11 July 2011
IFJ and WACC to Develop Learning Resource Kit for Gender-Ethical Journalism
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) have launched a project to promote fair gender portrayal within media houses and the journalistic profession.
The Learning Resource Kit for Gender-Ethical Journalism and Media House Policy aims to respond to the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP)'s findings on the perpetuation of gender-imbalanced news coverage, gender stereotyping and women's significant underrepresentation in the world news media. The 2010 GMMP in 108 countries found that women comprise only 24% of the people seen, heard or read about on television, radio and in print news despite the fact over half of the world's population is female.
"IFJ affiliates were actively involved in the 2010 GMMP research," said Beth Costa, IFJ general secretary. "It shows journalists' unions growing concerns for more gender responsiveness in journalistic practices and we welcome this. Time is ripe for developing solid resources to back unions and media professionals' efforts to strengthen fair gender portrayal in news reporting."
IFJ and WACC will develop a unique learning resource that brings together innovative approaches to gender-ethical journalism from different parts of the world. The resource is intended to encourage and support the adoption and implementation of comprehensive media house policies and practices from a gender equality perspective in news content. It will be available in Arabic, English, French and Spanish.
"Media have a considerable impact on social relations as well as on the public policy agenda," said Karin Achtelstetter, WACC general secretary. "Biased gender portrayal in the news potentially constrains advancement towards the democratic ideal of the equitable participation of women and men in society. The resource kit constitutes part of IFJ and WACC's response to the issue to strengthen news media's positive contributions towards the achievement of this democratic ideal."
The two organisations are conducting a survey as the first step to the production of the learning resource. It aims to compile existing resources for media professionals on gender-ethical journalism, to identify model guidelines and collate others for pertinent thematic areas.
Media professionals, journalists' unions and associations, gender and communication civil society groups and researchers are invited to complete the survey and send it back to [email protected] by 15 August 2011.
More on the organisers
Active in media development for more than 25 years, WACC is an international ecumenical organisation with members in more than 120 countries. WACC has coordinated the Global Media Monitoring Project which every 5 years since 1995 has monitored the output of news journalists, reporters, presenters and announcers on radio, television and print media from a gender equality perspective.
Contact: Terry Mutuku at [email protected]
Tel: 416-691-1999 ext 232
The IFJ, the world's largest organisation of journalists, is eager to promote ethical journalism. In 2008 the organization launched the Ethical Journalism Initiative (EJI) to encourage the reconciliation of media professionals with their mission to provide the public with fair, unbiased, well documented news reporting, with a particular focus on fighting against stereotypes and providing fair gender portrayal in news content.
Contact: Pamela Morinière [email protected] or Federica Caso at [email protected]
Tel. 0022352216
