News

Global Media Monitoring Project Scrutinizes the Representation of Gender in the News

Date: 10 November 2009

Gender equality in the news media came under scrutiny by the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) in some 127 countries around the world today. UNIFEM supports the project, recognizing the importance of fairness and balance in the representation of gender in the news. The International Federation of Journalists and numerous national media associations are also involved.

From Argentina to Zimbabwe, Barbados to the Solomon Islands and Australia to Canada, today’s national newspapers, television, radio and internet news broadcasts were monitored and analyzed by the GMMP. Teams of volunteers around the world took part in this one-day research, measuring how well their national media are doing on fair and balanced representation and portrayal of women and men in the news.

The Global Media Monitoring Project is the largest research and advocacy initiative in the world on gender equality in news and journalism. Through it, community groups, organizations concerned with gender equality, university students and researchers, as well as media professionals, work together in a massive voluntary collaborative effort.

The GMMP study in 2005 found that women are largely invisible in the news. Four out of every five persons in news stories worldwide were men, and just 10 percent of all news stories focused specifically on women. The data gathered today will generate solid evidence of whether and how much this has changed across the world.

A report on the results will be published in time for the 2010 Millennium Development Goals Review Summit and the 15 year review of progress in the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. Through Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action, governments and other actors committed to promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media. They also committed to increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication.

For more information, please visit the GMMP website or contact Terry Mutuku, Communication Officer, tm[at]waccglobal.org.