Published: 22 August 2014
Country: UK
The House of Lords Select Committee on Communications has launched an inquiry into women in news and current affairs broadcasting and has invited any interested organisation or individual to submit written evidence to the inquiry.
The survey has been inspired by a number of recent studies indicating how underrepresented the women in the media are in terms of employment, casting and participation.
“There are a number of studies that are painting a picture of concern about how women are represented in news and current affairs broadcasting.”, the Committee’s Chairman, Lord Best, said.
One recent study reported that in a typical month, about 72 per cent of BBC Question Time contributors and 84 per cent of reporters and guests on Radio 4’s Today programme were men. According to another study, the male experts interviewed on flagship news programmes outnumber female experts by 4-1. There are also issues to do with the employment of women and their age. While TV presenters under 50 in general programming are broadly representative of the gender balance in the population, (48 per cent are women) women over 50 are under-represented both on and off screen.
The Committee seeks for different perspectives coming from individuals and organisations on the urgency and on realisable practical routes to achieving a more equal footing between women and men as presenters, expert guests, employees in production teams and in editorial roles in news and current affairs broadcasting on television and radio.
Deadline for participating in the inquiry is October, 1 2014.
You can find more information, following the link.