stories by online news female reporters, compared to 23% in stories by men. Only 4% of news media tweets clearly challenge gender stereotypes, exactly similar to the overall percentage of print, radio and television stories that challenge such stereotypes. [3]
The GMMP released its 2020 report in November of 2021, [4] [5] marking the culmination of the 6th GMMP project. [6]
The GMMP 1995 - 2015 findings paint a picture in which unequal gender power relations are entrenched and validated, and in which gender stereotypes are replicated and reinforced by the world's news media.
That the patterns of underrepresentation, misrepresentation and invisibilization of women have continued into the digital news world show that the problem is deeply entrenched in the mainstream news media system irrespective of the platform through which news are channeled.
Bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is inaccurate, closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, or a belief. In science and engineering, a bias is a systematic error. Statistical bias results from an unfair sampling of a population, or from an estimation process that does not give accurate results on average.
A gender role, or sex role, is a set of socially accepted behaviors and attitudes deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their sex. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity, although there are exceptions and variations.
A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to people of marginalized genders, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents an oppressed demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. No matter how invisible the glass ceiling is expressed, it is actually an obstacle difficult to overcome. The metaphor was first used by feminists in reference to barriers in the careers of high-achieving women. It was coined by Marilyn Loden during a speech in 1978.
Missing white woman syndrome is a term used by social scientists and media commentators to denote disproportionate media coverage, especially on television, of missing-person cases toward white females as compared to males or females of color. The syndrome also encompasses disproportionate media attention to females who are young, attractive, white, and upper middle class. Although the term was coined in the context of missing-person cases, it is sometimes used of coverage of other violent crimes. The phenomenon has been highlighted in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and other predominantly white countries, as well as South Africa.
Claims of media bias generally focus on the idea of media outlets reporting news in a way that seems partisan. Other claims argue that outlets sometimes sacrifice objectivity in pursuit of growth or profits.
Midori Suzuki was a Japanese media educator, feminist and media researcher. She was professor of Media Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto from 1994 until her death.
Gender inequality is the social phenomenon in which people are not treated equally on the basis of gender. This inequality can be caused by gender discrimination or sexism. The treatment may arise from distinctions regarding biology, psychology, or cultural norms prevalent in the society. Some of these distinctions are empirically grounded, while others appear to be social constructs. While current policies around the world cause inequality among individuals, it is women who are most affected. Gender inequality weakens women in many areas such as health, education, and business life. Studies show the different experiences of genders across many domains including education, life expectancy, personality, interests, family life, careers, and political affiliation. Gender inequality is experienced differently across different cultures.
The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) is an international NGO registered as a charity in Canada and the United Kingdom.
The representation of African Americans in speech, writing, still or moving pictures has been a major concern in mainstream American culture and a component of media bias in the United States.
An implicit bias or implicit stereotype is the pre-reflective attribution of particular qualities by an individual to a member of some social out group. Recent studies have determined that "implicit bias" towards those of the opposite gender may be even more influential than racial implicit bias.
Many scholars and policymakers have noted that the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have remained predominantly male with historically low participation among women since the origins of these fields in the 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment.
The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working. Women are generally found to be paid less than men. There are two distinct numbers regarding the pay gap: non-adjusted versus adjusted pay gap. The latter typically takes into account differences in hours worked, occupations chosen, education and job experience. In other words, the adjusted values represent how much women and men make for the same work, while the non-adjusted values represent how much the average man and woman make in total. In the United States, for example, the non-adjusted average woman's annual salary is 79–83% of the average man's salary, compared to 95–99% for the adjusted average salary.
Gender bias on Wikipedia is a term used to describe various gender-related disparities on Wikipedia, particularly the overrepresentation of men among both volunteer contributors and article subjects, as well as lesser coverage of and topics primarily of interest to women.
Gender plays a role in mass media and is represented within media platforms. These platforms are not limited to film, radio, television, advertisement, social media, and video games. Initiatives and resources exist to promote gender equality and reinforce women's empowerment in the media industry and representations. For example, UNESCO, in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, elaborated the Gender-sensitive Indicators for Media contributing to gender equality and women's empowerment in all forms of media.
Racial biases are a form of implicit bias, which refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individual's understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases, which encompass unfavorable assessments, are often activated involuntarily and without the awareness or intentional control of the individual. Residing deep in the subconscious, these biases are different from known biases that individuals may choose to conceal for the purposes of social and/or political correctness. Police officers have implicit bias, regardless of their ethnicity. Racial bias in criminal news reporting in the United States is a manifestation of this bias.
Margaret Gallagher is an Irish freelance researcher and writer specialising in gender and media. She has carried out research, development and evaluation projects for the United Nations Statistics Division, UNIFEM, UNESCO, the International Labour Office, the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the European Audiovisual Observatory.
Media pluralism defines the state of having a plurality of voices, opinions, and analyses in media systems or the coexistence of different and diverse types of medias and media support.
Women in media are individuals who participate in media. Media are the collective communication outlets or tools used to store and deliver information or data. The role of women in media revolves around the four axes of media: media freedom, media pluralism, media independence, and media safety. Women in media face the same difficulties and threats as men, and additionally experience gender inequalities, safety issues, or under-representation. Compared to men, women are much less likely to be included in the media globally. According to research, a minimum of twenty-five percent of news on television, radio and in the press mention women as a topic. According to a 2015 survey, only 19% of news experts and 37% of reporters worldwide were women. We recognize the gender-imbalanced perspective of society has the potential to promote and perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes, as behavioral scientists studying the underrepresentation of women in the workforce. It goes without saying that the media must change the way they portray the outside world, but who has the power to change the media itself ?
Gender digital divide is defined as gender biases coded into technology products, technology sector, and digital skills education. It can refer to women's lack of access to, use of, and professional development in computing work. The gender digital divide has changed throughout history due to social roles, economics, and educational opportunities.
The Uganda Media Women's Association (UMWA) - is a nonprofit non-governmental organization located in Kampala, Uganda, focused on human rights advocacy and women's rights.