Setting the Gender Agenda for Communication Policy: New Proposals from the Global Alliance on Media and Gender

Promoting gender equality in and through media is part of the rationale of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) partner network, the Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMAG). With support from UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC-UNESCO), members of GAMAG assessed areas where policy change is called for and share them in this book's chapters.

In producing the contents of this book, many of the authors took part in sessions at the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN General Assembly in March 2018, sharing their drafts and securing peer feedback. The position papers emerged out of conversations on the need to update the issues arising since the Fourth UN World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), when media were recognised as critical for the advancement of women and the achievement of equality between women and men. At the time, less than 1% of the world's population was online; in contrast, as of 2017, approximately 50% had access to the internet. GAMAG thus sought in this collection to take stock and suggest a way forward if intervention strategies on media and information and communication technologies (ICTs) are to be relevant.

Overall, the papers make the case for the centrality of communication in broader struggles for gender equality and women's human rights, as well as for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The authors assess issues such as gender equality in media decision making positions, regulatory policy, gender and freedom of expression, and the rights of women media workers, and they present options for the way forward.

Organised in 4 sections, the papers present the salient issues respective to the facet under discussion, the evidence on progress, persistent gaps and emerging concerns, good practice examples, and authors' recommendations, which are directed primarily at media organisations and relevant state bodies. Some of the ideas put forth include:

• Conducting research to inform policy;
• Promoting regulatory and auto-regulatory mechanisms at national, regional, and international levels;
• Implementing frameworks for algorithmic transparency;
• Incorporating methods such as third-party audits;
• Promoting media and digital literacy programmes with a gender component whose focus is building the information and media literacy of women and girls;
• Encouraging efforts by women's organisations in using digital media and online spaces to amplify their stories;
• Ensuring safe conditions for women journalists and professionals in media and telecommunications corporations and organisations; and
• Tackling online and offline gender-based harassment and violence.

Specifically:

Section I considers media policy, structures, and employment.

• Claudia Padovani argues that, despite prescriptions since Beijing for media policies that empower women and normative frameworks for gender equality in the media, recommendations to review existing policies and to strengthen self-regulatory mechanisms and codes of conduct are still not a priority for governments, media companies, international organisations, and the research community. Padovani provides theoretical insights and operational inputs towards making policy development a priority.
• Carolyn M. Byerly analyses gender representation on boards of some media conglomerates around the world, concluding that women are peripheral to control of and benefit from the world's communication companies. She offers recommendations that address women's relationship to media structures and argues for the need to develop policy frameworks that include gender equality requirements.
• In her discussion of media employment, Karen Ross underscores the gender gaps in career advancement, remuneration, and leadership positions in the industry, citing workplace cultures and practices as some of the contributing factors. She suggests that media employers recognise both the ethical and the business case for gender diversity and take steps to implement policies and practices that nurture the talent of their whole workforce.
• María Eugenia Chávez analyses the access and participation of women in community and indigenous media.

Section II covers historical issues of both the misrepresentation and under-representation of women in media content, as well as violence against women (VAW) in and through media and ICTs that has entered into everyday public discourse (e.g., via the #MeToo movement).

• Sarah Macharia draws on the longitudinal Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) study, which has followed gender patterns in the world news media since 1995, arguing that the power to change rests with governments, the media, and ordinary audiences.
• Aimée Vega Montiel analyses the role media and ICTs have played in reinforcing the normalisation of violence against women and girls in digital content.
• Julie Posetti and Hannah Storm call attention to violence carried out against female journalists, both online and offline.
• Mindy Ran offers a view on gender-based violence from a journalists' trade union perspective and includes recommendations for labour organisations on tackling violence in the workplace.

In Section III, Anita Gurumurthy, Amrita Vasudevan, and Nandini Chami offer a feminist perspective on digital sphere issues, such as concerns about internet media monopolies, algorithms, surveillance, and trolling, which they argue impact women disproportionately. They underline actions for global organisations, governments, and civil society.

In Section IV, the UNESCO UniTWIN (the abbreviation for University Twinning and Networking Programme) Network on Gender, Media and ICTs discusses education as a strategic domain to advance gender mainstreaming in communication and journalism curricula. The Network posits that gender mainstreaming is a necessary part of the process if the gender equality gaps in training institutions and the media industry are to be addressed. Three case studies are presented: (i) on broadcast media regulators as gender equality drivers, based on the Moroccan High Authority of Audiovisual Communication experience (Amina Lemrini Elouahabi); (ii) on gender integration in African media, based on the African Union of Broadcasting experience (Evelyne Faye); and (iii) on sustaining women-led community media in the Pacific, based on Fiji's femLINKpacific (Media Initiatives for Women) experience (Sian Rolls).

The papers reflect the diversity of voices within GAMAG, with many of the authors linked to organisations from both the global south and north. According to the editors, this collection demonstrates GAMAG's commitment to link with the international community to advance gender equality in and through the media and ICTs.

This publication was supported with funding from the Kingdom of the Netherlands through IPDC-UNESCO and from the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).