Aide-Mémoire
I. Introduction
At its forty-fifth session in
March 2001, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
adopted a new multi-year programme of work identifying the priority
themes for the period 2002-2006. Accordingly, in 2003, the Commission,
at its forty-seventh session, will consider the theme "Participation
and access of women to the media, and information and communication
technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the
advancement and empowerment of women”. In order to assist
the Commission in its work, the Division for the Advancement of
Women (DAW) will convene an expert
group meeting on the theme of "participation and access of
women to the media and its impact on and use as an instrument for
the advancement and empowerment of women”, in cooperation
with the United Nations Department of Public Information, the United
Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA),
and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
().” The expert
group meeting will take place at ESCWA, in Beirut, Lebanon from
12 to 15 November 2002. (The theme “information and communication
technologies” will be the subject of a separate expert group
meeting).
The Platform for Action (PfA) adopted by the Fourth World Conference
on Women in Beijing in 1995 included women and media among its 12
critical areas of concern, and notes that “everywhere the
potential exists for the media to make a far greater contribution
to the advancement of women” (PfA, para.234). The PfA recognizes
the technological advances which have helped to create a global
communications network that transcends national boundaries and has
an impact on public policy, private attitudes and behaviour. It
notes the continuing under-representation of women in decision-making
positions in the media, and the lack of gender sensitivity within
media organizations (PfA, para.235), and it calls for the elimination
of negative and degrading images of women in media communications
in order to provide “a balanced picture of women’s diverse
lives and contributions to society in a changing world” (PfA,
para.236).
Among the achievements noted in the Secretary-General’s
report, “Review and appraisal of the implementation of the
Beijing Platform for Action”
(E/CN.6/2000/PC/2) is an increase in the number of women’s media organizations and programmes,
a development that contributed to the aims of promoting increased
participation and diverse portrayals of women in the media. Progress
has also been made by establishing professional guidelines and voluntary
codes of conduct that encourage fair gender portrayal and the use
of non-sexist language. Nevertheless, bias against women remains
in the media. The document draws special attention to the negative,
violent or degrading images of women, including pornography, which
have increased in different forms, in some instances using new communication
technologies.
Questions concerning how increasing women’s participation
in communications and media, and achieving a balanced and non-stereotyped
portrayal of women have been considered in the context of several
meetings hosted by entities of the United Nations system, for example,
the International Symposium on Women and the Media, sponsored by
UNESCO and held in Toronto, 28 February to 3 March 1995.
The Commission on the Status of Women, at its fortieth session,
in 1996, considered the critical area of concern women and the media
within the context of a review of the implementation of the Beijing
Platform for Action. To support the Commission in its work the Division
for the Advancement of Women prepared background papers on women
and media. The deliberations of the Commission resulted in the adoption
of agreed conclusions 1996/2.
II. Background
The issue of women and the media has been on the international
agenda for more than two decades. Countless studies have drawn attention
to the serious under-representation of women as protagonists and
participants in media structures around the world. While there is
no necessary or simple relationship between the numbers of women
working in media institutions and the type of content that is produced,
the fact that women continue to be marginalized in media output
raises questions about the values, norms and priorities of those
who direct and control media output in what is becoming an increasingly
globalized communication system. In 2000 a study covering 70 countries
round the world showed that women accounted for just 18 per cent
of people in the news. Women were the central focus of only 10 per
cent of stories, and even these were rarely concerned with women’s
role in or views about social, economic or political matters. Many
portrayed women in limited, stereotyped ways and most failed to
present women’s perspectives or points of view on subjects
that affect women directly. The invisibility of women in media content
raises fundamental questions about freedom of expression and the
right to communicate.
Other research has shown that, although in many countries women’s
share of junior and middle-level positions within media organizations
continues to rise, everywhere the number of women in senior decision-making
and policy-making positions remains extremely small. Whether one
looks at the traditional media institutions of press, radio and
television, or the newly emerging sectors of telecommunications,
multi-media and e-media, the picture is similar. A study published
in 2001 by the International Federation of Journalists found that
even though more than a third of today’s journalists are women,
less than 3 per cent of senior media executives and decision-makers
are women. The European Union’s database on women in decision-making
shows that in 2001 women held only 9per cent of senior management
jobs in the telecommunications industry in Europe. A recent study
in the USA finds that only 13 per cent of top executives in the
major telecommunications and e-companies are female. Although policy
frameworks and strategic targets for the enhancement of women’s
careers in media have been shown to produce positive results in
a number of settings, the increasingly global and commercial structures
of media institutions do not sit easily with the adoption of gender
sensitive measures.
