Mass-media institutions self-assessment through gender dimension (print and electronic press)

FINAL REPORT February – October 2013 Mass-media self-assessment through gender dimension was implemented by Association for Independent Press (API) in the framework of UN Women „Women’s Economic Empowerment” Programme, with financial support of Government of Sweden.

2

I. Background information As a result of an open contest and following the specialized training courses, developed by the Association of Independent Press (API) in December 2012, in partnership with the Centre "Partnership for Development", 18 mass-media were included in the project of self-assessment through gender dimension, as follows: - national-distribution newspaper „Adevărul-Moldova” - national-distribution newspaper „Jurnal de Chişinău” - national-distribution newspaper “Trud7 Moldova” - national-distribution magazine „Natura” - regional-distribution newspaper “Expresul” (districts Ungheni, Nisporeni, Călăraşi) - regional-distribution newspaper „SP” (Bălţi municipality and other Northern towns) - district-distribution newspaper “Unghiul” (district Ungheni) - district-distribution newspaper “Ecoul Nostru” (district Sângerei) - district-distribution newspaper „Glia Drochiană” (district Drochia) - news agency „Info Prim Neo” (IPN) - news portal www.unimedia.info - online magazine www.pentruea.md - news portal www.stiripozitive.eu - news portal www.hotnews.md - website of National Public Broadcasting Institution “Compania Teleradio-Moldova” www.trm.md - regional news portal www.gagauzinfo.md - local news portal www.colonita.eu - local news portal www.ialovenionline.md

Note: By the decision of the Project Evaluation Council of 30 April 2013, the local news portal www.ialovenionline.md was excluded from the project because of lack of cooperation and failure to submit monthly self-assessment reports.

Self-assessment through gender dimension was based on a methodology and a self-assessment guide developed by API and approved by UN Women. The data was collected individually by selected mass-media institutions. For this objective, each editorial office had appointed one person in charge of gender-based self-assessment. The data collectors systematically introduced the data in accordance with certain established parameters in an Excel database, then rounded up figures and produced tables for the monthly self-assessment report. The monthly self-assessment report included the following basic parameters: - articles classified by signatories (man, woman, non-identified), genre of materials; - articles classified by their title and the gender of protagonist (main character); - coverage of men and women as protagonists (main characters) of journalistic texts, classification according to the field (culture and science, economy, education, foreign affairs, media and IT, medicine and health, society, politics, social, sports, other) – these fields had been selected following an analysis of the most frequently-encountered columns/compartments of mass-media institutions; - image of protagonist/main character in journalistic texts (positive, negative or neutral image), their active or passive social status/role, including in public or private environment. - prevalence of women and men as main characters in the articles; - coverage of men and women as secondary characters, in terms of fields. Note. The protagonist's image was assessed in terms of the circumstances under which he/she was presented by the author of article. Thus, where the protagonist (man or woman) was presented in the article mainly as someone who broke certain laws or norms of conduct, or where accusations (e.g.: of corruption, violence, abuse) were brought to him/her, than that protagonist was attributed a negative image, whereas the coverage of the protagonist in a positive light (for instance, when his/her success was highlighted) associated him/her with a positive image. Accordingly, the presentation of the

3

protagonist mainly in “ordinary” circumstances, while exercising his/her daily duties, conferred him/her a neutral image. The social status of the protagonist was determined by the fact whether he/she generated actions (presented something; declared/pleaded for something; criticized a phenomenon or a person, etc.) – in such cases the protagonist had an active social status. Where the protagonist was affected by actions generated by others (was criticized, approached, observed, etc.), then he/she appeared as someone with a passive social status. Additionally, the monthly self-assessment report contained a chapter on conclusions, each editorial office having to explain main gender discrepancies in the produced articles, the reasons for their appearance and actions to be taken for remedying the discrepancies.

Thus, the collected information allowed undertaking a general analysis of gender dimension in print and on-line media, as well as on how mass media were concerned to ensure gender equality and balance in their articles.

