GMMP2020 and why gender & media research is important - a podcast with me

The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) is a worldwide media monitoring, research and advocacy project that takes ever five years produce a snapshot of the gender equality status in the news media around the world. Helsinki university is promoting the project by creating a website where they collect the Finnish work and provide more in-depth info. They have also produced interviews with four GMMP experts, all made by Yann Ilunga.  I am honoured to be one of the interviewees, named as "one of the key Nordic scholars of gender and the media". The other three interviews are with Philip Lee, Sarah Macharia, Claudia Padovani

You can find the interviews here:

Associate Professor Claudia Padovani, University of Padova – a seminar scholar in gender studies, with a specialization in gender and policy and involvement in many related global activities, such as the UNESCO Unitwin University Network on Gender Media and ICTs and the AGEMI project;
* General Secretary Dr. Philip Lee, WACC, on the history of GMMP; and
* Dr. Sarah Macharia – the Global Coordinator of the GMMP research project on the current developments. 

Of course i promoted the books Comparing gender and media across the globe, and Making Change. Nordic Examples of Working Towards Gender Equality in the Media (in advertising, film, gaming and journalism) both free to download though Nordicom.

Gender and media equality - save the date: March 12 at NGO CSW64

I am happy to announce that the University of Gothenburg will have a parallel event at the NGO Forum Parallel event at the United Nations 64th Commission on the Status of Women on March 12.

It concerns Area J of the UN Beijing Platform for Action: Women and the Media. Since 1995 there has been slow progress of women making the news, from 17 percent to 24 percent, according to the Global Media Monitoring Project.

What are the causes and consequences of the lack of women in the news? Gender equality and freedom of expression are fundamental values crucial for achieving a sustainable world. This parallel event focus on the (lack of) achievements for women in the media and how to move forward. We will present results from the international research project Comparing gender and media equality across the globe and open up for discussions with  the media industry, policy makers and civil society.

Five or the researchers, including PI Monika Djerf Pierre will be there, and many more. A full program will be uploaded here soon.

Comparing gender and media equality across the globe

Time: March 12, 2020, 10:30 AM- 12.00 AM

Venue: 4 W 43rd Street : Blue Room, New York City 

   Sponsor: University of Gothenburg, Department of Journalism, Media and Communication(JMG)

   Co-sponsors: GAMAG, Fojo Media Institute, Swedish Women´s Lobby & Nordicom

Comparing Gender and Media Equality Across the Globe

What if we could compile global, comparable sex-disaggregated data on the news media and make it into an open database?

That is exactly what we are working on in a research project at the University of Gothenburg.

Thanks to the Swedish Research Council and professor Monika Djerf-Pierre this data base is about to come true. In the project Comparing Gender and Media Equality Across the Globe we have collected data from the IWMF-study, The Global media Monitoring Project reports and the EIGE-study on the media sector and combined it with other global statistics.  We are now in the phase of running the data, making quality checks and doing first analysis of the material. The picture is from our second project meeting in October 2018, gathering in the front row: Sarah Macharia, WACC, Karen Ross, University of Newcastle, Claudia Padovani, University of Padova and in the back row Monika Djerf Pierre, Maria Edström and Mathias Färdigh. 

here is an article about the project from our first meeting.

In 2019 the GEM data base will be open for anyone to use.Then we will also launch our book, published by Nordicom. Keep you posted.

Cross discussions in Zagreb

Today at the Women and Media Conference and Round Table in Zagreb the topic will be both national and international trends when it comes to women's (mis)representations in the media. Both the IWMF-study and the GMMP-study will be up for discussion.

Viktoija Car on the move,

The participants are an interesting mix of researchers, journalists, officials and students. A representative from Croatian media watch group B.a.b.e will also be there.

It is all thanks to this woman, Viktorija Car, from the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb. And three very devoted embassies, Sweden. France and the United States.

Thank you very much!

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."