Election Coverage from a Gender Perspective - A Media Monitoring Manual

This manual, published by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and based on the experience of Latin American organisations, presents a "common and replicable methodological tool" for monitoring media coverage from a gender perspective during elections campaigns.

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) recognised the need to undertake specific actions to identify possible differences in the coverage of male and female candidates by the media during election campaigns that may affect women’s ability to put their candidacies and proposals before the electorate. In response to this, they brought together the representatives of six Latin American institutions with experience of monitoring the media in order, on the basis of an analysis of past experience, to collectively construct a common and replicable methodological tool that makes it possible to monitor media coverage during the period from a gender perspective using objective and verifiable information. This manual takes as its starting point the consensuses and main conclusions reached at that gathering.

The manual is divided into the following chapters:

1. Why monitor the media in electoral campaigns from a gender perspective?
2. What are the objectives and characteristics of a study such as this?
3. Duration of the monitoring
4. Preliminary steps: forming the monitoring team and guidelines for its work (provides details about who should make up the team, their time commitment, and how to pay for the study).
5. Which media outlets will be monitored? Defining the sample.
6. What and how? Initial steps for understanding the methodology (skills for monitors to master),
7. Data collection and analysis: data sheet, definitions and procedures (putting those skills to work using specific tools).
8. The final report: cross-referencing the variables and presenting the results.
9. Conclusion: some considerations for disseminating the results.