January 2013 was a probation month, and the real self-assessment exercise through gender dimension began in February 2013 and ended in October 2013. The following persons-experts in mass-media and gender equality were included in the Evaluation Council: 1. Alexei Buzu, Executive Director of the National Study and Information Centre for Women’s Issues „Partnership for Development”, 2. Loretta Handrabura, Deputy Minister of Education, 3. Lilia Pascal, Head of Division for policies ensuring gender equality and preventing violence under the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family, 4. Ludmila Andronic, Chairwoman of the Press Council, 5. Ion Bunduchi, Executive Director of the Association of Electronic Press. The hereby report includes the data registered in the third quarter of self-assessment through gender dimension (August – October 2013) and the analysis of the main indicators' progress throughout the entire period of the self-assessment exercise, by comparing the data collected during the three quarters of self-assessment (February – October 2013).

4

II. Data presentation and analysis

2.1. Quantitative data collected during August – October 2013 and the entire period of self-assessment

Overall, during the last quarter of self-assessment (August - October 2013), the 17 print and on-line mass-media institutions published 11,183 journalistic materials (articles of various genres, texts and advertising images, entertainment articles), including:

- In August 2013 – 3,432 materials - In September 2013 – 3,747 materials - In October 2013 – 4,004 materials

During the entire period of the self-assessment exercise, the total number of journalistic materials which have been published and, respectively, analysed in terms of gender dimension amounted to 34,051. Their bulk is illustrated in the below table:

TABLE 1. NUMBER AND BULK OF MATERIALS IN 17 MASS-MEDIA INSTITUTIONS, FEBRUARY – OCTOBER 2013

Month Number of materials Print press (sq.cm.)

On-line press (no. of words)

FEBRUARY 2013 3,473 341,017 551,544

MARCH 2013 3,936 393,545 614,819

APRIL 2013 3,884 378,342 592,906

MAY 2013 3,798 330,422 606,012

JUNE 2013 3,827 376,375 663,589

JULY 2013 3,950 416,354 622,602

AUGUST 2013 3,432 353,705 592,419

SEPTEMBER 2013 3,747 380,096 720,245

OCTOBER 2013 4,004 410,456 671,715

TOTAL 34,051 3,380,312 5,635,851

The absolute majority of articles have been authored by women (whether being employees of the editorial office or voluntary correspondents), and for each article signed by a man there would be, on average, 3 articles signed by women. In the third quarter of the self-assessment process, women-reporters produced 71.2% of the total number of published articles, whereas men-reporters – only 23.8%. Approximately 5% of all the articles did not have any author. CHART 1. ARTICLES IN TERMS OF SIGNATORY'S GENDER, OVERALL FOR AUGUST-OCTOBER 2013

This situation occurs due to the fact that women are much more frequently employed as reporters (persons who write the articles) at Moldovan mass-media institutions, while men hold predominantly ruling positions in the editorial hierarchy (directors, editors-in-chief) or technical positions (designers, IT specialists, etc.). According to the data furnished by the newsrooms of the 17 media outlets involved

5

in self-assessment, from the total number of 98 reporters - 71 are women, which accounts for 72.4% of the total number of reporters. Throughout the nine months of the self-assessment exercise, the situation at the chapter of signatory’s gender practically remained the same, with some insignificant fluctuations, the best indicator being registered in August (69.2% - articles authored by women and 25.4% - articles authored by men). This fact occurred owing to the holiday season, when many women-reporters were on annual leaves, and had to replace by men temporarily. The total average for the entire self-assessment period is made of 71.4% articles written by women and 22.6% articles written by men, plus the remaining 6% of journalistic materials which have not been signed. CHART 2, CHART 3. ARTICLES IN TERMS OF SIGNATORY’S GENDER, OVERALL FOR FEBRUARY-OCTOBER 2013, MONTHLY AND QUARTERLY

While selecting protagonists for articles and reports, mass-media gives priority to men, they being twice more publicized than women. Thus, during August-October 2013, 49.3% of all journalistic materials featured one or more men as protagonists, while women acting as main characters appeared in 26.4% of all articles. Another 2.9% of articles had both gender protagonists, whereas 20.5% lacked a personified protagonist, referring to general groups of people (e.g.: retired people, farmers, etc.) or certain phenomena (crisis, imports-exports, etc.). It is worth mentioning that gender discrepancies are more highlighted in texts written by journalists (newspaper employees) than in the materials produced by non-journalist authors (voluntary reporters, external commenters). The explanation for this state-of-the-play resides in the fact that journalists are obliged to report about public interest events, including political topics (political parties, parliament) or about the activity of central administration bodies (government, ministers, agencies), fields in which women’s representation is insufficient. On the other side, voluntary reporters do not have any professional engagements, having the possibility to write about both gender protagonists; for this reason, the gender misbalance is lower in their materials.

