"Following the Arab Spring events in 2011, a number of important women's social movements as well as female figures and online communities emerged to create positive change and demand equality with men. In Women's Activism and New Media in the Arab World author Ahmed Al-Rawi discusses and maps out n
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ew feminist movements, organizations, and trends, assessing the influence of new media technologies on them and the impact of both on the values and culture of the Middle East. Due to the participation of many women in the events of the Arab Spring, he argues, a new image of Middle Eastern women has emerged in the West. As a result of social media, women have generally become more effective in expressing their views and better connected with each other, yet at the same time some women have been inhibited since many conservative circles use these new technologies to maintain their power. Overall, however, Al-Rawi argues that social media and new mobile technologies are assisting in creating changes that are predominately positive. Often assisted by these new technologies, the real change makers are women who have clear agencies and high hopes and aspirations to create a better future for themselves." (Publisher description)
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"This book argues that the rampant hate-filled attacks against women online are best understood as patterned resistance to women’s political voice and visibility. This abuse and harassment coalesces into an often-unrecognized form of gender inequality that constrains women’s use of digital publi
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c spaces, much as the pervasive threat of sexual intimidation and violence constrain women’s freedom and comfort in physical public spaces. What’s more, the abuse exacerbates inequality among women, those from racial, ethnic, religious, and/or other minority groups, are disproportionately targeted. Drawing on in-depth interviews with women who have been on the receiving end of digital hate, Credible Threat shows that the onslaught of epithets and stereotypes, rape threats, and unsolicited commentary about their physical appearance and sexual desirability come at great professional, personal, and psychological costs for the women targeted—and also with underexplored societal level costs that demand attention. When effective, identity-based attacks undermine women’s contributions to public discourse, create a climate of self-censorship, and at times, push women out of digital publics altogether. Given the uneven distribution of toxicity, those women whose voices are already most underrepresented (e.g., women in male-dominated fields, those from historically undervalued groups) are particularly at risk. In the end, identity-based attacks online erode civil liberties, diminish public discourse, limit the knowledge we have to inform policy and electoral decision making, and teach all women that activism and public service are unappealing, high-risk endeavors to be avoided." (Abstract)
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"By not adhering to rigid standards of professionalism, journalists can unwittingly become part of the problem, causing further trauma to survivors and allowing perpetrators to evade prosecution [...] This handbook was developed to help journalists report on gender-based violence (GBV) with greater
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ease and awareness. It provides essential information on the definition and root causes of GBV, in addition to a simple set of guidelines and best practices that facilitate the process and help journalists deliver stronger, more impactful stories on this essential topic." (Introduction)
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"Gender-based violence against women journalists has increased dramatically, both offline and online. These professionals face more barriers to performing their roles in safe conditions. Slow progress has been made by governments and news media industries to protect women journalists. Most of the pr
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ogressive actions to address this widespread problem have been achieved by journalists, non-government organizations (NGOs), and scholars. Thanks to the work done by these actors, violence against women journalists has been unveiled and caught the attention of human rights courts. Grounded in both communication studies and feminist theory, this chapter analyzes the structural conditions enabling gender-based violence against women journalists in Latin America to explore how it affects the collective right to freedom of expression and to consider responses to this crisis from activist movements." (Abstract)
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"According to the largely young, mostly educated female listeners interviewed in this study, Radio Ergo focuses on important humanitarian and social issues in Somalia and is refreshingly free from clan politics. The radio stimulates rich and healthy discussions and dialogues among Somalis living ins
