Women and Girls As Subjects of Media's Attention And
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DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR INTERNAL POLICIES POLICY DEPARTMENT C: CITIZENS' RIGHTS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS GENDER EQUALITY Women and Girls as Subjects of Media’s Attention and Advertisement Campaigns: The Situation in Europe, Best Practices and Legislations STUDY Abstract This study focuses on the mechanisms through which gender representation on the media (TV, advertising, news and new media) hampers the achievement of gender equality. It provides an overview of the main definitions, theories and studies and explores the regulatory acts existing in EU 27 Member States exploring the most interesting experiences (good practices) in order to present under what conditions they are more effective. A stakeholder mapping in the EU 27 Member states is also included. PE 474.442 EN This document was requested by the European Parliament's Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. AUTHORS Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini Ms Elisa Giomi Ms Silvia Sansonetti Ms Anna Lisa Tota RESPONSIBLE ADMINISTRATOR Ms Claire Genta Policy Department C - Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs European Parliament B-1047 Brussels E-mail: [email protected] LINGUISTIC VERSIONS Original: EN ABOUT THE EDITOR To contact the Policy Department or to subscribe to its newsletter please write to: [email protected] European Parliament, manuscript completed in March 2013. © European Union, Brussels, 2013. This document is available on the Internet at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/studies DISCLAIMER The opinions expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the European Parliament. Reproduction and translation for non-commercial purposes are authorized, provided the source is acknowledged and the publisher is given prior notice and sent a copy. Women and Girls as Subjects of Media’s Attention and Advertisement Campaigns: The Situation in Europe. Best Practices and Legislation ____________________________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 5 LIST OF TABLES 6 LIST OF FIGURES 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7 CONTEXT ANALYSIS 11 1.1. Literature Review 13 1.1.1. Gender, gender roles, gender stereotypes 13 1.1.2. Media representation of gender roles and gender stereotyping on the media: TV, advertising, news and new media 14 1.1.3. Influence of media representations of gender on the audience 23 1.1.4. National literature review of the most relevant publications in the field in EU27 Member States 29 1.2. Relevant examples of legislations outside the EU 37 1.2.1. United States of America 38 1.2.2. Canada 38 1.2.3. Australia 39 1.2.4. Latin America 40 1.3. Overview of the recent initiatives promoted at European level 42 1.4. Mapping of the Primary Stakeholders at Member States’ Level 46 1.4.1. Competent authorities for media and communication 47 1.4.2. Media Industry Associations 47 1.4.3. The gender equality bodies/ ministries of Equal opportunities 47 1.4.4. Women’s NGOs 47 2. CRITICAL OVERVIEW OF THE REGULATORY ACTS IN EU 27 MEMBER STATES 49 2.1. Regulatory acts in EU 27 Member States 50 2.1.1. State of the art: previous reports on the situation in the EU 27 Member States in relation to women’s and girls’ representations on the media 50 2.1.2. Regulatory acts in EU 27 Member States 52 2.1.3. Laws/Legislation 56 2.1.4. Regulations issued by authorities competent for media and communication 58 2.1.5. Codes of conduct and Protocols 59 2.1.6. References to the media sector included in Gender Equality Plans 60 2.1.7. Implementation of the Directive 2010/13/UE 63 3 Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS IN SELECTED MEMBER STATES 66 3.1. Methodology for Identifying Best Practices 67 3.1.1. Introduction 67 3.1.2. Study-tailored assessment criteria 67 3.1.3. The assessment criteria grid 70 3.2. Presentation of the Good Practices in the national context 72 3.2.1. Introduction 72 3.2.2. Ireland 72 3.2.3. Malta 76 3.2.4. Spain 80 3.2.5. Sweden 85 4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 88 REFERENCES 95 Annex A 105 Annex B 112 Annex C 114 4 Women and Girls as Subjects of Media’s Attention and Advertisement Campaigns: The Situation in Europe. Best Practices and Legislation ____________________________________________________________________________________________ LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BPfA Beijing Platform for Action ECHR European Convention on Human Rights EU 27 European Union NGO Non-Governmental Organisation 5 Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs ____________________________________________________________________________________________ LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Regulatory