CHART 4. GENDER OF PROTAGONIST/MAIN CHARACTER IN MATERIALS WRITTEN BY JOURNALISTS AND NON-JOURNALISTS, AUGUST-OCTOBER 2013

6

During the self-assessment period, numerous positive tendencies were registered as regards the balancing of protagonists’ genders, men’s percentage decreasing, whereas women’s percentage, on the contrary, increasing. The analysis of data in each of the three quarters of self-assessment process shows that men’s proportion was constantly falling (quarter 1 – 62.8% of all the articles; quarter 2 – 52.7%, quarter 3 – 49.3%). On the whole, at the end of self-assessment (October 2013), there has been registered a decrease by 13.5 percent points as compared to the beginning of self-assessment (February 2013). Women’s proportion constantly augmented (quarter 1 – 18.3% of all the articles; quarter 2 – 20.9%, quarter 3 – 26.4%), the quarterly indicator improving by 8.1 percent points at the end. The diminution of gender discrepancy could be found both in texts written by professional journalists, as well as non-journalist authors. Overall, during the entire self-assessment period, the presence of men-protagonists stood for 54.9% of all the articles, compared to 21.9% - which is women’s presence. In other words, each article about women would correspond to 2.5 articles about men, and the gender discrepancies are still visible. For this reason, mass-media institutions must invest considerable efforts in order to ensure gender balance in journalistic materials. CHART 5. GENDER OF PROTAGONIST/MAIN CHARACTER IN MATERIALS WRITTEN BY JOURNALISTS AND NON-JOURNALISTS, PER QUARTER

During the last quarter, the fields which have been presented in the most misbalanced manner in terms of gender perspective were: media and informational technologies, politics, economy and sports; the share of men’s representation as protagonists in articles on these topics being 5 times bigger than the women’s share (media and IT: men – 63.4% of all the articles on this topic, women – 13.4%; politics: men – 69.7%, women – 14.0%; economy: men – 52%, women – 15.9%; sports: men – 66.5%, women – 20.6%). At the same time, women dominate in columns about society news (women – 59.4% of all the articles on this topic, men – 30.5%), about education (women – 53.7%, men – 25%), medicine and health (women – 51.0%, men – 20.4%). In August-October 2013, culture and science were the most balanced fields in terms of gender issue, the share of women-protagonists being 35.9% and that of men-protagonists being 42.7%.

7

CHART 6. GENDER OF PROTAGONIST/MAIN CHARACTER, ACCORDING TO FIELDS/COLUMNS, AUGUST-OCTOBER 2013

Having analysed the media coverage of various fields/topics throughout the nine months of self-assessment, certain tendencies can be noticed in the view of balancing the gender coverage at the columns: culture and science, social, foreign relations. Thus, the ratio between the number of articles featuring men as protagonists and number of materials with women-protagonists has constantly improved, and in October 2013 this proportion was almost equal to 1, which means that for each article about men there would be one article reporting about women. Certain progress was registered as well at the columns: politics, sports, media and IT, but these fields still continue to be dominated by men (in October, for each material about men on these topics there would be maximum 0.3 materials about women). The topic of education shows an opposite picture – it remains excessively feminized (in October, for each material about men there would be 3.3 materials about women). The progress indicators for the entire self-assessment period shows some balancing in the proportion between the number of articles about men and the number of articles about women at all thematic columns. Simultaneously, the increase in the presence of women at columns where women stand for the majority (such as education) raises concern, and editorial offices should have regard to this issue during future planning. TABLE 2. PROPORTION BETWEEN NUMBER OF MATERIALS WITH MEN-PROTAGONISTS AND NUMBER OF MATERIALS WITH WOMEN-PROTAGONISTS

FEB

RU

AR

Y

2013

M

AR

CH

2013

APR

IL 2

013

MA

Y 20

13

JUN

E 20

13

JULY

201

3

AU

GU

ST

2013

SE

PTEM

BER

2013

O

CTO

BER

2013

Pro

gres

s in

9

mo

nth

s

Education 1.5 0.4 1.3 1.2 4.7 7.0 1.8 1.7 3.3 1.8

Medicine and health 0.6 0.3 0.5 0.3 0.8 0.7 0.0 2.0 2.0 1.4

Others 0.4 0.3 0.6 0.4 1.0 0.5 0.6 1.5 1.3 0.9

Society 1.5 1.4 1.7 2.0 2.8 1.3 2.0 2.0 1.9 0.4

Social 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.4

Culture and science 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.7 0.9 1.0 0.4

