Gender and journalism

Abstract

The media is an important cultural gatekeeper, but not a disinterested one. Inevitably journalists, their interests, backgrounds, intellectual capacity and prejudices shape what they consider we need to know. Even unconsciously they filter what they want us to know about ourselves, each other and the world. This makes the media a major vehicle, although curiously not the only vehicle, for the shaping of public opinion and in particular for the management of our responses to change. The media is also one of four so-called pillars of democracy, ensuring electors are able to make informed choices as well as engage in public policy debate. Accordingly an effective media represents a diversity ogf opinion and a range of interests which include the rights and interests and real lives of women as well as the contribution they make to the life of the nation. That's why gender counts in journalism. It is part of diversity.