Who makes the news?

Only 24 per cent of the people heard or read about in print, radio and television news are women. That is a result of the 2010 report Who makes the news? For the fourth time the Global Media Monitoring Project, GMMP, has delivered useful data for discussion.

The first report was published in 1995 for the UN Beijing Conference on Women where "Women and Media" became a special section, Section J, in the Platform for Action.

In the last study 1,281 newspapers, radiostations and television were monitored during the same day in 108 countries. A total of 16,734 news items were analysed. For the first time internet news were also monitored. Read the highlights or the full report. The GMMP report also includes a Roadmap to Accelerate Progress that might be useful for the IWMF delegates here in DC - if they are aware of the report.

So now we have two Global reports; one on the Status of Women in the News Media and one on News Content. How about combining the two to deepen the discussion?

From the www.whomakesthenews.org website:

"The GMMP is the largest and longest longitudinal study on gender in the world’s news media. It is also the largest advocacy initiative in the world on changing gender representation in the media. It is unique in involving participants ranging from grassroots community organizations to university students and researchers to media practitioners, all of whom participate on a voluntary basis."