Women Make the News, Thailand

Q&A with Misako Ito

Advisor for Communication and Information, UNESCO Bangkok

Misako Ito managed the development of UNESCO’s Women Make the News Thailand, an online database of female experts for journalists.

Reflect Reality: Why did UNESCO elect to build an expert database in Thailand?

Source: UNESCO, Women Make the News Thailand — Source: UNESCO, *Women Make the News* Thailand

Ito: The case of Thailand is very particular, because the reality of the status of gender equality [overall] is not so bad. Thailand is one of six countries in the world that has the highest level of women in leadership positions in business. It also has as many women as men who are scientists. But if you look at the content disseminated by the media, most women are commonly depicted as family figures, victims or sexual objects. Therefore, we felt the need to address this issue in Thailand.

RR: What topics does the expert database cover, and how were they determined?

Ito: We sent a very simple Google survey to journalists in Thailand asking them which areas they feel women’s voices and women’s expertise were missing in news coverage. The three areas they highlighted were climate change and environment; culture and history; and media, ICT and innovation.

RR: What was the process and resources required to build the database?

Ito: We built the database internally, with a very small amount of resources. It took about a year to develop the concept, collect data, design the platform and collect about 250 experts’ profiles, with which to launch it.

We developed a very simple template to highlight a women’s profile and then working through a network of NGOs to reach out to female experts in Bangkok and six of the provinces in Thailand. I think we have half of the women experts coming from outside the city.

RR: What were some of the challenges you experienced and how did you overcome them?

Women [often] did not recognize themselves as being an expert, so we had to convince them. We had to explain we wanted all kinds of expertise, not only women who have a Ph.D. but also women who are in business and community leadership positions. We had to train them to speak with the media. The most difficult part of the project is helping them feel confident, convincing them to share their profile publicly, and have them agree to be contacted by the media at any time.

When we launched the database, we hosted an event for media partners. Thai PBS and other national media organizations received staff training on how to use the database. We had trouble getting in with the private media, but we had a lot of interest from public media.

RR: What recommendations do you have for others who would like to build a similar resource?

Ito: If we were to do the project again, we might try to do it differently. I think a much more institutional approach with the biggest media, in which they help identify areas for which they need more female voices, would have a bigger impact. It could be designed more specifically to adapt the tool to their needs. We’d also like the women to be able to update their profiles in the database themselves.

We also lacked resources to train women experts. We organized a series of three trainings, but we could only train 60 of the 280 experts. That was specifically requested by the women. I also think that beyond the virtual connections with the journalists, it works to create a space where the journalists can meet physically with the women experts and create networks.