ECREA16-Abstract

286

Friday, November 11

1 6 : 0 0 – 1 7 : 3 0

PP 413

The News Media and Legacy of Inequality

S. Milivojević

, M. Matović

Faculty of Political Sciences / University of Belgrade, Journalism and Communication, Belgrade, Serbia

This paper analyses how the news media contribute to the preservation of the various aspects of gender inequality. It focuses on news media in Serbia but

also reflects on contemporary media practices that transcend across different media types and systems. Its major research question is why changes are still

slow despite visible feminisation of media professions and journalism in particular all over the world. Theoretical approach includes mediatization theory

and politics of representation to situate gender identities and gender relations within media institutions, practices and logic. Empirical evidence comes

from recently conducted Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP 2015) «Who makes the News» which monitors 'a day in the news' every five years across

the globe. Discussion is processed in three stages. First, it presents the image of women in the prime time news, major topics, social roles and functions in

the news that they perform. In the world of major news women are still long way from reaching parity at they are featured as 'news subjects' from 36%

in the North America to 18% in the Middle East. The outline indicates that deep structures of inequality are very persistent. Second, major changes within

news industry regarding gender relations, particularly feminisation of journalism, female expertise and access to decision making positions are indicated.

Women journalists outnumber man in Serbia (58%), and this trend extends across Southern Europe. The significance of this change will also be accounted

for. Finally, the paper discusses how social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) remodel the working environment for women journalists but also

the access to media for women in general. The new media challenges are considered in relation to the legacy media to sketch out how old practices extend

and modify into the digital world. The paper, therefore, highlights the importance of media and symbolic production in constructing and recycling the leg‑

acy of gender inequality. Data from Serbia will be contextualized and interpreted against global GMMP 2015 findings. GMMP is the largest comparative

project concerning gender and the news, and after this fifth research cycle it offers a good insight into the trajectory of changes over the past 20 years.

This cultural and historical context provides a background for placing Serbia, and South Eastern Europe, on the world's map but also offers a platform for

general discussion. In conclusion, the paper will provide some insights into why feminisation of journalism, and media professions in general, did not foster

changes as expected. General cultural context (patriarchal structures), power relations within media industry, and professional standards in news making,

all contribute to preservation of media practices and values conducive to gender inequality. As they seem to extend into the digital world ‘mediatization

of gender' needs to address where and how they intersect in order to narrow the gender gap.

PP 414

Knowledge Imbalance? Missing Female Expertise in Wikipedia

A. Sichler

Universität Rostock, Institut für Medienforschung, Rostock, Germany

Wikipedia constitutes the currently most-used and most comprehensive online encyclopedia in the world (Schneider 2008: 35) and thus represents an im‑

portant knowledge system of the 21

century. Within such a collaborative online network, which Wikipedia claims to be, the power of knowledge and

the power of interpretation, what is important or relevant, define the basis on which any interaction takes place, e.g. creating or editing an article as well

as commenting modifications or discussing and evaluating information. These processes conduce to collect knowledge from the world or rather to reflect

the current status of the world’s knowledge – for which encyclopedias were intended (Schneider 2008: 4, 65) – which simply means that an encyclopedia

is an image of the world. As Wikipedia claims to meet these criteria, it should be diverse and balanced at all levels. But from a gender perspective there is

a huge discrepancy in sex ratio within Wikipedia’s community, which leads to an unequal power to distribute knowledge. In 2005, an online survey of re‑

searchers at the University of Würzburg found that women constitute only 10 % of German-language Wikipedia authors (Schroer/Hertel 2009: 104). Since

then, the questions occurs why only so few women are participating in theWikipedia project. There are several approaches by now to explore and cover this

gender gap, e.g. Antin et al. 2011, Collier/Bear 2012, Forte et al. 2012 or Steiner/Eckert 2012. Current studies mention firstly a lack of time and a complex

life situation of women as well as different media preferences than men and secondly researchers claim technology and usability issues to be an obstacle

for female participation. Another outcome, which was investigated, is a lack of support and transparency of inherent rules within theWikipedia community

towards (new) female authors. Finally, the working atmosphere as well as the manner of social interaction betweenWikipedia authors seem to be a further

explanation for women to not get involved in the world’s biggest online encyclopedia (Buchem/Kloppenburg 2013: 9). However, from a gender perspective

at the beginning of the 21

century these explanations are not convincing at all. Hence, the full paper will present a recently conducted case study within

the German-language Wikipedia in order to critically scrutinize these existing assumptions. The data to be used is generated from qualitative interviews

with female and male authors whose results will be contrasted with the currently existing explanatory approaches of why just 10 % of women are par‑

ticipating in the Wikipedia project. These interviews are part of a greater and comprehensive study consisting of qualitative interviews and a quantitative

survey in order to investigate the gender gap in the German-languageWikipedia extensively.

PP 415

Topic Assignment in a Regional News Desk of the Czech Television: Gender as a Powerful Factor?

D. Vajbarova

Masaryk University, Department of Media Studies and Journalism, Brno, Czech Republic

The empirical paper centres on the process of topic assignment to male and female redactors in a regional Czech public service television from a gender

perspective.The issue represents an important part of studies on media production and gender worldwide, nevertheless it remains at the periphery of Czech

researchers' attention and the data capturing this process in media organisations are missing even 27 years after the Velvet Revolution. Consequently,

the absence of gender analyses of this media production aspect makes it impossible to describe and understand it. The examination of gender influence on

the process of topic assignment in a regional studio of the Czech Television is thus an important and relevant research topic in the Czech as well as the in‑

ternational contexts. The public service medium has been selected because of its special societal role of sustaining democratic values. Moreover, activities