Foreign relations 0.6 0.4 0.8 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.8 0.2

Economy 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.3

Media and IT 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.0 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.2

Sports 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.2

Politics 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2

8

2.2 Qualitative data collected in August – October 2013 and the entire period of self-assessment During the period August – October 2013, women were presented in a positive light in the majority of articles having them as protagonists, whereas men – in a neutral light. Thus, women appeared in a positive context in 57.4% of all the articles having women-protagonists, neutrally – in 36.4% of articles. As for the remaining 6.2% of texts, women-protagonists had a negative image. Men appeared most often in a neutral context (46.6% of all the articles featuring men-protagonists). At the same time, men were covered less in a positive light, and that is 1.5 times less seldom than women (in 36.6%) and almost 3 times more frequently in a negative context (16.8%) as compared to women. The materials displaying both men and women as protagonists introduced them mainly in a neutral light (42.7% of all the articles with both gender protagonists in equal manner) or in a positive one (44.1% of the total). Overall per quarter, the data generated by the self-assessment show that editorial offices introduce main characters, whether men or women, both in a positive context (44.8%), as well as a neutral one (41.2%), and each seventh article (14%) reports about the he- or she-protagonist negatively.

CHART 7. POSITIONING OF PROTAGONIST/MAIN CHARACTER IN JOURNALISTIC MATERIALS, IMAGE CHARACTERISTICS, AUGUST-OCTOBER 2013

Comparing the data registered during the entire self-assessment exercise, we find an increase in the share of neutral image of protagonists (men or women) on the account of the decrease in positive or negative presentations. Thus, the neutral mirroring of women-protagonists increased by 15.8 percent points (quarter 1 – 20.6%, quarter 3 – 36.4%), and that of men-protagonists - by 12.2 percent points (quarter 1 – 34.4%, quarter 3 – 46.6%). In other words, the media try to 'incline' the balance towards presenting protagonists in a neutral context, which proves a more professional approach in terms of deontology. TABLE 3. DEVELOPMENTS IN POSITIONING PROTAGONISTS. CONTEXT CHARACTERISTICS, EXPRESSED IN % OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ARTICLES HAVING SAME GENDER PROTAGONISTS, PER QUARTER

Men Women

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q1 Q2 Q3

Negative 22.1% 17.6% 16.8% 11.2% 8.1% 6.2%

Neutral 34.4% 40.2% 46.6% 20.6% 30.7% 36.4%

Positive 43.5% 42.2% 36.6% 68.2% 61.2% 57.4%

9

Editorial offices are still facing the problem of balanced editorial presentation of genders in public and private environments, being incapable of solving it. Thus, in the third quarter of self-evaluation women-protagonists appeared more rarely than men in the public space, i.e. at events, meetings, while performing public duties (83.1% men and 73.1% women), whereas in the private environment, women appeared 1.6 times more frequently than men (16.9% men and 26.9% women). As for articles where both gender protagonists were equally presented, the situation is better (61.5% - in public environment and 38.5% - in private environment). However, the discrepancies are still obvious. Overall per quarter, one can notice the same preference of presenting protagonists, whether men or women, more frequently in the public environment (77.1% of total) than in the private one (22.9%). CHART 8. POSITIONING OF PROTAGONIST/MAIN CHARACTER IN THE PUBLIC ENVIRONMENT VERSUS THE PRIVATE ONE, AUGUST-OCTOBER 2013

The outcomes registered during the entire duration of self-assessment display a tendency for a minor increase in the percentage of journalistic materials about men in private environment (quarter 1 – 14.3% of all the articles about men, quarter 3 – 16.9%), on the account of the decrease in the number of articles featuring men in the public environment (quarter 1 – 85.7%, quarter 3 – 83.1%). As regards women-protagonists, the situation remained unchanged in the first two quarters of self-assessment, and in the last quarter the presence of women in the public environment increased by approximately 3 percent points in comparison with the previous periods. Accordingly, the weight of articles reporting about women in the private environment was reduced. TABLE 4. PROGRESS IN THE POSITIONING OF PROTAGONISTS IN THE PUBLIC OR PRIVATE ENVIRONMENT, EXPRESSED IN % OF ALL THE ARTICLES WITH SAME GENDER PROTAGONISTS, PER QUARTER

