Gender inequalities in
society often find an echo in the media, with stereotyped representations of
men and women, as well as weak presence of women among the companies’ staff,
especially in management positions. Recent research on women’s representation
in media content, staffing and management shows worrying trends.
The Global
Report on the Status of Women in the News Media, published by the
International Women’s Media Foundation in 2011, examined more than 500 media
companies in 59 countries, showing that “men occup[ied] the vast majority of
management jobs and news-gathering positions in most nations”. This research
showed that men held 73 percent of top management jobs and 64 percent of
reporter positions. Furthermore, the report identified glass ceilings for women
in 20 out of 59 countries, more commonly in middle and senior management
levels. Women reporters often suffer from discrimination and gender stereotypes
within media houses and tend to have little influence on the content of the coverage.
Editors with a final say on the content of the news tend to be mostly men and
in some contexts reporters struggle to get approval to have their content on
gender equality published.[1]
Regarding women’s
representation in media content, the Global
Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) showed that in 2015 women only
accounted for “24% of the persons read, heard about or seen in newspaper,
television or radio news”. Among the roles in which people were portrayed in
the news, women rarely appeared as experts (19 percent of all experts),
spokespersons (20 percent), subjects (26 percent) or eye witnesses (30
percent), and were also under-represented when sharing popular opinions (37 percent)
and telling their personal experience (38 percent). Furthermore, the study
showed that 16 percent of women appearing in the news were portrayed as
victims.[2]
The table below, extracted from this research, shows the main findings of the
GMMP for the year 2015.
Considering this
evidence, “it appears that the media under representation of women’s
experiences and voice becomes a powerful actor in the censorship of women, not
just an indirect or reluctant messenger nor merely a passive mirror reflecting
surrounding society’s values and norms”[3].
Women’s voices are silenced by the media simply because they are women, which
undermines the principles of plurality and diversity. Women’s
underrepresentation in media content shows that “gender censorship is still a
glaring reality in the absence of plural voices.”[4]
LGBTI persons are
generally underrepresented in the media too, and they are often portrayed
through the lens of diminishing stereotypes. The 2018 Diversity
Media Report, monitoring TV news from different Italian channels
during the year 2017, concluded that out of the 50.803 analyzed news, only 291
covered LGBTI topics, people or events, accounting for barely 0.57 percent of the
total sample. This data shows a minor increase in LGBTI media representation,
since during the period going from 2005 to 2014, news related to LGBTI topics,
people or events represented in average 0.3 percent of the total sample. The
findings of this study also showed that the most common topic in LGBTI news was
crime and violence involving members of this community, accounting for 45
percent of registered LGBTI news. Cases of homophobic and transphobic
discrimination received limited attention, representing 14 percent of analyzed
LGBTI news.[5]
In electoral contexts,
the principle of plurality is of paramount importance for media coverage, since
the right of citizens to obtain accurate and impartial information implies that
all political stakeholders should be able to express their views through the
mass media, including women. However, gender-based stereotypes and bias in
media coverage affect women politicians and candidates in a negative way,
contradicting the principle of equal treatment. Media stereotypes of women in
politics contribute to create and support a political culture that excludes
them, undermining their actual political participation and representation in
decision-making bodies. Their visibility is frequently minimized, as shown by a
2017 Council of Europe report: “women candidates comparatively receive less
media attention than their male counterpart”. This study also found that “women
politicians receive more attention coverage on their appearance, sex, private
life and family life as compared to men” and are often portrayed as weak
leaders.[6]
Due to the unnecessary attention on private life of female candidates, which
male candidates tend not to receive to the same extent, female aspirants may be
discouraged from running for the office. This tendency can also be observed in
other regional contexts.
Mass media can also have
a major role in creating positive public opinion on women’s participation in
the political and public life. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the
media can “take care to avoid giving negative or minimizing images of women and
their determination and capacity to participate in politics, stressing the
importance of women’s role in economic and social life and in the development
process in general”.[7]
Key electoral
stakeholders can take action to promote a gender-sensitive coverage of the
electoral process, enhancing inclusiveness and plurality. A wide range of
strategies can be used to promote inclusive media coverage.
- Gender-sensitive
media monitoring can help identify inequalities between men and women in
election coverage, quantifying the space and time received by men and women
candidates, as well as the importance given to gender equality among other
programmatic issues.
- Capacity
building and training initiatives addressed to journalists and media
professionals can contribute to raise awareness on the importance of gender
equality in elections and help them improve their skills on gender-sensitive
reporting.
- Codes
of conduct for media in elections can integrate gender equality provisions,
engaging journalists and media professionals in inclusive reporting throughout
the electoral cycle.