Yet there been some encouraging developments, which can be attributed
in part to the growing maturity of the women’s movement and
its access to an increasing body of facts and figures that document
women’s exclusion in terms that resonate with media producers
and policy makers. Women’s media associations and organizations
have historically played a crucial role in supporting women media
professionals, in creating alternative media spaces for the expression
of women’s perspectives on the world, and in critiquing offensive
or stereotypical media content. In recent years, many of these groups
have become pivotal in the development of media education initiatives
and in the launch of critical debate with media practitioners. Interaction
and dialogue between gender specialists and media professionals
has proven an innovative and often successful strategic approach
in the struggle to change and diversify media content. Often referred
to as media monitoring and advocacy, the approach rests on the belief
that a combination of hard data and professionally-based arguments
will be more persuasive than generalized criticisms. By drawing
attention to the taken-for-granted routines and practices that result
in gendered patterns of portrayal, gender advocates attempt to reach
media with an immediacy that appeals to and connects with professional
identities and values. Examples of successful monitoring and advocacy
approaches can now be found in all world regions.
A further development is the growth of new information and communication
technologies, and their impact on the mass media. This has many,
sometimes conflicting, facets. The electronic highway systems created
by satellite, cable and the Internet provide existing media giants
with vast global markets for their information and entertainment
products and create a new communication and cultural environment.
Traditional boundaries between media are blurred, as are the dividing
lines between leisure activities, information and culture. This
development introduces many new concerns – for example, in
relation to media freedom, intellectual property rights and cyber-crime,
to name just a few – each of which has a gender dimension.
On the other hand, the arrival of digital media technologies provides
the means for individuals, small groups and previously marginalized
communities to express their views. For instance, there are increased
opportunities for national, regional and global distribution of
women-generated news much of which, in the past, was limited in
outreach through low-cost newsletters or – in some cases –
short-wave radio. In that sense the new technologies offer potentially
important new audiences, access to a wider range of sources of material,
and rapid means of information exchange on issues of professional
or political concern. However, women are not the only constituency
whose messages can be easily and widely distributed via these new
channels of communication. The proliferation of pornographic, violent
and other sexist material is a cause of great concern and provokes
considerable debate in terms of defining appropriate responses and
approaches to regulation.
III. Objectives
The nature and scale of women’s continued marginalization
in the media, allied with the difficulty of establishing effective
systems of accountability in an increasingly commercial, globalising
media marketplace, mean that no single strategy can accomplish a
great deal on its own. Ideally, a variety of approaches is needed
which support and sustain each other. The expert group will consider
experiences and approaches that have proven successful in specific
contexts, and will draw out generalized lessons and recommendations
for policies and actions directed at various levels – national,
regional and international. Taking account of the rapid pace of
technological change in the area of media and communications, the
group will try to look to the future in an attempt to anticipate
new challenges and emerging trends.
In particular, the expert group meeting will address the following
areas:
- Policy approaches as enabling frameworks: Within
the field of media and communication there is a considerable policy
vacuum in the area of gender and media. In some cases codes of
ethics for media professionals and advertisers ignore the issue
of gender entirely; in others media codes and guidelines are too
general to allow concrete interpretations. While respecting the
principle of freedom of expression, the expert group meeting will
examine cases of good practice – at the national, regional
and international levels as well as within organizations levels
– with a view to proposing approaches that are enabling
rather than delimiting. It will make recommendations to encourage
policies and self-regulatory systems that allow a diversity of
voices and perspectives to flourish in the media.
- Access, employment, decision-making: Equal
gender access to the media, whether as citizens or as professionals,
is fundamental to human rights and to empowerment. Many obstacles
stand in the way of equality in this sphere, and most of these
have been well documented. Equally, many types of action have
been adopted in attempts to redress the gender imbalance. These
include data collection and monitoring, target setting, the provision
of women-friendly working conditions, fair and transparent recruitment
and promotion procedures, training opportunities, confidence building
and awareness-raising. But while in most countries more women
are entering the media professions, few are breaking through “the
glass ceiling” into senior creative and decision-making
positions. The meeting will analyze ways to enable women’s
advancement within the media, and strategies to increase women’s
input into decision-making and policy-making bodies in the media
field. Recommendations will link the issues that are specifically
media-related with issues that pertain to gender relations in
the wider society.
