Lessons from ‘Women in News’
By Melanie Walker
Director of Women in News, World Association of News Publishers
Around the world news media are waking up to the critical importance of gender balance in the content they produce and stories they cover. So how do media development and journalism trainers leverage this increased awareness to help media drive forward their gender balance commitments? How do we keep gender a priority among the multiple urgent priorities facing media today? And crucially, how do we ensure that our interventions are sustainable?
Establishing local leadership, developing a strong community, and delivering a compelling argument for gender balance to top management have helped the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) establish true partnerships with the media its Women in News (WIN) program engages.
Women in News (WIN)
A gender and media freedom strategy of the World Association of News Publishers
For nearly a decade WIN has partnered with media around the world to increase women’s voices and leadership in the news industry:
· Active in 15 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, MENA and Southeast Asia, with 80 media companies as long-term partners;
· 500+ women journalist and editor participants in the WIN Leadership Accelerator, which combines career coaching, peer mentoring, and networking alongside media management and newsroom leadership training;
· 400+ aspiring journalists mentored and trained by WIN alumnae;
· 1,000+ media managers who have undergone training in managing diversity, sexual harassment and gender balance in news content.
WIN is almost entirely locally driven, with 95% of the project management team and an extended network of more than 70 steering committee members, coaches, trainers and mentors drawn from our 15 intervention countries.
Source: Women in News Malawi cohort
Prioritize Local Leadership
A major building block of any media development program is identifying local champions to help create critical support structures and networks of expertise. This has been particularly true for Women in News, which relies on a Steering Committee made up of current and former senior media executives drawn from each country where we operate. These individuals are highly respected in the industry and play an important role as local champions and door openers in their national and regional markets. Their counsel has been fundamental to WIN’s sustainability.
When addressing issues such as discrimination, unconscious bias and sexual harassment among local media, all of which require sensitivity and a solid sense of local culture and context, the input of the Steering Committee, alongside our local trainers and subject-matter experts, is critical. The ability of the Steering Committee members to reflect on their own challenges to promote greater gender balance in their news content, from bylines through to expert sources (along with those cases when they have been unable to do so), brings a personal and relatable element to the discussions. This helps set the tone with the audience and encourages a meaningful dialogue from the outset. It is no coincidence that WIN has seen the most success in markets with proactive and engaged Steering Committee members.
Tips for Media Development Practitioners:
Prior to launching any activities, establish a local committee of influencers to help advise on the ground, and to open the necessary doors with key stakeholders. If you convince this group of the value of your approach and intended results, you will be able to launch projects more quickly and effectively, and with greater credibility. Be sure to solicit and listen to the counsel and feedback of this group of advisors. If you lose their engagement, it can lead to a negative ripple effect amongst your target audience.
Build community
Source: Women in Media, Media Management Training, Cairo, Egypt in 2018
Societal and cultural pressures can exclude women from developing their professional networks as part of their overall career strategy. For example, women do not receive the same mentorship opportunities as their male counterparts, or their obligations at home and to family mean they do not have as much freedom or time to develop their career.
Women in News has observed the impact of strengthening professional networks on the sustainability of our work. WIN is built upon a pyramid type structure that enables and encourages graduated participants of its programs to remain engaged with peers long past their initial enrollment, providing multiple opportunities for formal and informal networking. A survey revealed that 85% of the women who progress through one particular WIN program have mentored or trained a peer within their news organization with the skills that they acquired during the program, and 82% report a higher motivation to stay in the industry as a result of WIN. Graduates of WIN’s Leadership Accelerator in turn become media leaders, advisors and gender champions in their own right, perpetuating a positive cycle of change. They are also the greatest proponents of the program, creating further touch points with a broader audience.
TIPS: Ensure you build multiple opportunities for networking into your activities, recognizing that in some cases, guided exercises are necessary. Work to create a dynamic that encourages peer-to-peer mentoring between participants to help nurture the knowledge-sharing and support structures that are at the heart of any community. And provide the platform and impetus to encourage interaction – this can be virtual as well as in person without incurring significant expense; WhatsApp and Facebook are key tools for the WIN community.
Create a compelling case with facts
Bringing about the necessary change in organizational culture to embrace a concrete gender strategy unequivocally resides at the very top of the media organization. Without buy-in from top management, any gender strategy will fail, no matter the good intentions or the resources placed behind it. While your target audience may be newsroom staff, HR or middle managers, your outcomes will be greatly enhanced with buy-in from those in the C-suite and on the governance boards of the organizations you target.
WIN identified quite quickly that the surest way to secure buy-in from key influencers was to present the business argument for greater gender balance (and conversely the organizational risks associated with environments that did not support it), always backed up by concrete numbers and local statistics as a means to drive home the message. It is difficult to argue against hard facts. WIN prioritizes conducting individualized research and preparation as part of its engagement strategy. For example, when we present a module on gender balance in news content, we work with actual figures from the newspaper, having tracked their content. We begin each session asking the room for estimates on how well they think they are performing along the gender balance index, before revealing the results of our own content audit. Often, the perceived level is much higher than the actual performance.
TIPS: Securing buy-in from top management takes time and authentic engagement. Leverage all resources, including your local advisory group to make these necessary in-roads, and accept that changing mindsets and garnering deep engagement is a long-game that requires consistent and patient pursuit. Securing this buy-in, however, will pay off in all subsequent engagements with media organizations. WIN dedicated some 18-24 months engaging with and building relationships with senior management of target media, and remains focused on changing the mindset of top management. Fact-driven arguments that rely on local data and speak directly to the target audience will not only enhance your prospects of engagement but also increase your chances of delivering sustainable impact.
There are of course many ways to approach the case for gender equality and media development. Don’t be afraid to pivot if you realize that you are attempting to fulfill a need that turns out not to be a major priority. Do the groundwork, again listening to your trusted group of advisors as you collect local intel. And should you identify existing programs already active on the ground, make the effort to coordinate actions rather than duplicating efforts. There is more than enough work to be done and working in silos is not only a waste of time and resources but can put unnecessary pressure on local partners to manage competing priorities and interests.