14 October 2010Ammu Joseph1 Missing Half the Story: Journalism as if Gender Matters 4 th GEM Summit Johannesburg October 2010

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph2 What’s a gender-neutral subject? Are nuclear issues (nuclear power, weapons/warfare, testing, radiation, accidents) gender-neutral? Who makes the decisions? Whose opinions are taken on board? Who pays the price – in terms of national budgets, health, the environment?

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph3 Key issues 1.It is highly unlikely that any subject covered by the media is “gender-neutral.” Most events and issues in the news are likely to affect different sections of society – including different categories of women – differently because of gender (along with several other factors) that influence people’s lives in particular ways.

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph4 Key issues cont’d 2. Yet many journalists still assume that certain events and issues – including many the media consider important and/or that fall into the privileged category of “hard news” – have nothing to do with gender; they persist in perceiving “gender issues” as, at best, niche subjects that have nothing to do with the rest of journalism.

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph5 New book Missing Half the Story: Journalism as if Gender Matters, edited by Kalpana Sharma in collaboration with four other journalists in India (Zubaan Books, 2010) An attempt to address the myth of gender- neutrality, the reality that most events and issues have a gender dimension, and the need for journalists to explore the possibility of a gender angle to any and every topic they cover.

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph6 Gender lens A gender perspective – a.k.a. a gendered lens – enables journalists to gain deeper insights into the various events and issues that we regularly cover Events, policies, politics, business and almost everything else covered by media often impact women and men differently Of course, the impact is also generally different for the poor and the rich, the urban and the rural, the privileged castes/races, ethnic/religious communities and the underprivileged ones, the abled and the differently abled. So journalists really need to be equipped with multiple lenses, including a gender lens, in order to see and present the different dimensions of a story.

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph7 Understanding gender First section of book provides basic background on: Sex/gender, patriarchy, feminism History of women’s subordination History of women’s movements Discussion on the “emerging other” gender – i.e. sexuality minorities “Gender sensitivity on the run” (glossary, practical tips, etc.)

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph8 A gender lens Second section of book includes chapters examining how a gender perspective can be applied to a range of topics: (i)Sexual violence (ii)The environment (iii)Disasters and conflicts (iv)Politics and economics (v) Health

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph9 A gender lens cont’d Gender-sensitivity must not be confined to the features and opinion sections of the media; it needs to become an integral part of regular news coverage, too. A gender lens can help journalists on any beat become more effective and credible.

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph10 GMMP 2010 Coverage of women in politics: Globally females now constitute 19% (less than a fifth) of persons in stories on politics and government. Women account for only 18 per cent of the subjects in political stories in the Indian media. Across Asia, women constitute only 16 per cent of the subjects in political stories.

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph11 Gender sensitive writing Third section of book includes about a dozen examples of illustrative articles from the Indian print and online media on gender aspects of issues ranging from water and sanitation through flood disasters and land conflicts, politics and economics, to human trafficking and HIV/AIDS.

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph12 Covering gender Covering gender has nothing to do with being overly gender sensitive or being burdened with what some people choose to see as a “women’s ghetto mentality.” The budget has everything to do with gender, as do other aspects of economics, as well as various other high profile areas of media coverage such as politics, war, social conflict and disasters. The stories are out there. If few of them make it to the mainstream media it is because gender awareness is still missing in most newsrooms.

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph13 Sources and resources Today there are plenty of sources and resources that can be tapped to figure out whether or not an event or process has any special implications for women, including different categories of women, as well as other vulnerable sections of society whose voices are not commonly heard in the media. We hope that our book, Missing Half the Story: Journalism as if Gender Matters, will serve as an accessible resource for journalists – of both sexes and in different parts of the world – who are keen to tell the whole story.

14 October 2010Ammu Joseph14 Final word Unless gender is acknowledged as one of several factors that affect people’s experience of almost everything, and accepted as one of the “angles” to be explored while covering anything, the media will continue to tell only part of the story – whatever that story may be. Thank you.