Global Media Monitoring Project now in four languages and 100 countries

Next years Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) will involve more countries than ever before and boast a number of other improvements, says Anna Turley, co-ordinator of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), the organizers of the GMMP. This time, the organisers hope the findings will be used as an effective gender and media advocacy tool.
Next years Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) will involve more countries than ever before and boast a number of other improvements, says Anna Turley, co-ordinator of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), the organizers of the GMMP. This time, the organisers hope the findings will be used as an effective gender and media advocacy tool.

Next year, on a date still to be announced, all the media products of 100 countries will be monitored for gender content 30 more countries than during the last GMMP, on 1 Febuary 2000. Turley told delegates at the Southern African Gender and Media Summit in Johannesburg that the 2005 GMMP project will, for the first time, involve national and regional co-ordinators. Colleen Lowe Morna, director of Gender Links, one of the co-organisers of the summit, will
be the co-ordinator for the southern African region.The use of national and regional co-ordinators will instill a sense of ownership in the GMMP, Turley says. We are going to have national and regional reports for the exercise, unlike in the previous monitoring projects conducted in 1995 and 2000.The GMMP 2000 was carried out in English only.

The GMMP 2005 will be conducted in Spanish, Portuguese, French and English. According to Turley, the 2005 GMMP has five main objectives:
* to produce an up-to-date research study useful for gender-sensitisation, education and training purposes;
* to examine any changes in the coverage and participation of women in the news since the 1995 and 2000 studies;
* to create a widely usable but more refined research tool pertinent to specific gender and media issues in each participating country;
* to promote media literacy, solidarity and networking among women’s communication groups in the world;
* to demystify research and empower more non-governmental organisations to carry out their own research; and
* to provide a tool for activists to lobby for more gender-sensitive communication policy.

William Bird, director of the Media Monitoring Project (MMP)-South Africa, a partner in the GMMP 2005 in the region, says this GMMP promises to be a better project than the previous ones. He believes the participating national and regional co-ordinators will feel proud to be among the 100 people representing their countries.

Turley says the previous two global monitoring projects results had not been put to good use to advocate for improved gender reporting. There have been some campaigns to improve on the findings, such as gender-biased reporting,she says. But the approach to the media houses has not been good enough. This is because the institutions involved in the monitoring projects had no capacity to develop an advocacy tool. That is what we are going to try and avoid in the 2005 GMMP.

Gender and Media Summit
Ends