Strengthening Media Coverage on Gender and Economy
To strengthen the dialogue and ensure more media coverage on gender and economy, a workshop was organized with media personnel across India and Bangladesh asking them to share on what are the parities, what are the policies and how can we have more visibility on the issues of women and employment of women. Participants and speakers comprised independent journalists, social media influencers, representatives from national media networks, press club, government department, non-governmental organizations, media development organizations, feminist organizations, academia, digital news agencies and other media professionals. The workshop explored the barriers to creating gender- sensitive and gender-transformative content, and encourage a solution-based conversation towards creating gender equality in content, workplace, and management.
How is Gender Represented in the Media?
Women represent only 13% of subjects and sources in the television newscast monitored and 21% in the digital news stories and tweets (coded from Al Jazeera, BBC News -World, CNN International, France 24, Reuters, RT News, TeleSur and @nytimes.) The proportion of women as subjects and sources in economy and business news in media indicated 12% for India, 21% for Bangladesh and 26% for Nepal. Stories on gender-based violence (GBV) hardly make the major news of the day and when they do, women and girls are severely underrepresented as subjects and sources. In 2020 a new category ‘gender & related’ was carved out to filter three types of stories: on sexual harassment against women, rape, sexual assault, #MeToo, #TimesUp; on other forms of gender violence such as feminicide, trafficking of girls, women FGM; and, on inequality between women and men such as the gender pay gap. It was disappointing to find only 1% of stories coded under this new major topic in both legacy and digital media, yet, various sources indicated that gender violence has intensified during the pandemic. In leadership positions in the media, across print, television and digital, the average women representation is about 20% and this number seems dismal when compared with the population of women in India being about 48% (as per Global Gender Gap Report 2021).
What News is Portrayed More?
As shared by the Chief of News Bureau of a leading media agency, “in order to cater to the demand of delivering ‘eye-catching’ stories to the mass, gender issues occupy a very small proportion in media content prioritization. This results in bringing out women stories that mainly revolve around crime.” She shared about the 3Cs that media primarily design stories around – Crisis, Crime and Controversy. She went on to share that in newspapers, crime related stories get a higher priority for being reported and that reportage of cases for instance the Nirbhaya rape case and Hathras gang rape and murder case is treated as a crime based story, the stories do not highlight gender (in)equality aspect. The media focuses on eye-catching stories and if a story is gender based but not eye-catching enough, although it gets reported in the media but such stories are assigned to Page 9 space where it does not get much importance.
Another media personnel shared that gender related stories need to be pitched in a way to acquire space in the newspaper. She related about an incident where the PM was scheduled for a visit as a chief guest to a reputed university as part of its Centenary celebration. The media personnel was a guest faculty at the university and she had noticed that there was no washroom for the girls of the Mass Communication Department. The nearest washroom was at a distance of 40 minutes which resulted in the girls missing an entire class. The media personnel faced resistance by fellow colleagues on reporting such a story about a reputed university where the Prime Minister was expected to visit. She shared that for seeking approval to cover this story she had to convince the others to write the story as an open letter to the Chief Minister on behalf of the girls.
The bureau chief of a news agency accepted that the media primarily sticks to stereotypical stories related to gender like crimes related to women, ones that deal with male bastions, or when they are doing something really extraordinary, or on special days for instance International Women’s Day.
As shared by a senior journalist and social activist, the biggest challenge in digital media space lies in its requisite of generating revenue through page views, likes and reactions. The algorithm caters to what is in more demand, eye-catching and entertaining. News is made sensational to attract attention. So it is about prioritizing whether we want ‘likes’ or gender-responsive journalism. Political news, crime, entertainment and sensational news respectively is the desired order of preference in mainstream journalism. She referred to examples of women in political parties who are active social media users, yet indulge primarily in smear campaigns. She mentioned about Tina Dabi, Joint Secretary of Finance Department of Rajasthan and a brilliant young IAS officer whose story has been doing the rounds on social media not for her unparalleled achievements but her second marriage. She went on to stress on how media heavily relies on eye-catching headlines that only bolster existing prejudices and mindsets in the society.
Popular as India’s exclusive rural content creator, she emphasized on the meager coverage of gender issues on social media. She mentioned that there are over 380 million active social media users in India but the content that this huge lot engages in, majorly covers entertainment, travel, food and politics. Only 3.2% of the content deals with social issues and even slighter in gender. The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2020 Report of India also suggests similar findings, that across all forms of media, the Gender and Related category received low coverage, i.e., below 7%.