- Content issues: An abiding and crucial element
in all debates about women and the media is the issue of limited
and one-dimensional gender portrayal. The Expert group meeting
will therefore examine a range of approaches aimed at developing
a balanced, diversified and non stereotypical portrayal of women
and women’s perspectives. Questions to be considered by
the meeting include: What can be done at the organizational level
(e.g. in terms of policy guidelines, sensitization etc)? What
scope does the individual media practitioner have to make change?
What can be done in terms of developing awareness within the media
organizations about the impact of programming and production decisions
on patterns of gender content? How do government policies, such
as granting of media franchises and licenses impact on women’s
access and use of media? What monitoring, advocacy and media education
strategies can be put in place?
- Impact of the new technologies on media professions
and media content: Analysis of contemporary media developments
must be set within the context of the technological advances that
are changing established media distribution channels and contents.
For instance, the issue of media access needs to be reconsidered
in the light of the development of online media (both print and
audiovisual). In additional there are implications for the profession
itself – for example, the expansion of journalistic sources,
the extent to which professional networking is enhanced, access
to online training etc. Also to be considered is the potential
of online communication to extend the outreach of women’s
alternative media, as well as the possibilities for international
networking, information exchange and media education among women’s
media associations and media advocacy groups. Finally, a re-examination
of content issues (for example, pornography and violent imagery)
in the light of Internet use is essential. The experts, in the
light of their deliberations, will formulate recommendations directed
toward governments, the United Nations system, intergovernmental
and regional bodies and civil society. They will aim to propose
recommendations that address issues of women and the media at
both the international and national levels based on an approach
that builds on the Beijing Platform for Action and takes account
of the rapidly changing media, information and communication context
of the 21st century.
IV. Expected outcome
The outcome the expert group meeting will be a report containing
a summary of the discussion and recommendations addressed to different
actors at different levels on the impact, and use of media as a
tool for the advancement and empowerment of women. The report will
be widely distributed, including through the Division for the Advancement
of Women website. The findings and conclusions of the expert group
meeting will also provide the basis for a report of the Secretary-General
on this theme to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in
March 2003.
V. Organization of Work
The meeting will be organized by Division for the Advancement
of Women of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs, and in collaboration with United Nations Department of
Public Information and the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization. The Expert group meeting will work in
plenary session and in working groups, It will discuss the suggested
topics based on background papers prepared by the experts, and commissioned
by the Organizers.
VI. Profile of Participants
The expert group meeting will be attended by eight to twelve experts
appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as well
as observers from Governments, entities of the United Nations system,
intergovernmental organizations academia, private sector and non-governmental
organizations. In selecting the experts, criteria of geographical
and gender-balance will be respected. The participants will be drawn
from a variety of fields and expertise, in accordance with the objectives
identified above.
VII. Documentation
The documentation for the meeting will include:
- a background paper by a consultant outlining the issues to
be discussed;
- short papers prepared by the experts on specific topics related
to their expertise;
- papers prepared by observers on their perspectives
VIII. Administrative Arrangements
The meeting will be conducted in English and the documentation
will be in English. The United Nations will provide travel and daily
subsistence allowance for experts and a consultant (travel cost
in economy class and daily subsistence allowance). United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia will provide logistical
support. Observers are responsible for their own travel arrangements
and expenses.
All correspondence should be addressed to:
Ms. Amina Adam, Chief
Coordination and Outreach Unit
Division for the Advancement of Women
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Two UN Plaza Room DC2-1280
New York, NY 10017
Tel: (212) 963 3169
Fax: (212) 963 3463
e-mail: adama@un.org
OR
Ms. Abigail Loregnard-Kasmally
Information Officer
Coordination and Outreach Unit
Division for the Advancement of Women
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Two UN Plaza Room DC2-1274
New York, NY 10017
Tel: (212) 963 3137
Fax: (212) 963 3463
e-mail: loregnard-kasmally@un.org
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