Gender and Media Handbook.

Handbook.

Gender Links

Not specified.

Sexist attitudes and stereotypes remain one of the major impediments to the achievement of gender equality. Mass media plays a key role in shaping public attitudes. Studies show that the overwhelming majority of news sources are men. Women invariably feature either as sex objects or as victims of violence in the media. Ironically, although women constitute the majority of media consumers, little attention is paid to what they would be interested in knowing. Assumptions have been made about the closed-mindedness of men to progressive coverage on gender issues. Indeed, the burden of masculinity is one that is increasingly coming in for discussion and scrutiny. It needs to feature more in media debates.

Several manuals and guidelines have been developed for mainstreaming gender in government policies and programmes. Few such materials exist for the media. The development of a simple handbook for media practitioners on how to mainstream gender within their institutions and in their editorial products is an essential beginning.

The handbook is primarily addressed to media institutions. However, for gender mainstreaming in the media to be effective, it has to occur across a range of related institutions as illustrated on the next page. Thus the handbook also addresses government, regulatory authorities, civil society and media training institutions.

English.

Print.

http://www.genderlinks.org.za/page.php?p_id=49