12 Aug 2013 Anglican Journal features GMMP in special section

Canada’s Anglican Journal has published a special report with its September issue that focuses on the findings of the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP): Who Makes the News? The GMMP is the world’s longest and broadest ongoing study on gender portrayal in the media, notes the Journal. Supported by the Toronto-based World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) and other agencies, it began monitoring the treatment of women in the news media in January 1995 and produced its first report later that year. GMMP research is done by teams involving an estimated 5,000 volunteer monitors in 108 countries. Participants range from grassroots communication groups and students to university researchers and media professionals. The GMMP believes that gender bias and stereotyping are restricting for both sexes.

“Patriarchy reproduces itself by conditioning both males and females,” said WACC president Dennis Smith, in the Journal report. The project remains committed to making societies more just and equitable through the promotion of empowering, reality-based portrayals of women and men in all news media.

The 2010 GMMP found that just 24% of the people who appear in mainstream news are female, while women make up half of the general population. That percentage has been inching up slowly, from 17% in 1995, 18% in 2000 and 21% in 2005.

However, the 2010 report also found that just 13% of all media stories focus specifically on women, the Journal reported.

To read the Journal report, click here .