Men Women

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q1 Q2 Q3

private 14.3% 18.2% 16.9% 29.8% 29.7% 26.9%

public 85.7% 81.8% 83.1% 70.2% 70.3% 73.1%

During the third quarter, main characters (both women and men) appeared in the media mainly (85.3% of the total) as socially active persons, i.e. involved in community life and/or family life, generating actions, etc. Thus, in 82.9% of all the articles about men, they were presented as active characters, in other 17.1% – as socially passive persons, which are subject to an action produced by someone else, whether a man or a woman (are being criticized by others, take part in events organised by others, etc.). Women-protagonists were mirrored as socially active persons in 88.4% of all the

10

articles about women, and in 11.1% – as socially passive persons (in the remaining 0.5%, women-protagonists had a neutral position in terms of social activity). CHART 9. SOCIAL POSITION OF THE PROTAGONIST/MAIN CHARACTER, AUGUST-OCTOBER 2013

During the three quarters of self-assessment, no relevant progress has been registered as regards the social positioning of characters, and small indicator variations from one quarter to another could not influence the general situation at this chapter.

TABLE 5. PROGRESS IN THE SOCIAL POSITIONING OF PROTAGONISTS, EXPRESSED IN % OF ALL THE ARTICLES WITH SAME GENDER PROTAGONISTS, PER QUARTER

Men Women

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q1 Q2 Q3

active 84.8% 82.5% 82.9% 87.1% 88.4% 88.4%

neutral 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 1.9% 0.5% 0.5%

passive 15.0% 17.5% 17.1% 11.0% 11.1% 11.1%

11

III. Progress/evolution In order to have a better understanding of the dynamics of registered progress during mass-media institutions’ self-assessment through gender dimension, we will analyse three basic elements: (1) Has there been registered any progress in the coverage of women and men as news subjects: have women become more visible in press materials? (2) Do mass-media institutions change the paradigm of female and male traditional roles: have women become more visible in public/productive roles, and men - more visible in domestic/reproductive roles? (3) Is the registered progress sustainable: have the editorial offices institutionalised the practice of reporting on press issues in a more balanced manner?

Convergence test When analysing the dynamics of progress scored by mass-media institutions involved in self-assessment through gender dimension, it is useful to take into consideration the natural progress which can be achieved by mass-media in this field, i.e. the intrinsic (coming from itself) balancing of women’s and men’s coverage as media product subjects. The natural progress can be deduced from data generated by thematic monitoring of mass-media institutions in terms of gender equality. Since such type of monitoring has not been conducted in Moldova yet, we will apply to the world-wide collected data under the Global Media Monitoring Programme, which has been monitoring mass-media in terms of gender perspective over the last 20 years1. Thus, the data on the level of women’s and men’s presentation as news subjects reveal that, as a matter of fact, the natural rate of the progress which can be achieved by mass-media institutions in balancing gender coverage is not very high; in almost 15 years (from 1995 till 2010), at the international level, the weight of journalistic materials with women-protagonists increased on average with just 7 percent points (in 1995 – 17% of all the monitored materials; in 2010 – 24%). CHART 10. GENDER OF PROTAGONIST/MAIN CHARATCER, PROGRESS IN MASS-MEDIA AT THE INTERNAIONAL LEVEL, 1995-2010

As for Republic of Moldova, mass-media institutions involved in the self-assessment exercise scored a higher progress as compared to the average international-level progress. Thus, in just nine months, the total data for the 17 mass-media institutions indicate almost a doubling of women-protagonists’ visibility in journalistic materials, from 16.7% in February 2013 up to 28.6% in October 2013. Except for May month, the trend was always positive.

1 Overall, 1,281 newspapers, television channels and radio stations have been monitored in 108 countries of the world. The research

covered 16,734 news items, 20,769 journalists (announcers, presenters and reporters) and 35,543 protagonists, whether interviewees or individuals of news items. Monitoring of news in Internet occurred on 76 national news websites in 16 countries and 8 international news websites, including 1,061 news items, 1,044 journalists and 2,710 protagonists. Source: Who Makes the News http://www.whomakesthenews.org/images/reports_2010/global/gmmp_global_report_en.pdf

