Women Underreported in News

From IJNet: Women's presence in the media is on the rise worldwide but generally women remain significantly underrepresented in the media, claims a new report from the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). According to its findings, women constitute 24% of the individuals interviewed, seen or heard about in mainstream and print journalism—an increase from 17% as found in the 1995 inaugural report. However, only 16% of all stories focus specifically on women. This preliminary report, "Who Makes the News?," represents the media representations of women for one particular day, November 10, 2009, in 42 of the 130 participating countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean Region, Pacific Islands and Europe. The final report, which will include the data from all the surveyed countries, will be released in its full form in September, 2010.The report analyzes 6,902 news items and 14,044 news subjects, including people interviewed in the news. The current report does not incorporate internet news, which will be included in the final report.The study finds that 27% of news stories presented on the radio are from female reporters, making radio the least likely venue for female representation. In comparison, 35% of stories in newspapers are reported by women. To download the report, click here.