August 13, 2008 – The International Women’s Media Foundation is launching a research project to examine the news media industry structure worldwide from a gender perspective. The project, called the Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media, will document the levels of involvement by women in the news media at professional, decision-making and governance levels.

“Women journalists’ full participation in the news media furthers freedom of the press,” said Jane Ransom, the IWMF’s executive director. “We want to be aware of gaps in women’s leadership so that we can continue to create opportunities for women to participate more fully in the news media worldwide.”

The IWMF’s research project will build on and update an UNESCO-funded report, An Unfinished Story: Gender Patterns in Media Employment, written by Margaret Gallagher in 1995. Gallagher’s study, conducted in 43 countries, found that in most of the world, women’s professional representation in both news and other branches of the media ranged from the single digits to around 30 percent.

Research for the IWMF’s Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media will be conducted through December 2009, and the project report will be published in June 2010.

Overseeing the global investigation is Carolyn M. Byerly, Ph.D., an associate professor of journalism at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Byerly conducts international research on women and media, media policy and other media issues related to gender, race and culture. Among her published work are two books, Women and Media: A Critical Introduction, and Women and Media: International Perspectives.

Founded in 1990, the International Women’s Media Foundation is a vibrant global network dedicated to strengthening the role of women in the news media worldwide as a means to further freedom of the press. The IWMF network includes women and men in the media in more than 130 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.iwmf.org.

via chris m., eff-list