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Monitoring Gender in Online News Print Email

Lilian N. Ndangam, WACC

This year marks the first time online news has been included as part of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP).

Internet news was monitored on a pilot basis in 27 countries, selected on the basis of statistics on per capita Internet access.  At WACC, we monitored prominent international news websites such as CNN International, BBC World, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, Euronews, Africa 24, Telesur, and Africa News. The objective was to determine who makes the news online.

Newspapers around the world increasingly operate web versions of their hardcopy, whilst radio and TV stations operate website which offer additional coverage. Media maintain an online presence for various reasons. These include but are not limited to, competition, the need to reach more audiences, generating extra revenue through advertising, and using online versions to enhance the sales of newspaper hardcopies.

As a publishing platform the internet offers additional features which are not available to print and traditional broadcast media. Interactive options such as hyperlinks to additional and archive content, as well as multimedia content are prominent features of digital media story telling.
 
Arguably new information and communication technologies have transformed journalism practice in many ways. At the same time, the increased access to networked computers and connectivity to the internet for users particularly in the global North and the proliferation of online news publishing platforms by news media organizations, offer a unique opportunity for more diverse coverage.

Drawing lessons from the recent closures of several newspapers in North America, it is reasonable to conclude that more people in the West are increasingly accessing news online.

These developments also prompt research questions that probe the type and nature of news online. Does news online provide a more balanced coverage of women than has been evidenced in research on traditional media? Will the Internet's potential for reflecting diversity combined with the depth of coverage offered through its unlimited space enhance gender representation in online news? Does internet news present a more gender responsive coverage?

These questions and many others will be answered in the pilot study whose results will be contained in the GMMP report in September.

The results of the pilot monitoring will inform subsequent development of the internet news monitoring methodology as a regular component of the GMMP.
 
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