Results of survey monitoring for the Expert Women campaign, Broadcast magazine 2012 -2014 Ten key points
Download 19.46 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- The “Today” programme has improved slightly across the board – but is still the worse
- Most male experts speak for longer than female experts In 60% of discussions surveyed, men spoke first
- Ten times more men experts than women experts are interviewed about politics, but only twice as many men experts are interviewed about health, in 38 programmes sampled.
- 71% of expert women surveyed said they lacked self confidence, feared criticism and were worried about being assertive – the ‘pushy’ syndrome
- . When it comes to women experts the “Today” programme has improved slightly
- So overall BBC news is the place where it’s hardest to be a woman
- So most women interviewed are not experts . But most men interviewed are experts
- There seems no reason for the disproportionately high number of white male reporters in broadcast news
| Final version
Results of survey monitoring for the Expert Women campaign, Broadcast magazine 2012 -2014 Ten key points Male experts outnumber female experts on flagship news shows by 4-1 The “Today” programme has improved slightly across the board – but is still the worse Most women interviewed for news programmes are not experts, but most men interviewed for news programmes are experts. Most male experts speak for longer than female experts In 60% of discussions surveyed, men spoke first There are 3 times more male reporters than female reporters Ten times more men experts than women experts are interviewed about politics, but only twice as many men experts are interviewed about health, in 38 programmes sampled. 82% of journalists surveyed say they actively try to get women experts 71% of expert women surveyed said they lacked self confidence, feared criticism and were worried about being assertive – the ‘pushy’ syndrome Only 39% of expert women surveyed were concerned about their appearance Male experts still outnumber female experts by 4–1 on flagship news programmes (BBC News at Ten, C4 news, BBC Radio 4’s “Today”, ITV News at Ten, Sky News evening shows). But there are some grounds for hope in the latest figures, two years after the Broadcast Magazine campaign started. These figures come from 125 programmes surveyed between November 2013 and March 2014, building on surveying of 238 programmes between March 2012 and October 2013. The “Today” programme seems to have turned a corner this winter, though it’s a long slow journey. When it comes to women experts the “Today” programme has improved slightly, with the ratio of men to women going down from 4–1 to 3.6–1. And it now has a ratio of 4–1 male to female reporters as opposed to nearly 6–1 in 2012/13. But the “Today” programme between 6am and 7am still has the worst ratio overall of any programme monitored for the representation of women. It has just over 3 males on air, to every female. So overall BBC news is the place where it’s hardest to be a woman. On their Ten o’clock TV news programme, there are 2.7 times as many men as women on screen on average, which makes it, by a sliver, the worst of the TV programmes monitored for female representation. This takes into account all women - interviewees, reporters and presenters. This means the ratio of men to women on the BBC’s two flagship news programmes, “Today” and BBC News at Ten, is just over 3–1 as opposed to just over 2–1 for the non-BBC programmes (but it is “Today” which makes that figure noticeably worse.) The TV news programmes stay much the same for women experts, averaging at 4–1, although ITV News has come down from 5–1 to 4–1. Counter-intuitively, at the same time, ITV News at Ten’s ratio of male to female reporters has increased from 2–1 to 4–1 male to female. Whereas 69% of all men interviewed are experts or authority figures, only 43% of the women interviewed are experts. So most women interviewed are not experts. But most men interviewed are experts. The research also looked at items which featured both male and female experts and found that in a snapshot of discussions in 82 news programmes, including Newsnight as well as the five flagship shows, men spoke first 60% of the time. The research also shows that women experts speak for less time than male experts. A surprise figure is the overall ratio of male to female reporters which is 3–1. Even allowing for childcare, this seems disproportionately male dominated. Most reporters would seem to be men aged between 30 and 50, of white ethnic origin. There seems no reason for the disproportionately high number of white male reporters in broadcast news. Evening news programmes have a higher proportion of male guests than other programmes surveyed. The survey concentrated on flagship new programmes but there are indications that Daybreak, and BBC Breakfast, for example, have a higher proportion of women expert guests, though they are still outnumbered by nearly twice as many male experts. By subject, women are most likely to be interviewed about health (2 male experts to every female expert) and least likely to be interviewed about politics (nearly 10 male experts to each female expert!) By topic, the ratio of expert interviewees are as follows :- business: 4 men to 1 woman home news: 5 men to 1 woman foreign news: 5 men to 1 woman entertainment: 4 men to 1 woman sport: 6 men to 1 woman other topics: 7 men to 1 woman. This analysis is from 38 programmes – work is in progress at analysing more programmes. Interestingly, qualitative