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By Lavinia Mohr, Deputy General Secretary and Director of Programmes, WACC  | WACC is pleased to announce that preparations for the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2009-2010 are now underway thanks to a new partnership with UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women. |
The GMMP is the longest and largest research study on gender in news media around the world. It is also the largest advocacy initiative seeking fair and balanced representation of women in the news. Arising from the 1994 Women Empowering Communication conference in Bangkok organised by WACC, the International Women’s Tribune Centre and ISIS-Manila, it involves participants ranging from grassroots community organizations to university students and researchers to media practitioners, all of whom participate on a voluntary basis. The 1995 Beijing Platform for Action’s Section J remains the touchstone for the GMMP; the GMMP is directly related to Strategic objective J.2 – Promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media.
Three previous GMMPs have revealed how women and men are represented in the news by monitoring radio, television and print media simultaneously on a single day in over 75 countries.
GMMP 2005 showed that news paints a picture of a world in which women are virtually invisible. Women are dramatically under-represented in the news. A comparison of the results from the three GMMPs in 1995, 2000 and 2005 revealed that change in the gender dimensions of news media has been small and slow across the 15-year period. Only 21% of news subjects – the people who are interviewed, or whom the news is about – are female. Women’s points of view are rarely heard in the topics that dominate the news agenda. Even in stories that affect women profoundly, such as gender-based violence, it is the male voice (64% of news subjects) that prevails. When women do make the news it is primarily as ‘stars’ or ‘ordinary people’, not as figures of authority. As newsmakers, women are under-represented in professional categories. As authorities and experts, women barely feature in news stories. While the study found a few excellent examples of exemplary gender-balanced and gender-sensitive journalism, it demonstrated an overall glaring deficit in the news media globally, with half of the world’s population barely present. For more information or to download the complete report in English, Spanish or French, please visit http://www.whomakesthenews.org/who_makes_the_news/report_2005.
The thinking that has gone into planning GMMP 2009-2010 has been carried out in collaboration with the GMMP network across the world. The rationale and justification has emerged from consultations at seven regional media and gender justice advocacy training workshops carried out by WACC and local partners over the last three years, and a recent international partners consultation.
WACC aims to significantly increase the number of countries taking part in the next GMMP, thanks to the support from UNIFEM. Selected results will be ready in time for the 2010 review of progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, 15 years on.
GMMP needs more volunteer monitors and national coordinators, especially from countries that have not taken part in the past. If you are interested, please contact Sarah Marcharia, Programme Manager for Media and Gender Justice, at
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