acts collected in EU Member States by type and sub-type 55 Table 2 Judgement criteria 69 Table 3 Assessment criteria grid 71 Table 4 Assessment criteria grid for the first good practice Ireland 74 Table 5 Assessment criteria grid for the second good practice Malta 78 Table 6 Assessment criteria grid for the third good practice Spain 82 Table 7 Assessment criteria grid for the fourth good practice Sweden 86 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Regulatory acts collected in EU Member States by type 50 6 Women and Girls as Subjects of Media’s Attention and Advertisement Campaigns: The Situation in Europe. Best Practices and Legislation ____________________________________________________________________________________________ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY KEY FINDINGS A. Main Conclusions 1. Few of the acts/policies/practices found in the EU 27 Member States are characterised by the simultaneous presence of all those criteria that mostly guarantee a fair and non- stereotyped representation of women and girls in the media. 2. Gender Equality laws, Anti-discrimination acts, Gender Equality Plans stand out for being grounded in an appropriate and comprehensive definition of gender-based discriminations but they are either binding (Gender Equality Laws and Anti- discrimination Acts) or media-related (Gender Equality Plans, which include sometimes even wide sections on gender and the media issues but whose force is blunted by the lack of deterring measures). 3. The sectorial regulations (laws specifically targeting the media sector and regulations issued by authorities competent for media and communication) are potentially very effective in contrasting gender stereotyping and gender-discrimination in the media, as they are binding; though they fail to go beyond a generic and self-evident formulation of gender-discrimination. 4. This is also the problem with the acts/laws implementing the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which address gender as one of the multiple expressions of ‘diversity’ (along with ethnicity, nationality, disability, etc.) and contain provisions on prohibitions against gender discrimination generally only within the context of wide anti-discrimination prohibitions. 5. As to the specific field of advertising, in almost all EU countries vigilance falls under the responsibility of self-regulatory bodies. Along with the non-binding nature of half of the codes of conduct issued by these bodies that have been analysed, an overall weakness of this typology of regulatory act is the high degree of subjectivity that the competent authorities have in handling complaints. This is a particularly critical aspect, as advertising often express representations that are humiliating, degrading or offensive to women on the basis of their sex in an ironic and humoristic fashion that is likely to ‘hide’ sexism or make it socially acceptable. 6. As a result, despite the complaints about discriminatory advertising being, in all the EU Member States, a considerable part of those received by the competent bodies, many fail to receive an appropriate answer or a follow-up. 7. In terms of media genres/sectors that are addressed, the most striking gap concerns news media and journalism. These are the specific object of only three codes of conducts/guidelines collected in the fieldwork. This appears to be a critical aspect, as fair gender portrayal is a professional and ethical aspiration akin to the respect for accuracy, pluralism and objectivity. The lack of specific instruments becomes even more problematic if we consider that the Global Media Monitoring Project reports on a globally widespread underrepresentation/biased representation of women in the news. 7 Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs ____________________________________________________________________________________________ B. Recommendations 1. The first recommendation is to enforce the presence, among the acts and policies provisions, of deterring measures and include, along with the suspension of non- compliant advertising and media contents, also fines/pecuniary penalties for those who disseminate them. 2. As the experience of good practices teaches us, those acts/laws/policies that are binding, therefore potentially more effective, could have their legal and cultural force increased by: a) (for media-related laws, regulations issued by authorities competent for media, advertising codes of conduct): being grounded in a proper and comprehensive definition of gender-based discriminations, one that provides detailed examples of contents/representations that are to be considered as stereotyped or harmful to women’s dignity, thus limiting the degree of subjectivity in the application of the act; b) (for Gender Equality Laws and