ChanGE

ChanGE is the space where we make things happen!

This is where we are collecting good examples of transformative actions that have been developed worldwide to promote gender equality and address discrimination in the media. 

If you want to share your experiences with the AGEMI community, send us basic info on projects or activities you have worked on and the link to related audios, videos, interviews, infographics, etc. Email us at agemi.eu@gmail.com.


PEOPLE AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS MAKING CHANGE

Mediating Women, Balancing the Media is a not-for-profit foundation based in Malta which focuses on gender equality and the media. The foundation works to promote gender equality in and through the media by: giving focus and space to issues around media and gender; serving as an activism/action platform for issues around media and gender; acting as a media watchdog; dealing with and informing people on media policy and raising awareness around media regulations; engaging in media education projects and outreach programmes, educating media organisations and content producers in order to generate balanced media content; encouraging self-regulation within media organisations with regard to equal opportunities; serving as a platform to archive existing Maltese and European media research; actively taking part in media research projects. 

Jean Kilbourne is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work on the image of women in advertising and the media. In the late 1960s she began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues, including violence against women, eating disorders, and addiction, and launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems. Jean is the creator of the renowned Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women film series and the author of several book. Her website is an entry point to several resource for change.

Our Watch is an Australian organization that has been established to drive nationwide change in the culture, behaviours and power imbalances that lead to violence against women and their children. An inspiring reality worth knowing to all those who fight to end gender based violence, including online harassment and abuse. Their vision is an Australia where women and their children live free from all forms of violence. Their mandate is to stop violence before it happens, through better understanding of the context of violence and suggesting ways to prevent it. 

FixedIt is a project by Jane Gilmore, founding editor of The King’s Tribune and a freelance journalist and columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. On the project website Jane rewrites sexist headlines.


EDUCATION MAKING CHANGE

'Action Research and Learning – creating enabling spaces in teaching' at the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna. A project with students, coordinated by Prof. Krisztina Rozgonyi, who has integrated AGEMI Platform's components into curricular activities, while innovating teaching methods so as to create an enabling space for students with the ultimate goal of increasing their social commitment to challenging replication or (re-)production of gender inequalities in and by the media. Students’ work and achievements are published on the web-platform 'Let's talk equal' (in German).

Gender Representation in the Media is a free, seven week course developed by the University of Strathclyde and Gender Equal Media Scotland and runs twice each year. The current run is open for registration until 28th September 2020. (registration link:  https://www.futurelearn.com/admin/courses/gender-and-the-media/2). A new and updated version will be offered from January 2021. This course asks why the media are so important to gender equality globally and provides tools to engage critically with the media that surround us. The course draws on the expertise and experience of a wide range of contributors including researchers, feminist activists and organisations, journalists, writers, broadcasters and more. These diverse perspectives, together with those of the learners, support learning about the complexity and importance of gender and the media wherever we happen to be.  Course topics include: key concepts and definitions; media monitoring in fact and fiction; politics; violence; sexualisation and body image; sport; feminist media and digital media. Find out more via the link below.

https://www.genderequalmedia.scot/news/blog/gender-representation-in-the-media/


MEDIA ORGANISATIONS MAKING CHANGE

The BBC’s 50:50 project is the biggest collective action on increasing representation in BBC content that has ever been undertaken. The project encourages programme teams to create journalism and media content that fairly represents the world in terms of women and men's voices. It comprises a content monitoring methodology which focuses on source representation. In 2020, 600 teams and 6000 content creators are involved in the project. In the first year of the initiative (2018-2019), 57% of participating teams achieved 50:50 women:men source representation and by the second year, this had risen to 66%. The 50:50 Equality Project has now expanded beyond the BBC through a global network of partner organisations who are implementing the 50:50 methodology and in June 2020, there were more than 60 partner organisations in 20 countries, in public and private media; academia; conference businesses; law; public relations and the corporate world. The methodology is also being expanded to include other protected characteristics and a pilot project is underway to monitor content in relation to disability and ethnicity. If you would like to know more and/or get involved, please check out their web pages and download their latest report here.

The aim of the Finnish project Gender Matters? is to promote gender equality in the media, politics and in the corporate sector. In addition, the project promotes a more inclusive and intersectional understanding of gender. The project has produced trainings and materials and established a network of gender-aware communication for journalists in Finland. The project has also developed information concerning elections and decision-making. Infographics of the state of gender equality in political and economic decision-making are available also for the international public. Partners of the project are the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle, the Union of Journalists in Finland, Women Journalists in Finland, the Institute for the Languages of Finland (Kotus) and the Finnish Parliament. The Gender Matters? is conducted by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. The project is funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC) 2014–2020.


INSTITUTIONS MAKING CHANGE

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) supports better informed policy-making at EU and Member State levels, providing support to the Presidencies of the Council of the EU. They do so by fostering gender mainstreaming, developing a Gender Equality Index, making relevant statics available, and delivering high-quality reports on the progress of gender equality in the critical areas of concern of the BPfA chosen by the Presidencies, including Women and Media.

The EU Mutual Learning Programme in Gender Equality: Women and media (France12-13 November 2018). The seminar addressed initiatives to overcome the under-representation of and discrimination against women in all media professions, as well as the broader issue of gender stereotypes and sexism in media content. The documents related to the seminar are available here.

In line with UNESCO's Global Priority Gender, UNESCO contributes to achieving full gender equality in the media. Working for Media Diversity and Gender Equality, UNESCO developed a series of Gender-Sensitive Indicators for the Media that constitute an important resource to monitor media and their content.

In 2020, it will be 25 years since the Beijing Platform for Action set out how to remove the systemic barriers that hold women back from equal participation in all areas of life, whether in public or in private, including the media. Despite some progress, real change has been agonizingly slow for the majority of women and girls in the world. UN Women stands at the centre of mobilizing governments and civil societies to keep the promises of the Beijing Platform for Action to all of society, with a Roadmap for the Beijing 25th Anniversary Celebration.


Last modified: Thursday, 31 December 2020, 3:33 PM