interviews with broadcast journalists indicate they really are trying to recruit more women experts. So while the ratio of men to women is much the same, they are not necessarily the same small group of ‘go to’ women as before. There is also evidence, particularly from Sky News, that the ratio of female studio guests has gone up, but speakers in video packages are more likely to be male, which depresses the overall ratio, particularly in evening news programmes where there are fewer studio discussions. Another interesting indication is that on nightly news programmes, a snapshot survey of 38 programmes shows that for 50% of the time, the use of an expert is dictated by the story itself: e.g. if Justin Welby is the new Archbishop of Canterbury, he has to be the person interviewed in a story about the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Or if Obama gives a press conference, the journalist must air Obama. Even accepting this, journalists have the right to select experts in 50% of stories, and of course they could also balance the stories which have a male central character by including a female expert commentator e.g. Justin Welby, new Archbishop of Canterbury, with reaction from Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin. So while journalists are constrained, they are not completely constrained and they have choice about the overall type of experts they cast in well over 50% of stories. And journalists can certainly ensure that women are not put second in discussions for no reason, and that women get equal airtime. Of course, the availability and willingness of women experts is a further constraint which needs examination. In society generally, it is hard to measure female expertise. However, two agencies providing expert witnesses for courts, report a 70%/30% male to female ratio which is 2.3–1. And taking the cabinet and shadow cabinet together gives exactly the same ratio for senior politicians. So it would be reasonable to assume that female expertise is demonstrated in society at roughly just over a 2 – 1 ration. In some subject areas, the ratio of expert women is far less than 2.3–1 (e.g. aviation, see Tami Hoffman’s excellent article in Broadcast, March 28th) but in other areas the ratio is higher (e.g. healthcare. 50% of the elected officers of the Royal College of Nursing are women.) So it would be conservative to think that the ratio of male to female expertise should equal out at about 2.5- 1. The broadcast ratio is at least a third worse. This would indicate that there is a specific problem associated with women appearing on broadcast news. 82% of the 52 journalists surveyed said they were actively trying to get women guests, so the issue may lie with women being unwilling or unavailable to appear. In qualitative research with 31 women (including 25 academics) who attended the BBC Academy’s training days for expert women 71% said lack of self confidence and fear of criticism deterred them from appearing as experts. 39% mentioned concern about their appearance in response to a direct question. 45% said in addition that they were deterred from broadcasting by fear of what others – especially colleagues – would think. 10% volunteered the word ‘pushy’ as in “I don’t want to be seen as pushy.” All the respondents wanted to be used on TV and radio as experts. Conclusion Women want to be used as experts on TV and radio news, but they are still not being used in a ratio of 3-1 (the Broadcast magazine target) or a ratio of 2.3–1 which might be taken as a benchmark (e.g. the ratio of male/female expert witnesses in court and also the ratio of male/female senior politicians.) There would seem to be something about broadcasting which militates against women experts. Our surveys show that women (particularly academics) have a fear of being seen as pushy, a lack of self confidence and they worry about their credibility. The BBC has a poorer record in the representation of women overall in flagship news, principally because of the “Today” programme. If journalists want to increase the number of women experts, they have to accept that women will take more persuasion and need more reassurance until the use of women experts is more common. News editors have to support their guest-getters. It is no use just yelling at a junior journalist “Get a woman!” Women in turn need to overcome their fear of seeming assertive and put themselves forward. This however is easier said than done and the qualitative evidence indicates that even blue-chip women experts suffer from insecurity and fear of criticism. This is a transition period. Many journalists resent what they seen as ‘social engineering’ and say “you can’t work with what you haven’t got”. But the evidence is that more expertise exists amongst women than is currently being shown on TV and radio news. It requires continual effort to maximise it. Lis Howell April 4th 2014 Directory: data -> assets -> word doc -> 0014 word doc -> Number: caveat in the [Will/Will and Codicil/Estate of] word doc -> List of accessible executive records word doc -> National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme word doc -> This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth word doc -> Commonwealth of Australia 2002 word doc -> Commonwealth of Australia 2000 word doc -> Priority Existing Chemical word doc -> Rail safety news issue 6 – October 2011 word doc -> Review of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: Identifying 0014 -> Environmental care Download 19.46 Kb. Share with your friends:
|