Caribbean Action Plan for Gender and Media Advocacy

By Women’s Media Watch, Jamaica

The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) in partnership with Women’s Media Watch (WMW) held a 3-day Regional Training Workshop on Gender and Media Advocacy, 10 to 12 April, 2008, in Kingston, Jamaica. The event brought together civil society as well as some media from 11 Caribbean countries. The regional delegates developed a Caribbean Action Plan for Gender & Media Advocacy.

The workshop was a follow-up to the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2005, the most extensive global research into gender in the media ever undertaken. It mapped the representation of women and men in the news media in 76 countries, including several other Caribbean territories. (www.whomakesthenews.org).

The results of GMMP 2005 show that women are seriously under-represented in the news, worldwide and in the Caribbean. Less than a quarter of news subjects are women and their voices are heard far less than men's in the topics that dominate the news agenda. Worldwide, in stories on government, politics, economics and business less than one in five include women as news subjects, despite women’s activity in these areas. Imbalanced representation of women and men in the media perpetuates stereotypes about gender. These stereotypes form the basis of practices of exclusion and discrimination in everyday life situations.

In Caribbean media, sexism, gender biases and insensitive coverage of violence are pervasive despite an awareness of the media as a socializing agent, influencing attitudes and behaviour.

Advocacy for gender-responsive and gender-balanced media must be based on a thorough understanding of how the media operates, on research data, and a solid understanding of gender issues in the media.

The Regional Workshop developed an Action Plan to address Gender and Media. The Action plan includes six (6) projects:

Projects at a national level

Civil Society, Media and Gender Awareness Project
Gender Awareness Workshop for Media

Projects at a regional level

Production of a Regional Directory of Female Experts and Spokespersons
Regional Training of Trainers for the Global Media Survey of Participation of Women and Men in the News
Research into Codes of Practice, Style Books, Codes of Ethics in the Media Industry
Gender Intervention in all communication courses offered at Community Colleges

The project equipped participants with the skills and knowledge to carry out effective gender and media advocacy, and to dialogue with media on gender-balanced media policies.

Contact: Women’s Media Watch – 926 0882, email: wmwjam@hotmail.com

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WACC promotes communication for social change. It believes that communication is a basic human right that defines people's common humanity, strengthens cultures, enables participation, creates community and challenges tyranny and oppression.

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