Women who ran for office in Latin American countries have complained about biased ─ or non-existent ─ media coverage. A multi-country study sponsored by International IDEA and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) is taking a closer look at the problem, gathering data that can be used to help improve election coverage.
The “Media Monitoring with a Gender Approach” project began in October 2009 with elections in Uruguay. Monitors also recorded information about coverage of female candidates in recent elections in Chile, Bolivia and Costa Rica.
Beatriz Llanos, who coordinates the project for International IDEA, expects the study to include forthcoming elections in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Peru.
“Little work has been done in the area of the media and gender in elections”, she said.
Before the monitoring project began, the only data available in Latin America was from two smaller studies — one in Uruguay in 2005 and one sponsored by IDEA and its local partner, Transparencia, in Peru.
“Women get less media coverage as candidates, and gender issues generally are not part of the campaign debate,” Llanos said. “Women complain that they don’t get coverage or that the media pigeonhole them. The purpose of this study is to put that into figures. We want to go beyond perceptions.”
Researchers monitor radio, television and newspaper coverage in the last 30 days before legislative and presidential elections, recording air time and column inches dedicated to female candidates and judging whether the tone of the coverage is positive, negative or neutral.
Besides the amount of coverage of women candidates, monitors look for examples of gender stereotyping, such as casting women as victims, emphasizing their domestic role or focusing on physical appearance instead of issues. They also record the importance given to the coverage of women — how early in a television news programme it appears, whether it is accompanied by images, and whether the coverage appears in news or political sections or other parts of newspapers.
The study will analyze the amount of coverage women receive, compared to male candidates, and whether candidates of both sexes are treated equally. It will also examine the issues associated with the candidates and bias in media coverage.
“The result will be a complete X-ray of media coverage of women and gender in elections,” Llanos said. “IDEA believes it is important to have a comparative study in order to work with the media to make coverage more equitable in the future.”
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