12

CHART 11. GENDER OF PROTAGONIST/MAIN PROTAGONIST, EVOLUTIONS IN FEBRUARY-OCTOBER 2013

A positive tendency was registered at the absolute majority of mass-media institutions involved in the self-assessment process, but the most obvious increase in the presence of women-protagonists was registered in the case of www.gagauzinfo.md portal. This portal ensured a constant improvement of women’s coverage indicators during all the nine months of self-assessment, and in the last month a presence of women equal to 45% has been registered in all journalistic materials, producing an increase by 27 percent points in comparison with the beginning of self-assessment. As regards the IPN news agency, the increase was constant, but the editorial office has much to learn and work for ensuring gender balance in news, the best indicator for women’s representation, equal to 34% of all the articles, being registered in October 2013. In general, many media institutions have scored good progress on this segment, but it was more sporadic than constant, as the increase in women’s representation indicators for certain months alternated with the decrease in the same indicators for other months. The portal www.pentruea.md scored a decline by six percent points in the presence of women in journalistic materials, but this thing denotes a positive achievement since this portal is specialised for women, and the proportion of women-protagonists at the beginning of self-assessment was too high (62% of all the materials). TABLE 6. EVOLUTION OF PRESENCE OF WOMEN-PROTAGONISTS IN JOURNALISTIC MATERIALS, EXPRESSED IN % OF ALL THE ARTICLES, FEBRUARY – OCTOBER 2013

FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER EVOLUTION

www.gagauzinfo.md 17% 19% 24% 28% 38% 40% 40% 44% 45% 27%

IPN 10% 11% 12% 16% 17% 21% 22% 28% 34% 24%

www.colonita.eu 20% 42% 91% 13% 38% 100% 67% 67% 43% 23%

Unghiul 28% 29% 31% 22% 27% 30% 39% 44% 47% 18%

Natura 16% 20% 22% 19% 27% 21% 5% 38% 33% 18%

Jurnal de Chişinău 21% 30% 32% 21% 27% 29% 26% 35% 34% 13%

Ecoul Nostru 20% 28% 13% 19% 28% 24% 19% 5% 33% 13%

www.hotnews.md 6% 6% 9% 10% 19% 18% 19% 15% 18% 12%

Expresul 9% 11% 10% 7% 10% 9% 14% 18% 21% 12%

www.trm.md 12% 10% 13% 13% 11% 11% 16% 17% 23% 12%

Trud 7 Moldova 28% 18% 18% 29% 19% 17% 30% 34% 36% 9%

Adevărul Moldova 10% 9% 13% 10% 12% 16% 8% 13% 13% 3%

www.unimedia.info 10% 10% 8% 12% 13% 15% 19% 11% 10% 0%

Glia Drochiană 38% 34% 32% 40% 36% 40% 39% 22% 38% 0%

SP 33% 39% 38% 34% 42% 34% 28% 32% 31% -2%

www.stiripozitive.eu 44% 28% 33% 37% 36% 17% 54% 8% 39% -6%

www.pentruea.md 62% 56% 76% 42% 50% 41% 48% 61% 55% -6%

13

A complementary aspect to be examined is the impact of the technological platform on which mass-media institutions (online or print press) operate upon the dynamics of progress in balancing gender coverage. Thus, by comparing progress indicators scored by online media institutions and print press institutions, we can assert that print press is more favourable to gender balance than the online media. A contrastive analysis of data shows that: (1) print press institutions ensured a greater visibility for women from the start – 23,9% of all print press articles compared to 15,5% in online media; (2) the dynamics of online media progress is more volatile, having greater monthly deviations than the print press and (3) if the self-assessment process had ended in September 2013, then the progress of print press in absolute terms would have been much higher. CHART 12. GENDER OF PROTAGONIST/MAIN CHARACTER IN ONLINE AND RINT PRESS, PROGRESS IN FEBRUARY-OCTOBER 2013 a) online press b) print press

Certain progress was achieved as well in mirroring women and men-protagonists with secondary roles in journalistic subjects. Thus, the proportion between the number of articles with a man as secondary main character and the number of articles where the woman was a second protagonist suffered a decline from 1:7 in February 2013 up to 1:2.5 in October 2013, but this change is not enough for balancing the genders as secondary main characters. A relative ascendance was noticed in the number of journalistic materials with same gender protagonists equally presented, from 11,3% of all the articles published in February 2013 up to 17,8% in October 2013. CHART 13. NUMBER OF MATERIALS ABOUT MEN AND WOMEN AS SECONDARY CHARACTERS, PROGRESS IN FEBRUARY-OCTOBER 2013

14

The above-analysed charts stand for evidence that the self-assessment process passed the convergence test, and mass-media institutions were convinced to be more cautious while covering genders in press articles. In the opinion of Evaluation Council members, if the self-assessment process had continued, the optimal convergence point (decline in the men’s coverage line and ascendance of women’s coverage line) might have led to an additional progress of 5 to 10 percent points as compared to the actual one.

