Pacific Region Gender & Media Advocacy Training

Contacts:                                                                            

PACIFIC REGION GENDER AND MEDIA ADVOCACY TRAINING WORKSHOP

TO BE HELD IN SUVA, FIJI, 23 – 25 October, 2007.

Fiji, October 2, 2007 – The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) in partnership with femLINKPACIFIC:Media Initiatives for Women will hold a 3-day training workshop on gender and media advocacy in Suva from 23 to 25 October, 2007.  The workshop is a follow-up to the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2005, the most extensive global research into gender in the media ever undertaken that mapped the representation of women and men in the news media in 76 countries. http://www.whomakesthenews.org/

The results of 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 workshop is designed to equip participants with the skills and knowledge to carry out gender and media advocacy work. It is an opportunity for groups working on gender and media issues in the Pacific region to network and share their experiences with a view to working together in the future to develop advocacy campaigns.

Representatives from the National Councils of Women and women’s media organizations from Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Bougainville have confirmed their participation. The training will be staged at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (Conference Room A) in Suva.