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ide and outside the country and provides much needed information that can transform their lives. These female listeners see Radio Ergo as laying the foundation for a much-needed space where vulnerable populations can have a voice, articulate their specific needs, access humanitarian assistance, and communicate their needs to humanitarian organizations. In addition, the radio is generating healthy dialogue and debate for the people of Somalia, who have borne the brunt of the protracted conflict and natural disasters. Radio Ergo allows its female listeners to recognize their roles and responsibilities as citizens engaged in rebuilding their lives in a new Somalia. Despite successes and achievements, the participants in Mogadishu and Baidoa noted areas for improvement. They wanted an expansion of broadcasting hours and many additional programmes and topics, as indicated above. They were particularly interested in programming on migration and women. They also wanted to hear more female voices on the radio, even though they recognized that Radio Ergo pays more attention to gender inclusion than most other radios in Somalia." (Conclusion)
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"This article analyses female journalists’ perceptions of their own role, their power in the newsroom, their influence over the news agenda and the challenges they face on a daily basis in two large media-saturated countries and emerging democracies, India and South Africa. India and South Africa
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are both nations that are trying to overcome historical legacies of patriarchal structures and gendered attitudes about women’s role. The authors conclude that female journalists articulated their experiences of newsroom culture as hegemonically masculine. While it appears that female journalists believe that women have made some strides in covering political news, they still see their influence as limited and continue to battle pre-existing professional stereotypes." (Abstract)
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"On this site, you will navigate through a diverse selection of fabulous journalism produced by IMS partners worldwide during the years 2015-2020. With affection, sharpness, passion, challenge, and – sometimes – satire, these entries address the violations and resistance that occur as consequenc
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e of and response to patriarchal society. Such topics are often considered taboo and rarely make the news – too often simply dismissed as too private or “women’s issues.” Globally, voices demanding change are chanted and echoed in media and public debate. Feminist protest movements such #MeToo, Un Violador En Tu Camino and Collectif490 are calling for the most fundamental rights to the own body. Women are on the frontlines of uprisings, connecting the authoritarian and patriarchal oppression of people and gender-based mass violations and brutal violence. Men and trans persons are joining the women’s movement as allies, while also critically examining and challenging the rigid, stereotypical, and limiting gender norms of boys and men. Media is not merely channeling and describing these realities; but it has a moving power to challenge the mainstream narratives and stereotypes, push for changing norms and values and raise issues onto the public agenda. It can also help in fighting impunity, hold decision makers accountable, and promote the rights of people of all genders. By boosting this journalism, IMS hopes to contribute to the feminist struggle towards enabling a just and equal world for all. This Gender Reader will republish periodic editions. In this edition, you will find yourself moving among the protesters in Lahore, Beirut and Khartoum calling for change, and you will meet brave people of all genders who resist gender norms and opposes oppression; you will learn that the hymen is in your mind, if feminists can enjoy rap, how cinema can change our narrative on violence and much, much more." (https://www.mediasupport.org/navigating-a-changing-world)
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"Online spaces are being systematically weaponised to exclude women leaders and to undermine the role of women in public life. Attacks on women which use hateful language, rumour and gendered stereotypes combine personal attacks with political motivations, making online spaces dangerous places for w
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omen to speak out. And left unchecked, this phenomenon of gendered disinformation, spread by state and non-state actors, poses a serious threat to women’s equal political participation. In this research, we investigated state-aligned gendered disinformation in two countries, Poland and the Philippines, through an analysis of Twitter data. We analysed tweets in Polish and, from the Philippines, in English." (Executive summary)
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"Since 2016, Fojo Media Institute, together with local partners, has investigated media landscapes in Eastern Europe from a gender perspective, to find out how women and men in the industry perceive their work life: What are their options to have influence and a fulfilling career? What are the diffe
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rences in beats and job satisfaction between male and female journalists? Is sexual harassment a concern that inflicts on professional practise? First out in the series of gender studies was Russia (2016), followed by Belarus (2017) and Moldova and Georgia (2018). In this report (2020) two more countries are included, namely Armenia and Ukraine. More than one thousand media professionals have shared their views and experiences and contributed to the research [...] One profession that has changed its gender profile is journalism. What was once a male dominated arena has gradually become more gender equal in numbers. The findings of this study indicate that women now make up the majority of media professionals in all the countries covered by this study. According to the experts interviewed, this is not the result of a growing sector with more women coming