WUNRN
Launches of Women Make the News 2012
UNESCO, once again, calls on its media
partners to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment remain on the
forefront of their agenda, through its Women Make the News (WMN) 2012
initiative. Launched annually on the occasion of International Women’s Day (8
March), WMN is a global policy advocacy initiative aimed at promoting gender
equality in and through the media.
Much has been achieved since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). Yet the Global Media Monitoring Project (2010) finds that still only 24% of the people questioned, heard, seen or read about in the written and audiovisual media are women; 76% are men. Only 16% of stories focus specifically on women.
The UNESCO-supported Global Report on the Status of Women in
the News Media (2011) reveals that women are underrepresented in the media
operations in 73%, 50% and 46% of the countries surveyed in Sub-Saharan Africa,
Asia and Oceana, and the
As the UNESCO Director-General notes, “The Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action is a reference for assessing progress towards equal rights and
opportunities in all spheres [including in media] and identifying the
significant challenges that still remain. The battle for gender equality is far
from won…”
The theme for this year, Rural women’s access to media and information, seeks to underscore and stimulate knowledge exchange on:
Access to media and information by rural women and men has many important
dimensions or entry points. Within the framework of the function of the media
to provide information needed by rural women to enhance their economic
empowerment and political participation, WMN 2012 focuses on two of these entry
points. Firstly, can and how are rural women and men actually accessing (listen
to, read or watch) radio, newspaper and television in their communities, and
how are community media and new media/technologies helping? Secondly, are
rural women actually in charge of the programming, production and broadcast of
media content?
It is unequivocal that public service broadcasters, commercial media and
community media can be key forces to drive the Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action, which calls on all stakeholders to combat for “…women’s access to
and participation in all communication systems, especially media”.
International, regional and local NGOs and other social actors are also
critical nodes in the network of stakeholders. But do the necessary policies
and programmes exist in these different forms of media and ownership
structures?
Therefore, the theme for WMN 2012, Rural women’s access to media and
information, is equally important to national and international media
organizations and civil society organizations concerned with gender issues.
Please click here to learn more about how you can join this initiative.