Women under-represented in media coverage: report
* Media project monitored 1,3656 papers, TV, radio stations
ISLAMABAD: Women are still significantly under-represented and misrepresented in news media coverage, according to a new research in 108 countries by the Global Media Monitoring Project, despite significant change since the project started 15 years ago with the coordination of the World Association for Christian Communication.
The report said that about 76 percent of the people heard or read about in the world’s news were male. The world seen in news media remains largely a male one. The project monitored 1,3656 newspapers, television and radio stations and news websites, 17,795 news stories and 38,253 persons in the news in 108 countries with 82 percent of the world’s people.
The report was released on Wednesday in Arabic, English, French and Spanish, along with numerous regional and national reports. About 24 percent of people in the news were female, compared to 17 percent in 1995, the report pointed out. About 44 percent of persons providing popular opinion in news stories were female compared to 34 percent in 2005.
The news media show significant gender bias with 46 percent of news stories reinforcing gender stereotypes. About 13 percent of the news stories focus centrally on women. According to the report, female reporters were responsible for 37 percent of the stories compared to 28 percent 15 years ago, and their stories challenge gender stereotypes twice as often as stories by male reporters.
In Pakistan, the Uks Research, Resource and Publication Centre on Women and Media coordinated the research.
Source: Daily Times
Date:9/30/2010
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