in, but rather about an outflow of men. The journalistic profession has become less attractive (to men) due to economic restraints (lower wages) and political pressures that make it harder to exercise independent journalism. The study also confirms that women are taking on more decision-making roles, especially in regional and independent media. In Georgia and Moldova, women and men seem to be on equal footing. However, there is still a considerable gender gap in Armenia and Russia, especially when it comes to distribution of power in national media with high circulation/audience, likely related to the fact that the most influential media are still often managed by men. In addition, imbalance in job security and remuneration can be noted, where men have more stable terms of employment and are engaged in beats that pay more. Sexual harassment is another area of interest related to working conditions in the media industry (and elsewhere)." (Preface)
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"This report was commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to examine women’s representation in COVID-19/coronavirus newsgathering and news coverage in India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the US. It is rooted in a computational news content analysis of 11,913 publications an
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d 1.9 million stories between 1st March and 15th April 2020 undertaken by Media Ecosystems Analysis Group; an in-depth qualitative portrayal analysis of 175 highly ranked COVID-19/coronavirus stories across the six countries; quantitative analysis of eight public-facing bespoke Google surveys, as well as multi-country secondary surveys; a pronoun content analysis of COVID-19 headlines; story frames analyses using Google’s news search engine, the Internet TV News Archive in 2020 and the GDELT Project global online news archive for 2017 to 2020; and interrogation of a number of global statistical databases [...] The report has examined the news coverage of the COVID-19/coronavirus story through the lenses of three indicators of gender equality: women as sources of news expertise; news stories leading with women protagonists; and coverage of gender equality issues. The insights from the report have led to the creation of 21 recommendations which aim to support news providers who wish to amplify the substantially muted voices of women in news coverage of the COVID19/coronavirus story. The report has uncovered a substantial bias towards men’s perspectives in the newsgathering and news coverage of this pandemic across both the global north (the UK and US) and the global south (India, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa). This bias operates against a backdrop of women’s effective political invisibility within the COVID-19-related decision-making process in the countries analyzed and the unique socioeconomic, health and psychological challenges that women face globally. Every individual woman’s voice in the news on COVID19 is drowned out by the voices of at least three, four, or five men. The women who are given a platform in the COVID-19/coronavirus story are rarely portrayed as authoritative experts or as empowered individuals but more frequently as sources of personal opinion or as victims/people affected by the disease." (Executive summary)
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"We hope this toolkit will support you in creating exciting and memorable content for community radio programmes wherever you are. This toolkit contains the messages and facts from the global campaign. It has not been tailored for any specific region, country or area. We count on you to consider how
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to make this campaign most relevant to your audiences - drawing on local data and voices from your communities. The toolkit suggests several types of shows that community radio stations can create. If you want to include specific facts and statistics about your country, area or community, please work with organizations in your local network that can help." (About this toolkit, page 9)
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"Our inclusion survey, conducted with 35 private media outlets operating in Yangon and in seven ethnic states and five regions, provides up-to-date inclusion and gender data about the sector. Among the findings: while many women work in media (they represent 33% of the combined staff of the 35 outle
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ts surveyed), they are underrepresented in key roles, including senior leadership and frontline journalistic jobs. Medium-sized ethnic media outlets employ the largest percentage of women, followed by small-sized national media. Small and medium-sized media in Myanmar’s regions employ the smallest percentage of women. The percentage of women employed generally decreases as the roles increase in seniority. In terms of remuneration: outlets led by men generally pay men more than women, whereas outlets with mixed - men, women and/or non-binary - leadership tend to have more gender-balanced salaries. The primary justification offered for higher pay levels for men is that men often have more experience than their women or non-binary counterparts. The survey also confirms that levels of diversity among staff with regards to disability, LGBT+, ethnicity, religious belief, and age vary widely among media outlets. Survey respondents noted a total of 10 non-binary staff members (1% of the total); one outlet in the ethnic states is co-led by a man and a non-binary person. The survey finds, too, that most outlets do not have inclusion policies or plans."
