She notes that the world has changed tremendously since the first GMMP in January 1995 and the Beijing Platform for Action’s adoption in September of the same year.

“Section J of the Platform responded to an extent to media-related challenges of the 1990s. The constellation of actors working on the gender and media agenda today are grappling with numerous additional concerns on top of the very same sticky issues identified in Beijing,” Macharia says.

She adds that the GMMP process, methodology and indicators are regularly revised for the five-year follow-up studies in the series. “The 7th edition this year with Rod as project coordinator follows the same update procedure.”

Molina sees the 7th GMMP with this revised methodology as instrumental in sustainably responding to the worldwide rise of right-wing politics and backlash against gender equality, and the painfully slow progress towards equal representation and gender-just portrayal of women in mainstream news media.

He believes that the study will place empirical evidence on gender in media – a topic he says touches everyone indirectly and directly – at the center of public dialogue and private conversations.

“The GMMP 2025 results, when compared with those of previous versions, will gain in strength,” he says, “When placed in a national, regional, and global scale, they will provide a powerful argument to anyone willing to listen and reflect.”

Molina is looking forward to nurturing relationships and helping to ensure the sustainability of the GMMP network of grassroots community organizations, the academy, and media practitioners.

The network’s knowledge and experience is extremely valuable, he notes, with many members carrying the “complete or partial history of the GMMP process.”

“I am here to support the global network in what I can so that the 7th GMMP is successful, that we – each national team and region – can advance in our goals and hopefully start to pave the way for another iteration of this important project.”