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Abstract
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The media industry has an important sphere of influence on how people shape their gender norms. Research shows that news media reporting has a strong role in perpetuating discriminatory gender norms and stereotypes, as well as the normalization of violence. On the other hand, media reporting also has the potential to shed light on the root causes of violence against women and girls, promote positive social and gender norms, and help in risk mitigation through the provision of essential information to survivors/victims and those who wish to support them.
This report was developed jointly by UN Women and UNICEF to provide an overview of the landscape of global trends in media reporting on gender-based violence, map the existing evidence of the relationship between news media reporting of gender-based violence against girls and the normalization of violence, and showcase key existing frameworks and approaches that may help catalyze more gender-and-age sensitive reporting.
The “10 essentials for gender and age-sensitive media reporting of violence against girls” is a resource that lays down key principles and recommendations for journalists, editors, news media agencies, governments, and international organizations to ensure gender and age-sensitive reporting of violence against girls.
Since the onset of the coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, perhaps more so than ever before, online news and social media have become crucial tra- jectories of information. As people tried to make sense of their rapidly changing realities from inside homes and behind screens, emerging studies show that, in some countries, media coverage of COVID-19-related deaths has also been accompanied by increased news coverage of the 'shadow pandemic' of domestic and gender-based violence, which has disproportionately had a negative impact on women and girls. Emerging studies even suggest that this news coverage is related to increased rates of reporting by some victims/survivors.
At the same time, this public attention also brings to light a key tension around gender-based violence and visibility, particularly in relation to news media cover- age: given the media's recognized influence over how we interpret and respond to events, what matters is not only if violence is reported, but how it is reported.
For instance, in the case of media reporting on gender-based violence in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, have news outlets been portraying this violence as a consequence of the pandemic itself, and thus as 'exceptional', rather than as a long-standing dynamic exacerbated by the pandemic? Are stories about gender-based violence accompanied by relevant and accessible information about services for women and children, many of whom are consuming news from inside homes where lockdown measures and service closures continue to restrict their access to spaces and people that might otherwise provide them with this information? Is coverage sensationalist or does it try to report the surge in gender-based violence in its broader context in order to generate deeper empathy and understanding?
The scholarship in response to the second and third questions is only starting to emerge, but these questions, and the concerns they foreground about the role of news media in relation to gender-based violence, have been important since long before the pandemic spread across the globe. Indeed, feminist scholars and women's and children's rights advocates have long understood the need for responsible reporting and, more specifically, for gender- and age-sensitive, victim-/ survivor-centred and rights-based approaches to news media coverage of violence. This position is grounded in the recognition that reporting practices can have a direct bearing on victims/survivors, who may see insen- sitive and harmful coverage of gender-based violence and decide against reporting. Moreover, when news reports of gender-based violence fail to signpost survivors to relevant resources and services, this can put victims/ survivors at further risk. |