Gender Equality in the Media

On 7-8 December 2015, the International Development Cooperation Meeting on Gender and Media hosted by UNESCO was held in the Palais Des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. It was set to strive towards breaching the gender gap between men and women in the media.

Glimpse of the opening ceremony of the International Development Cooperation Meeting on Gender and Media.

Despite the improvements on the portrayal of women following the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Addis Ababa Action Plan on Transformative Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, women are still not fairly represented by the media. They are still not fully able to self-express without the criticism. According to a report published in 2015 by The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) , gender inequality has increased from 17% to 24% in the news in a span of 10 years from 1995 to 2005. Also, the percentage of stories in newspapers; television and radio newscasts that are reported by women lies at 37% only.

Women with influence like Ms. Colleen Morna, CEO of the Gender Links, Chair of the GAMAG-ISC and Ms Amina Lzmrini El Ouahabi, President of the HACA in Morocco mentioned the patriarchal culture that creates this gender gap in Media. This culture is thought to be resistant to change. The Deputy Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Getachew Engida stated that both the patriarchal culture and changing the men’s mindset is what makes achieving gender equality harder. However, he also stated his view on media’s role by saying “Of course media can be key to achieving equality. The fair representation of both men and women in a society indicates gender equality.”

Junior Reporter with Deputy Director-General, Mr. Getachew Engida

Further more on gender and media, L. Kretsos, Secretary General of Information and Communication in Greece said “There’s still a lot to be done to breach the gender gap in media.” Gender Equality would be more achievable if gender divides was to be reduced immensely as there would be more opportunities for women to self-express, have a voice and not be disregarded in the media. As Ms. Colleen briefly spoken, “Gender equality is good for freedom of expression, good for democracy and good for business.”

The high officials involved in the meeting all believe that women are still under-presented in the media and throughout taking initiatives like advancing on what has been said in the Beijing Declaration, Gender Equality could be reached sooner than 2030.

 

Junior Reporter interviews Anna Paolini

During the first forum of the Doha centre for Media freedom on the occasion of the International day to End Impunity against journalist our Junior Reporter interviews Anna Paolini the Director of the UNESCO in Doha. Enjoy the exclusive video.

Towards Ending Impunity

The Junior Reporters asked participants two questions:

1. What do you expect from the international day to end Impunity?
2. What do you suggest to end Impunity against journalists?

Watch their Answers.

MIL experts talking about DCMF’s Junior Reporters initiative

Junior Reporters of the Doha centre for Media Freedom gained the opportunity in the first European Media & Information Literacy Forum, held in UNESCO, Paris, to listen to the MIL experts on the DCMF’s Junior Reporters’ initiative, and whether it should be applied in other countries, through other organisation or not. Here is our exclusive vox-pops!

Junior Reporters Interview Mr. Alton Grizzle

In the first EMILforum the junior reporters interviewed Mr Alton Grizzle the Programme Specialist in Communication and Information of UNESCO asking him about the forum and his views on the outcomes of this event.

Check out what he ad to say and check out our blog!

Blog: junior-reporters.org
Facebook: DohaFreeMedia
Twitter: @dohafreemedia
Website: http://www.dc4mf.org
youtube: DCMFCHANNEL

New world, New Literacies

The plenary session titled: “New world, new literacies,” featured a variety of speakers from different media organizations, all discussing the importance of Media and Information Literacy and what it actually entails from different perspectives. This session encouraged proactive discussions and conversations not only between the panel speakers, but also among the audience.

To the first speaker, Mirta Lourenco, section for media at UNESCO France, Media and Information Literacy is crucial, as she believes that it’s more of a “right” to the citizens and they should all have access to it. She also talks about how the new media, especially the internet and social media replaced the traditional aspects of transferring media and information between people and that indeed has transformed Media and Information Literacy to another level.

According to Lourenco, what really matters in the prices of delivering Media and Information Literacy is to make sure that is not limited but attainable internationally to different countries. So, here’s where the importance of promoting Media and Information Literacy is needed the most.

One initiative that UNESCO HQ Paris is heavily investing on to promote Media and Information Literacy is to combine the efforts of the European commission and UNECSO to promote Media and Information Literacy. Lourenco believes that MIL can be best deliverable when it is a collective effort between different organizations.

The second speaker, Matte, European Commission, agrees with Lourenco on expanding the voice about Media and Information Literacy through the support of the media organizations together.

According to Matte, in 2007, the European Commission started to raise awareness about Media and Information Literacy through debates and conferences, but that was not good enough. So, he proposed the idea of taking an advantage of the existing new technologies to adapt the new media literacies through them. The world is changing significantly fast and we need to cope with these changes. We need new literacies to adapt to a new world.  He finally suggested that we read the title of the session the other way around “New literacies, new world,” so that by defining new literacies, citizens will be able to define the new world.

Other speakers like Jordi Torrent, UNAOC, USA discussed the human aspect of Media and Information Literacy. To Torrent, MIL is a “Human inspect platform,” meaning that it is a way of reflecting the critical thinking of people and that language plays a vital role in the critical thinking process. He mentions an example of an interactive platform of MIL that they are working on for teachers where they can navigate using four languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic and they are working on Chinese.

Torrent also highlighted the importance of Youth Media in promoting Media Literacy. For example, he argued that having a network of proactive schools could enhance Media Literacy. He also gave examples of mobile apps and interactive games that provoke proactivity and if we are able to actually use them effectively, they can help us fit in the new media era.