Media & ICTs

Women in ‘developing' nations are finding that whatever their gains in the traditional media, such as print and broadcasting, a lack of training opportunities in new technologies and difficulty in accessing expensive equipment increases marginalization of women in the new electronic media.

Women are said to be more active on social networking sites

Media development organisations have the opportunity, through the kind of work they do and topics they cover, to lead by example in showing that gender is intrinsic to free speech, citizen participation, and progressive media practice and content.

This report covers progress made by Gender Links as the lead agency for the policy arm of the Media Action Plan on HIV/AIDS and Gender. It begins with a general overview followed by country reports. Attached at Annex A is a list of the country facilitators for the MAP policy roll out and their contact information. Attached at Annex B is a composite plan for the roll out in each country for 2007/2008, showing how facilitators plan to complete work started as well as approach new media houses to achieve the MAP target of eighty percent of all media houses in the region having HIV and AIDS and Gender policies by the end of 2008.

The ICT arena is characterized by the strategic control exercised by powerful corporations and nations - monopolies built upon the intellectual property regime, increasing surveillance of the Interned and an undermining of its democratic substance, and exploitation of the powerless by capitalist imperialism, sexism and racism.  Within the ICT arena women have relatively little ownership of and influence on the decision-making processes being underrepresented in the private sector and government bodies which control this arena.

Statistics around the way women are portrayed in the media reflect a dismal story.  In 1995 women made up 17% of news subjects, five years later the Global Media Monitoring Project 200, which involved teams collecting data across the world, revealed that this figure increased to only 18%.  This was despite considerable intervention, including the adoption of the Beijing Platform of Action.

Our approach to gender and ICT work involves an understanding of power relations in society. This recognition includes an awareness of the unequal power relations between women and men, North and South, rich and poor, urban and rural, connected and unconnected-in local communities, in sovereign countries, and globally.

Women can benefit from ICT policies that encourage growth in the sector, provided these policies remain gender neutral.  Gender-sensitivity among those working in regulatory agencies and multilateral initiations helps ensure that gender-neutral policies do not become gender-blind during implementation.

The ICT sector is one of the last areas to open to a gender perspective.  There is substantial evidence to support the contention that policy making in technological fields ignores gender issues.

This article examines the current ICTs situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, paying particular attention to the development of a National ICT Policy Strategy, and the responses towards the responses towards the to integrate gender concerns by both the women's national machinery and civil society organisations.