Efforts to Strengthen Media Coverage on Gender and Economy
We have all seen how media ranging from traditional to online media hugely influences our perceptions and ideas about the role of girls and women in our society. Yet women remain underrepresented in newsroom leadership, gender equality stories are going untold and men remain the vast majority of quoted experts and panelists.
There are numerous efforts by various organizations, there are success stories, but these are not very visible. On April 1 2022, around 25 media professionals across India and Bangladesh came together in a workshop “Missing Perspectives: Gender Equity in Media Space” at the American Center, Kolkata as part of the initiative “Women Wielding the Workplace” and discussed how gender specific news gets less attention and how there is low participation of women in media, making it a place primarily for the men. The workshop aimed to augment visibility to the urgency of achieving gender diversity and equity at work, sharing of inputs and recommendations by media representatives and other stakeholders on increase in coverage of gender and economy in media.
Mr Adrian Pratt, Public Affairs Officer, US Consulate opened the discussion with the remark that he strongly believes in the transformative role each of the media participants can play by creating gender sensitive and gender transformative content, by challenging traditional, social and cultural norms and attitudes, by showcasing women in leadership roles and experts on a diversity of topics on a regular basis and not just as an exception. This will not be possible without the concerted efforts of both men and women. We need voices to advocate for equal pay, equal sharing of unpaid care work, prevention of sexual harassment and all forms of violence, health care service that responds to their needs, equal participation in political, life and decision making.
Is there Gender Parity in the Media?
A leading media professional talked about how existing gender stereotypes in the recruitment process spurned her from securing a job at a vernacular daily. She shared about her journey 23 years back when she was called for an interview at a vernacular daily and the agency was shocked to find a lady instead of a man. The name that she used, the agency assumed that it would be a man and they expected to see a male candidate for the role resulting in her being rejected by the agency.
A participant shared about her experience in the course of her work with a news agency where she was assigned the responsibility to reduce the staff drastically. She was informed that she could only retain 1 reporter, 1 camera person and 1 production person. She came under tremendous criticism as she had retained all female employees only because they were the best of the lot. She goes on share that “Inclusion is not about choosing people for the sake of it, but recognizing the strength of an individual regardless of their gender.”
With an experience of more than 40 years in celebrated national and regional dailies, a participant shared about her uphill struggle from being a freelance reporter to the Chief of News Bureau. When she applied to a news agency for a job, she was refused on the grounds that there is no washroom. She was hired by another media agency to deliver the same kind of work which other male reporters do to the extent of covering riots, disasters etc. She was happy to note that this situation is changing slowly and that women are taking leadership to deliver the same kind of work as male journalists be it in news channels, newspapers, in reporting, sports, layout, desk and decision making.
Does the Reporter’s Gender Matter for Gender Integration in stories?
A special correspondent from one of a leading media conglomerate shared about her journey as a journalist during coverage of a political clash story where she visited a shelter home that had many women and children in it. Their homes were burned down during the clash. She found that the women and girls in the shelter home did not move from one place to another because they did not have cloth or sanitary napkins to use during menstruation. She mentioned that the administration provided relief materials to the victims but they were not aware that sanitary hygiene is essential to women in these situations. When she tried to speak to her male bosses about reporting on the issue of sanitary napkins in the current situation, they were shocked and to hear this and considered it as nasty, sexist content and unacceptable reporting in the daily and feared facing criticism from the masses. Thankfully, one of her other male boss supported and encouraged her to cover the story. She mentioned that when the story was published, there was a huge response and the local administration realized and considered this an eye opener for them. They shared that although they were providing relief materials but they did not understand the need until this report. Her perspective and reporting on the political clash using a gender lens triggered the state’s concern to provide relief provisions for women and girls. In spite of facing resistance, it turned out to be a landmark reporting!
The bureau chief of a news agency shared that one of the major problems identified in low media coverage of issues on women and economy has been the lack of women as sources in the news. She explained this sharing an instance that during the time of the elections in her region, she wanted to quote a woman official from the assembly or from the election commission; however, there were hardly any women there. So she had to take the quote from a male source.
Another media personnel shared that one of the leading digital publications was able to be earn phenomenal dividends from the kind of stories that were being covered, in the way they were being covered with women leading the campaign for coverage of stories.
A media professional shared that during the time of the pandemic, when the mode of work was “work from home” for most people, certain problems were faced mostly by women, one being paid work, second being unpaid work corresponding to household work and the third included assisting children with their online education. Some women belonging to a different socio-economic background also faced harassment by their male partners. She believed that these issues needed to be highlighted in the media. At the time of the pandemic, the focus of media was more on the matter of not having access to ambulance, not getting oxygen cylinders timely, problem of getting admission in hospital even problems in accessing online education but not the problem women face during this time to do the “work from home.” When she spoke to her bosses that she wants to write about this, they told her that this is a soft topic, it is a Page 4 Op-ed story. She shared that this kind of mindset in the media house needs change.