Quality test Mass-media institutions have the duty to inform the public opinion, as well as to form the public opinion. For this reason, increasing the visibility of women in press subjects would not be enough. Instead, we have to pursue the qualitative representation of women and men in mass-media. In this sense, it is imperative to augment the presence of women-protagonists in materials which are traditionally masculinised, such as politics, economy, and sports. The analysis of quarterly progress in these sectors shows a rather modest success, and the increase in women’s visibility in economic and foreign relations’ sectors is only of 2 percent points in the 3rd quarter, compared to the 1st quarter, whereas in politics women became less visible by 1 percent point. CHART 14.PERCENTAGE OF MATERIALS ABOUT MEN AND WOMEN AS MAIN CHARACTERS ACCORDING TO FIELDS, QUARTERLY PROGRESS

Another quality aspect of women’s and men’s coverage is the context in which they are highlighted in journalistic materials (positive, neutral, negative), their social position (active, passive, neutral) and the environment in which they appear (public or private). The data compiled for the nine months of self-assessment seem to be inconclusive, with few gender discrepancies (women in public environment: 73.1%, men: 83% of the total). Most probably, this aspect requires a separate and deeper analysis. Thus, it will be premature to claim that mass-media institutions have passed their quality test for gender representation. Sustainability test It is important to understand whether the nine months of self-assessment have been enough for establishing well-balanced editorial practices for covering men and women in journalistic materials. In order to decide upon this and draw any conclusions about the sustainability of the self-assessment exercise, it would be necessary to conduct an external monitoring of the same mass-media institutions after a period of 6-12 months. Provided that a further monitoring is not feasible, we could apply to certain data likely to indicate an approximate level of institutionalization. For this goal, we will measure the progress scored by high-circulation mass-media institutions (higher circulation implies a greater number of articles) as compared to the low-circulation ones, grounding on the hypothesis that a greater number of articles produced by the editorial office requires a more gender-sensitive institutional conscience.

15

In such a way, the quarterly progress of big mass-media institutions as regards the percentage of articles with women-protagonists justifies the conclusion that these newspapers reached a certain relative degree of institutionalizing good practices for the balanced coverage of genders, since the quota of representing women augmented from 13.3% in quarter 1 up to 22.2% in quarter 3 of self-assessment. CHART 15. PROPORTION OF MATERIALS ABOUT WOMEN IN BIG MASS-MEDIA INSTITUTIONS AND SMALL MASS-MEDIA INSTITUTIONS, QUARTERLY PROGRESS

16

IV. Lessons learnt (1) Mass-media institutions’ self-assessment through gender dimension was a useful and a rather efficient exercise. Given the previous experience of the project team, one can assert that this approach is a better one in terms of quantity, quality, as well as sustainability, as compared with other approaches in the field, such as: training mass-media representatives, awarding winners for thematic articles, conducting independent monitoring of mass-media.

(2) The methodology, frequency and requirements for data collection which had been set for mass-media institutions involved in the self-assessment process turned out to be feasible. In other words, editorial offices rapidly managed to acquire and apply all methodological requirements. (3) At the same time, the self-assessment process needs considerable implications, namely for mass-media institutions producing a great amount of articles. It is worth mentioning that API awarded the efforts of persons in charge of collecting data, basing on a coefficient directly proportional to the number of mass-media articles assessed and their size. Thus, the increase in the number of mass-media institutions involved in a similar self-assessment process would imply augmented costs, and an alternative would be to adopt a less sophisticated methodology, focused on key-fields, such as politics, economy. (4) The process of mass-media institutions’ self-assessment is efficient as long as the editorial offices receive monthly opinions, evaluations and recommendations on behalf of certain experts (Evaluation Council) in relation to the scored progress. This element is indispensable and must be strengthened through field-focused qualitative analyses, case studies for individual articles, coaching and mentoring.