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"This report presents a snapshot of the first substantial findings from a global survey about online violence against women journalists conducted by UNESCO and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in late 2020. Over 900 validated participants from 125 countries completed the survey in Ara
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bic, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. The findings shared here reflect the input of the 714 respondents identifying as women. 73% of women respondents said they had experienced online violence. Threats of physical (25%) and sexual violence (18%) plagued the women journalists surveyed. And these threats radiated - 13% said they had received threats of violence against those close to them. 20% of women respondents said they had been attacked or abused offline in connection with online violence they had experienced. 13% increased their physical security in response to online violence and 4% said that they had missed work due to concerns about the attacks jumping offline. The mental health impacts of online violence were the most frequently identified (26%) consequence. 12% of respondents said they had sought medical or psychological help due to the effects of online violence. The story theme most often identified in association with increased attacks was gender (47%), followed by politics and elections (44%), and human rights and social policy (31%). 41% of the respondents to this survey said they had been targeted in online attacks that appeared to be linked to orchestrated disinformation campaigns. Political actors are the second most frequently noted sources (37%) of attacks and abuse after, anonymous or unknown attackers (57%), according to the women respondents." (Introduction)
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"Twitter is still not doing enough to protect women from online violence and abuse. Since the release of Toxic Twitter in 2018, Amnesty International has continued to highlight the scale of abuse women face on Twitter, including in Argentina, India, the UK and the US. Meanwhile, women have continued
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to speak out about the abuse they experience on Twitter, and the company’s failure to adequately respond. The persistent abuse women face on the platform undermines their right to express themselves equally, freely and without fear. This abuse is highly intersectional, women from ethnic or religious minorities, marginalized castes, lesbian, bisexual or transgender women - as well as non-binary individuals – and women with disabilities are targets for abuse. Although the company has made some welcome progress, the Twitter Scorecard shows how much remains to be done. The purpose of the Scorecard is not only to track Twitter’s progress, but also to provide concrete recommendations on steps that Twitter should take to address this issue. Of the ten recommendations below, Twitter has, to date, only fully implemented a single one. Using this Scorecard, we will continue to track Twitter’s progress on this critical issue going forward." (Conclusion)
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"These guidelines are meant to promote responsible, ethical and safe representation and reporting of violence against women and violence against children. These guidelines highlight many basic, sometimes common sense approaches that are all too often ignored. Real-life situations may be even more co
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mplex than the circumstances presented here. Hence, these guidelines should raise awareness about the sensitivity of reporting on and communicating about violence against women and violence against children. The desired result is better informed media and communications practitioners; more empowering messages, visuals and communications content; and a way of working with survivors as subjects who have agency while doing no harm and benefitting all involved." (Summary, page 24)
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"Justice4Her is a cross-sector, multi-stakeholder project of RNW Media and Qianqian Law Firm that seeks to strengthen the rule of law and reduce gender-based violence (GBV) towards women migrant workers in China. The project launched in 2016 and targets women migrant workers in Beijing, Shanghai and
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Guangdong Province and was scaled further with co-funding from the European Commission in 2018. Justice4Her provides legal support through a digital interactive platform and disseminates information on GBV to millions through online channels (social media platforms, blogs, email, WeChat groups) and integrates this online work with offline activities. The project has increased mainstream media coverage in China of how GBV affects young women migrants and carried out viral online campaigns to raise public awareness and to challenge tolerance and acceptance of GBV. While advocating for the improvement of anti-domestic violence laws in China, Justice4Her provides pro bono legal aid to victims of GBV in partnership with Beijing Qianqian law firm, a local law firm, both in the form of consultations via mail and support in bringing their cases to court and representing them. The project has also trained pro bono lawyers to better represent victims, media professionals to encourage more gender sensitive reporting on cases of GBV and NGOs on how conduct successful anti-GBV media campaigns and effectively counter negative stereotypes and shift public discourse from a victim blaming narrative to a survivor narrative." (Introduction)
