Issue 16
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This issue focuses on the Global Media Monitoring Project - GMMP 2005 - and features contributions from GMMP participants worldwide. GMMP was born out of the WACC 1994 international Bangkok conference on “Women Empowering Communication”. Following the first GMMP, organised by MediaWatch, Canada in 1995, the WACC Women’s Programme co-ordinated a second GMMP in 2000. Since then, from the grassroots to policy-making circles, GMMP has become a tool for change. With an even larger number of organisations and countries participating, an extensively revised quantitative and qualitative analysis, its own website www.globalmediamonitoring.org ), and national and regional as well as a global reports, GMMP 2005 is set to be an even more exciting and ambitious global project than ever before.GMMP 2005 is supported by the Open Society Institute, United Methodist Church, USA and FinChurchAid, Finland.
On 16th February 2005, women and men in 102 countries monitored the day’s news on TV, radio and in newspapers as part of the third ever Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). GMMP 2005 is a grassroots media monitoring, research and advocacy project which aims to promote the fair and balanced representation of women and men in news media worldwide.
Lindiwe Sola
Mass media has an enormous power to shape gender realities for it is one of the principal sources of our knowledge and experience of the world. As the South African Media and Gender Institute has said, “The media is well placed to influence our opinions, beliefs, attitudes and standards, as well as our notion of self, so that our idea of who we are as female and male is influenced by value-laden media messages.” These messages are often from select viewpoints and experiences and do not necessarily offer a ‘window on the world’ but rather express the priorities and values of those who create them.
Patricia Galicia, WACC Guatemala/ Red mujeres al aire
“Estoy aquí por sentirme conectada con tantas mujeres de muchos países. Por sentirme parte de algo trascendente.” Con estas palabras Ana Silvia Monzón, socióloga y productora radial, expresa el valor que tuvo para unas 16 personas en Guatemala participar en el tercer monitoreo mundial de la mujer en los medios –GMMP-.
Dr Glory Dharmaraj, United Methodist Women’s Division
In the United States, volunteers from the United Methodist Women and Catholic Communications did the monitoring. We sent out more than 600 monitoring forms to volunteers. The initial response from the volunteers was one of excitement and the thought that they were engaged in a social justice issue which is specific, measurable, and at the same time achievable added to the excitement.
Hilary Nicholson, WMW, Jamaica.
Interestingly, just as we approached the Global Media Monitoring Day, Women’s Media Watch (WMW) and other NGOs in Jamaica have been gathering at roundtables with the local media. What were we discussing? How to balance profitability and social responsibility in news coverage. Therefore, we were curious to see how the news would be presented on February 16th - would we see the usual sensationalism, with crime and violence being the focus of the news? Or would there be a fresh approach, a shift towards some positive changes?
Aleksandar Zivanovic, Journalist, Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Banja Luka
With a lot of enthusiasm, nine activists from the non-profit organisations United Women and Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Banja Luka prepared a plan of action and all the necessary materials, although we already knew what the results would be. It was really exciting to be a part of a mass movement that is working to achieve the same goal globally. Learning the new methodology for media monitoring and the examples from GMMP 5 years ago was also very interesting. Having read the media analysis by the local government from 2002 and reminded by the media monitoring Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Banja Luka conducted in 2004, we knew the representation of women and men in the media would reflect the reality of public and particularly political life.
Wimco Ester, MediaHouse, Egypt
We felt a bit jealous after reading a lot of reports coming in during and straight after the International Day of Monitoring for GMMP 2005. In some countries big groups were almost making a party out of this day. And what about us? We were just a handful of people. Was that a sign of lack of enthusiasm in Egypt? Not at all! We just applied late and had no time to translate material and recruit a lot of people. But the small team made a great effort.
Aniela Gella and Jackie Lagus, SAMGI, South Africa.
With each day drawing closer to the 16th February, our team at SAMGI (the Southern African Media and Gender Institute) became increasingly excited at the prospect of being involved with the 2005 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP).
Ashish Sen, VOICES, India
On a personal level, the GMMP experience has been both exciting and nerve- wrecking on several fronts. Mainly, because this was the first time that VOICES was coordinating a monitoring exercise on a scale that increasingly appeared to be daunting.
Violet Savu, Fiji Media Watch.
Two weeks prior to the actual international day of monitoring, members of Fiji Media Watch (FMW) and interested individuals and participants from other NGOs met for a practice run of the monitoring. The group found the exercise interesting knowing too that more than 100 other countries would be participating in this global initiative.