Rewriting the story: tips for gender-sensitive media coverage

These visuals are part of ‘Rewriting the Story’, an EU-funded project that addresses sexist stereotypes in political news reporting.

The project – which covered frontline journalists, news media managers, journalists’ unions and associations, gender experts, media self-regulatory bodies, women active in political life, academics and, crucially, the next generation of media professionals – sought to initiate reforms in European media with regard to newsroom culture, policies and processes.

The aim was to improve professional understanding and practices with regard to gender portrayal of women and men in political and public life, and by doing so, empower citizens to make informed decisions

To achieve its objectives, the project set out to

• develop specialised training modules for journalists and media newsrooms and make them accessible on the AGEMI platform
• deliver training for 28 IFJ journalists’ trainers to help build national capacity and amplify ability to secure change
• deliver tailored training courses for journalists and journalism and media students on gender portrayal in politics
• build bridges between journalism students and media professionals, and
• run an innovative peer-to-peer programme with newsroom managers, producers, journalists and journalists’ unions to produce and adopt protocols, guidelines and agreements, and initiate a mindset shift towards gender equality in editorial decisions and newsroom organisation and working conditions

The project partners were: the IFJ (with the specific involvement of the Croatia journalists’ union and the Union of Cyprus journalists); the University of Padova (Italy), and COPEAM, a network devoted to the promotion of dialogue and cultural integration in the Mediterranean region through the involvement of major players in the audiovisual sector, including public service radio and TV broadcasters, independent producers and local authorities in Europe, the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle East.