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"This rapid literature review explores the role that media in the Western Balkans plays in issues of gender (in)equality. The countries discussed are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia [...] While there is a body of literature that discusses a
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ccess of men and women to media spaces (e.g. airtime and news headlines) and moreover media portrayals of gender groups within the region, there is very limited research on barriers to gender equality within the media sector itself and on media initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality. As such, the barriers section in this report also draws on discussion of gender equality in the region generally; and on issues with the media in the region generally. There are implicit linkages that can be made, however. For example, the persistence of gender inequality and traditional patriarchy throughout the region influences how the media operates and in turn is reflected in the media ..." (Summary, page 2)
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"Rights related to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) and gender equality are often seen to be in contradiction with one another. Underlying this (mis) perception of a normative clash between the two is very often an understanding of FoRB as a right that protects religion – and often conservativ
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e, patriarchal religion. For some, this means that FoRB is seen as an inherent obstacle to achieving gender equality; for others, gender equality is seen as a threat to the protection of religious values and practices. This antagonistic construction of the two human rights norms has consequences. A lack of attention to, or an unwillingness to engage with, the intersections between FoRB and gender equality may result in unnecessary clashes, unsatisfactory handling of factual conflicts, and lost opportunities for synergies, learning, and cooperation among actors engaged in the promotion of respectively FoRB and gender equality [...] Against this background, the present report should be read first and foremost as a basic introduction to the relationship between FoRB and gender equality, providing a snapshot of the examples, experiences and ideas discussed in the workshops and hopefully encouraging further research and analysis." (Introduction, page 6-7)
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"Various terms are in use to describe violent, bullying, demeaning, or otherwise antagonistic expressions on social media platforms. Hate speech is common, but also not limited to the online world. While it does signal that these expressions are speech acts, and therefore, as we maintain, performati
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ve, the reference to ‘hate’ does not always seem justified. While many different motivations and affects can be involved, and hatred on the part of the sender is surely one of them, other motivations exist too (as considered for instance in chapters two, three and seven). The term is thus both too broad and too narrow in its seeming attribution of motives. Feminist scholar Emma Jane has introduced the term ‘e-bile’, which is useful, but particularly designed for the specific category of misogynist and objectifying comments addressed to women online. We propose online vitriol as a term to think about this phenomenon, because it stresses both the violent and the uncontrollable aspects of the phenomenon and its typical excesses, such as shitstorms, and speech acts that silence, threaten, or harm others [...] Online vitriol seems to be a particular product of the Web 2.0, the ‘participatory’ or ‘social web’ that has evolved since the early twenty-first century, and that revolves around ‘user-generated content’ and conceives of the web as a space of interaction, rather than a collection of static sites where one can read information. The term ‘Web 2.0’ was coined in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci in an article prophetically titled ‘Fragmented Future’. Fragmentation does indeed seem to be one of the key aims and effects of online vitriol enabled by the interactive structure of social media platforms. In recent years particularly, online vitriol has come to serve political powerplay, with actors often operating from a stance of victimhood and supposed powerlessness, while at the same time attracting considerable attention, visibility and influence." (Pages 13-14)
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"All the international and legal frameworks outlined above demonstrate concrete entry points for collaboration between women’s rights organisation and media for the elimination of gender-based violence. Media can challenge stereotypes and patriarchal structure through gender-sensitive reporting an
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d equality in the newsrooms. Women’s rights organisations can provide expertise when media report on gender-based violence to ensure gender-sensitive coverage and gain a better understanding of legal frameworks. As media reports on gender-based violence, legal arguments can be utilised to raise awareness of the issue. When states implement good practices, media has both a role and a responsibility to promote them. Women’s rights organisations lobbying for the advancement of gender equality and elimination of violence against women would also benefit from media coverage." (Conclusion, page 10)
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