{"id":11521,"date":"2023-01-20T08:46:06","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T13:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/?p=11521"},"modified":"2023-01-20T08:46:08","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T13:46:08","slug":"democratic-society-needs-women-in-the-media-concludes-al-jazeera-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/democratic-society-needs-women-in-the-media-concludes-al-jazeera-panel\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic society needs women in the media, concludes Al Jazeera panel"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Women are underrepresented in the news, and democracy \u2014 as well as individual citizens \u2014 suffers as a result, a panel of gender and media experts stressed during the episode \u201cWhy are women still poorly represented in news media?\u201d<\/a> of The Stream on Al Jazeera English on 18 January.<\/p>

Though women make up half of the world\u2019s population, WACC\u2019s 6th<\/sup> Global Media Monitoring Program (GMMP)<\/a> in 2020 found that women featured as the subject and source of news only 25 percent of the time<\/a>, noted The Stream co-host Ahmed Shihab-Eldin.<\/p>

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GMMP global coordinator Sarah Macharia. Courtesy photo.<\/p><\/div>

Women from minority and marginalized groups are even less visible, GMMP Global Coordinator Sarah Macharia said, giving the example of ethnic minority women in the UK whose likelihood of being underrepresented in the media is double that of white British women.<\/p>

Fellow panelist Kathryn Shine, senior lecturer in journalism at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, highlighted the important role of WACC\u2019s media monitoring for gender in unveiling the extent of the problem. \u201cWe need those statistics that the GMMP has highlighted so consistently over time to show that women are underrepresented.\u201d<\/p>

Shine emphasized the need to determine how women are portrayed in the news when they are visible. \u201cIt\u2019s important to try and avoid the stereotypes, for example, always referencing women as mothers or mainly including women to give [a] personal opinion instead of as authority figures.\u201d<\/p>

The third panelist, Karen Ross, GMMP Europe region coordinator<\/a> and professor of gender and media at Newcastle University, UK, agreed. \u201cWe don\u2019t see women as experts \u2014even in areas where you would expect to see them.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Relegating women to the margins<\/h4>

Coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic is a prime example of this absence of women sources, Macharia said. The 6th<\/sup> GMMP showed that patterns of underrepresentation only intensified, according to the global coordinator. She said that despite making up nearly half of healthcare specialists, only 26 percent of experts interviewed for Covid-related coverage were women<\/a>.<\/p>

\u201cAs news becomes more important, gains salience, we find that women are then relegated to the margins,\u201d Macharia said.<\/p>

Ross pointed out that in the case of the pandemic, the underrepresentation of women as experts in the news created unnecessary public health risks. \u201cWomen\u2019s communication style in communicating health issues is different. Research shows that where [women were featured as experts], the public actually understood more about Covid.\u201d<\/p>

The panelists flagged different factors driving the lack of women\u2019s voices in media. Simple habit is one reason, Ross said, as journalists find it easier to go to sources they know. Macharia noted that socialization plays an important role, especially in cultures in which the presence of women in the public domain is not viewed favorably.<\/p>

Making women visible<\/h4>

Many of the keys to change lie with media organizations, Macharia said. \u201cThere is an onus here on news organizations to make the effort\u201d to seek out women experts, she stressed.<\/p>

Shine highlighted the need for journalists to be proactive in making the interview process as positive as possible for women sources. Women may lack the confidence that male experts have, she noted, and they may have justified reservations about appearing in the news. \u201cJournalists need to work to mitigate these things. Part of that is demystifying the process.\u201d<\/p>

Ross advocated for a stronger focus on journalism students. \u201c[We must] get them to think about issues around equality and intersectionality while they are still developing their craft, before they become acculturated to the norms of [a] particular newsroom.\u201d<\/p>

Signs of change<\/h4>

GMMP findings in 2020 that showed an increase in the percentage of women interviewed as experts in the preceding five years offered a hopeful sign that some media organizations are listening and taking action, Macharia said. One concrete example she noted is the \u201cmushrooming of various initiatives to create directories of women experts.\u201d<\/p>

Co-host Femi Oke shared via video about The Stream\u2019s efforts to ensure diversity. Al Jazeera English\u2019s flagship program pledged in 2018 to have women as at least 50 percent of its guests during a given year. In 2022, six of every ten guests were women. \u201cWe are balancing out the universe,\u201d Oke said.<\/p>

The stakes when it comes to the inclusion and representation of women in the media are indeed high, Macharia said. \u201cBusiness as usual\u201d will mean \u201ca continued erosion of trust in journalism,\u201d resulting in marginalized groups forming their own media at the margins of society rather than in the mainstream.<\/p>

\u201cWe need to have a media that participates, that plays its role in building a democratic society, in being a pillar of democracy and ensuring that all voices are heard.\u201d<\/p>

Photo at top: Screengrab from The Stream episode \u201cWhy are women still poorly represented in news media?\u201d<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Women are underrepresented in the news, and democracy \u2014 as well as individual citizens \u2014 suffers as a result, a panel of gender and media experts stressed during the episode \u201cWhy are women still poorly represented in news media?\u201d of The Stream on Al Jazeera…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[184,236,123,172,230,105,68,194,211,175,71,188],"class_list":["post-11521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6th-gmmp","tag-al-jazeera","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-experts-quoted-in-news","tag-female-experts","tag-gender-and-media","tag-gmmp-europe","tag-representation-of-women-in-the-news","tag-sarah-macharia","tag-women-in-media","tag-women-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11521"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11545,"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11521\/revisions\/11545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whomakesthenews.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}