A Gender Balance Guide for Media
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Amplifying women’s voices A Gender Balance Guide For Media Insights Acknowledgements This guide is a Women In News publication April 2020 CONTRIBUTORS Rebecca Zausmer for Women in News (WAN-IFRA) Simone Flueckiger for Women in News (WAN-IFRA) WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO Kesewa Hennessy the Financial Times (UK) Marie-Louise Jarlenfors VK Media (Sweden) Laura Warne & Andrea Leung The South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) Mary Mbewe The Daily Nation (Zambia) Lara Bonilla & Marta Rodríguez ARA, (Spain) Pål Nedregotten Amedia (Norway) Laura Zelenko Bloomberg DESIGN BY Julie Chahine The development of this guide was made possible with the generous support of Sida This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Women in News (WIN), an initiative by WAN-IFRA, WAN-IFRA is the global organisation of the world’s aims to increase women’s leadership and voices newspapers and news publishers, representing in the news. It does so by equipping women more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online journalists and editors with the skills, strategies sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 and support networks they need to take on greater countries. WAN-IFRA is unique in its position as leadership positions and editorial influence within a global industry association with a human rights the industry. mandate to defend and promote media freedom, and the economic independence of news media as In parallel, WIN partners with media organisations an essential condition of that freedom. to identify industry-led solutions to close the gap between men and women in their newsrooms, WAN-IFRA applies a dual approach to supporting boardrooms and in the content they produce. media freedom. It addresses political and structural constraints to media freedom through advocacy WIN is currently working with more than 90 media and at the same time works to strengthen the from 15 countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa, capacity and networks of the media and their the Arab Region and South East Asia (SEA): representative institutions. WIN AFRICA: Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, This dual approach allows WAN-IFRA to address Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe challenges to media freedom from multiple WIN ARAB REGION: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon perspectives, leveraging experiences and synergies and Palestine between advocacy and development projects, partnerships and the wider expertise of WAN- WIN SEA: Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam IFRA’s international community to encourage WIN is made possible through support from the meaningful change. Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. WWW.WOMENINNEWS.ORG WWW.WAN-IFRA.ORG Contacts Melanie Walker Fatemah Farag WIN Executive Director WIN MENA Director [email protected] [email protected] Tikhala Chibwana Rebecca Zausmer WIN Africa Director WIN Insights Director [email protected] [email protected] INCREASING WOMEN’S VOICES IN CONTENT / 1 Contents P. 4 P. 14 1. 4. Why gender balance Organisational strategies is important Steps that media organisations can take The reasons why media organisations to improve gender balance across their and media professionals should be publication’s content. working to increase gender balance in their content. P. 7 P. 16 2. 5. How we stereotype Tracking gender balance in the media Lo-fi and hi-fi approaches and metrics What it means to ‘gender to track gender balance in content. stereotype’. We need to understand the problem before we can fix it. P. 10 P. 20 3. 6. Actions to improve Gender balance champions gender balance Examples of successful initiatives Practical suggestions to improve that media around the world are gender balance in content. implementing to increase gender balance in their content. P. 32 7. Glossary Meanings and definitions for some gender related terms. 2 / INCREASING WOMEN’S VOICES IN CONTENT Foreword omen in News advocates for a media industry in which women This guide and men are equal. Equal in the way they are portrayed in news Wcontent and equal in their professional roles and This guide aims to equip media organisations treatment. WIN has been working towards this and professionals with the necessary tools goal for nearly a decade, during which time, the and insights to increase gender balance in issues of equality, safety and respect between their content. men and women have come roaring into the public consciousness through movements It should help you to: like #MeToo and #TimesUp. This momentum S Understand the importance of gender balance has been sustained by brave individuals who in content have come forward and the dogged work of S Identify the different ways in which the media journalists around the world who continue to gender stereotypes cover the topic, exposing injustices and holding S Understand how to avoid gender stereotyping perpetrators of inequality to account. S Develop organisational strategies to improve Paradoxically, we the media industry have gender balance in content played a direct role in perpetuating inequality by S Identify suitable metrics and tools to track their excluding women’s voices, stories and opinions progress in content and using language which stereotypes S Learn from successful initiatives that have been women. While women represent more than half implemented by other news organisations of the world’s population, they are on average seen, heard and read in the media only 25% of the time. Readers are increasingly calling out the media for this practice. In failing to change we risk alienating our audiences, harming our corporate reputations and brands, and negatively impacting our bottom lines. GENDER DEFINITION AND Improving gender balance in content can A NON-BINARY GUIDE be challenging, however. It takes conscious, thoughtful measures to recognise and dismantle This guide reflects Women in News’ unconscious bias. It takes a concerted effort to primary mission, promoting the leadership and begin identifying and including new voices and voices of women in the media. opinions in our content on a consistent basis. Maintaining that focus can be a strain given the For the purposes of this guide, the term ‘gender balance’ is used to refer to the balance between multiple competing priorities and the frequent women and men. firefighting that the media are engaged in today. Women in News, however, understands that But making the effort to improve gender balance gender is not binary, but is a spectrum. While this guide focuses on the balance between women and in content can and must be a priority. We hope men only, elements of the guide can be applied that this practical guide helps newsrooms and to the media’s representation and portrayal of media professionals throughout the world to trans people and the LGBTQIA+ community more broadly. address the issue head on. We look forward to WIN recognises the need for a more specific non- continuing the conversation and action toward binary resource for the media industry and will be greater equality in our industry together. creating one in the near future. INCREASING WOMEN’S VOICES IN CONTENT / 3 1. Why gender balance is important 4 / INCREASING WOMEN’S VOICES IN CONTENT stories that have direct relevance to their lives, Responsibility to promote and value practical information.2 The research also equality and diversity suggested that local news becomes increasingly important when women have children. At the South China Morning Post, audience research revealed The media shapes what we think about, what that topics such as diplomacy, we believe, and what we do. That means the regional news and society, which See Champions P. 24 decisions taken by those working in, and leading, covers a broad range of social tapping into the industry are of vital importance. If the affairs, including education, issues women audiences with engaging content. media fails to represent women as equals and of equality, and cultural trends, stereotypes them in their jobs, societal roles and were of particular interest to attributes, they perpetuate and reinforce gender women audiences. inequalities. This applies not just to women, but Others have already found evidence which points to trans people, sexuality, race, class, religion and to the ways in which increasing the visibility of ethnicity. In most of today’s news media, women women in content can have a positive business are much less likely to be featured as subjects of impact. Norwegian media company Amedia found a story or quoted as experts compared to men. that newspapers with more stories containing According to the Gender Equality Tracker1, current women sources had higher readership among statistics show that in US media coverage men are women. At the Financial Times, a newsletter mentioned twice as aimed at women achieved higher frequently as women. News organisations open rates on average than the In Norway, Amedia See Champions P. 24 have a responsibility publication’s other newsletters. tapping into discovered an Bloomberg found that featuring women audiences to analyse the average 34/66% split with engaging content. more perspectives from women in between women’s representation of its reporting gives it an edge over and men’s names men and women competitors. across 660,000 in the content local stories from 64 they produce, of its newspapers determine if an published during a Diversity of views makes for 21-month period. imbalance exists better content and products Doing so and take action if it demonstrates an is needed. acknowledgement of A diversity of voices and views leads to greater the fact that the news creativity and higher quality content, which in has historically been made by men, for men, and turn is good for business in an era when the a willingness to work towards representing men media is fighting to remain financially viable and women in a fair and balanced and culturally relevant. Despite this, the media See AMEDIA.