One of the media personnel, shared about her experience during training on gender sensitive and gender responsive journalism in Bihar with young media journalists. She mentioned that she displayed a story with a headline that read “Father of 5 daughters met with a road accident.” She mentioned that the headline and story had a very insensitive gender approach to it. One of the male student journalists agreed with the headline saying that it would generate sympathy and support for the family and the deceased’s family may also be able to acquire some funds that would aid in taking care of the daughters. She mentioned that such headlines and gender imbalanced picture reinforces and perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes existing in society.
Award-winning, radio and TV journalist, columnist and public speaker and founder of a media company emphasized on the need for women to become independent storytellers. She mentioned about a young Afghan lady who joined as an intern and was new to digital journalism. She shared that the lady trained herself with the help of another colleague and the aesthetics and sensibility that she brought into supporting pictures for the stories was phenomenal. The media personnel shared the story of the first Adivasi journalist, Jayanti Buruda from the Koya tribe in Serpally, Odisha who has not only fought innumerable battles to make her own path but has been a changemaker in the media space covering uncommon stories like Japanese encephalitis that killed many children in her community which none of the mainstream media covered. Positive stories, platforms and news houses were shared like Khabar Lahariya and Adivasi Lives Matters that have been working to amplify voices of women and marginalized sections of the society. BehanBox, a women-led organization has been working towards transformative journalism. As part of Behan Box, one of the women is a village person herself and she brings a beautiful voice where she started the Fursat Project. Her argument is that women do not have leisure time. She has called for pictures and digital images of women relaxing in a rural setting.The media personnel also shared about the story and work of a Dalit woman journalist, who comes from very difficult conditions was also shared where she serves in Gaon Connection, India’s first rural digital platform. The journalist during her visit to the Moosahar community being one of the most backward communities in Uttar Pradesh that is ostracized and they do not have access to government schemes; she came across a severely malnourished 12 year old girl and shared about her in a tweet that went viral. The district administration was forced to take cognition and shift the girl a hospital. She also shared about a transperson radio journalist from Bangalore who is bringing fresh new perspectives to the table sharing lived experiences. She mentioned that women journalists i can thrive in this ecosystem by not being in competition as how the media model works but by being collaborators of stories on gender and economy.
Founder of a communication for social change organization; shared about the recent work of her organization with young girls and women in urban slums on fostering digital media and information literacy. She narrated an incident of a woman whose son asked her not to wear headphones and go around the colony as his friends were telling him that his mother is too forward and that it is not good for her. She pointed out (through this story) that there are male members within the family police how women should consume media, what they should talk about when making media. While there are positive stories of young women journalists from difficult conditions who are making a mark for themselves, one has to also relook at what is the structure and architecture that is reinforcing this gendered nature of both media and technology. Why would media tell stories for which they would not get advertisements, whose stories get told, who tells those stories and how they are being consumed needs to be rethought.
Gender Responsive Policies
As shared by one of the media veterans, she mentioned about the conducive policies in place in a leading media house, that includes policies on zero tolerance of sexual harassment, safety in the workplace, security in transport and also recruitment of women camera persons, editors that helped in making women feel safe at the workplace. She also talked about a new term popular in TV studios, manels (men-only panels) as by and large women occupy a minimal space as less as only 15% in panel discussions. We can collectively crack the glass ceiling if discussions on gender participation and diversity in the media are brought into the mainstream.
Nudging the Glass Ceiling Upwards:
Another journalist shared about her media house wherein majority of the resident editors are women. She emphasized that in terms of achieving gender parity in the media space, even though change is slow but constant. She referred to certain photo journalists who have been breaking the glass ceiling in the industry. She believes more women should be occupying policy-making positions and that one’s gender whether male, female or if they identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, must not determine their capacity or role and not be bereft of opportunities to narrate stories.
President of the Press Club shared about the utmost need of positive storytelling in media. In his session, ‘Ensuring Inclusion’, he referred to fellow female journalists present at the dialogue who have established themselves as powerful and distinguished figures in the media space and are potent sources of inspiration.
The workshop highlighted that media (social media/print/electronic) needs to be more gender-sensitized, there is a need to change the male-centric perception towards women employees in the newsroom and appropriate policy guidelines need to be developed for media to reflect on gender sensitive issues and strengthen media networks across South Asia to implement gender affirmative behaviour in the workplace.
6th Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2021 report