GMMP 2005 Phase 2 Workshops: Overview

The regional ‘gender and media advocacy’ training workshops are a follow-up to the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2005, the most extensive global research into gender in the media ever undertaken. The study mapped the representation of women and men in the news media in 76 countries. ( www.whomakesthenews.org).

The results of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2005 show that women are dramatically under-represented in the news. Only 21% of news subjects are female and women’s voices are rarely heard in the topics that dominate the news agenda.

In stories on government and politics, women make up only 14% of news subjects, and in economics and business news only 20%. When women do make the news it is primarily as ‘stars’ or victims.

Unfair and imbalanced representation of women and men in the media perpetuates stereotypes about gender that form the basis of practices of exclusion and marginalization in everyday life situations.

The workshops are designed to equip participants with the skills and knowledge to carry out gender and media advocacy work and to start dialogue with media in order to have more balanced gender policies and representation of women. They are an opportunity for groups working on gender and media issues to network and share their experiences with a view to working together in the future.

Workshop participants are nominated by women’s non-governmental organisations and other civil society organisations interested in work on gender and media.