(5) The sustainability of positive results can be associated with the openness of those publishers and editorial teams who/which actively took part in the training sessions organised by API, answered promptly and in details to the questions of the Evaluation Council as regards the monthly self-assessment reports. Their efforts can be complemented with an institutional development component for mass-media organisations which foresees: reviewing the publishing policy in terms of gender equality, establishing ethical non-discrimination standards and actively promoting equal opportunities. (6) There is a need for a more profound approach regarding the quality of journalistic materials in terms of the balance of roles attributed to women and men. An improved version of the self-assessment methodology should highlight this both at the level of data collection and interpretation by mass-media institutions (they will collect less data on articles, but analyse them more in terms of quality), as well as upon their analysis and commenting upon by the Evaluation Council.

17

V. Recommendations The members of the project Evaluation Council have analysed the monthly reports of self-assessment through gender dimension submitted by newspaper offices, checked the data and issued monthly recommendations for each mass-media institution, with a view to ensure gender balance in journalistic materials presented to the public. The Evaluation Council has assessed the positive tendencies registered by the 17 mass-media institutions at certain chapters, even if the progress is still modest. Having regard to the incentives created during the self-assessment months, the experts highlight the need for strengthening the scored results, pursuing for their improvement, including by continuing the editorial self-assessment under various forms, in order to know precisely the weak points in terms of gender equality and take editorial measures for diminishing gender discrepancies. The Evaluation Council developed the following recommendations for mass-media institutions with a view to ensure gender balance in journalistic materials:

do not follow the political agenda, but follow your own publishing agenda, highlighting subjects of interest and usefulness for most of the citizens, men and women;

while planning the subjects, obligatorily take into account the gender balance principle when selecting the topics and sources of information;

develop and constantly update a list of women-experts/specialists in the fields you most often address, especially in the fields which have traditionally been masculinized and vice versa, search for men-experts in feminized fields. When covering a political issue with male sources, ask at least for the opinion of a woman in relation to the approached subject, in order to balance the „voices”;

abandon the false justification for gender discrepancies that “all events are organised by men”: the editorial office decides by itself the events it will cover and can always complete the text of an article covering an event with additional sources from women-experts;

do not forget to include women’s point of view, especially in articles about: economy, business, politics, mass media, agriculture, infrastructure, migration, finances, public policies, IT and communication technologies. Do not forget to mention men’s perspective in articles about: education, health, social services, children’s bringing up within a family, migration;

do not promote gender roles or stereotypes, promote “untraditional” gender roles - fathers on paternity leave, women ideally combining family life with career, etc.;

identify and publicise as many examples of gender partnerships in the public/private environment as possible; approach topics which address cases of women's and men's inequality more frequently, with a view to change the stereotyped mentality in the society as regards the woman's and man's roles in professional and private life; these subjects will bear a positive impact upon the change in social stereotypes as regards the role of men and women in professional and private life;

publicise numerous examples/good practices likely to provide the general public with opinions and examples of men's involvement in family life, the impact of father's presence and importance in a child's life and education;

use more frequently the statistical data disaggregated according to gender criterion, in order to achieve a more realistic coverage of the situation: http://www.statistica.md/category.php?l=ro&idc=264&;

do not victimize women in an excessive manner (in articles about human trafficking, domestic violence, abuse);

use only a sensitive language in relation to gender dimension, including female forms of words for professions which are allowed for by Romanian language norms, even if the DEX (explanatory dictionary of Romanian language) and other dictionaries do not present such forms;

use well-balanced images in terms of gender equality;

within your editorial office, establish an internal mechanism for assessing journalistic materials in terms of gender dimension, discuss these topics at the planning sittings, include compulsory

18

norms for reporters and editors for ensuring gender balance in your publishing policies and internal regulations.

Additionally, the Evaluation Council has also produced several recommendations for public institutions, which have been sent to the Commission for equality among women and men under the Government of Republic of Moldova, during the sitting from 22 November 2013:

Governmental Commission for equality among women and men should launch a national campaign for promoting gender equality, involving as well mass-media institutions in this activity, especially the public ones;

The Council of Observers of public company “Teleradio Moldova” must oblige the public television and radio to broadcast more materials and shows promoting gender equality in Republic of Moldova and leading to changes in the stereotyped mentality;

The Broadcasting Coordination Council, acting as national regulatory authority and guarantor of the public interest in the broadcasting sector, must conduct thematic monitoring as regards the observance of gender balance in audio-visual shows, examine monitoring reports and warn the radio-broadcasters about the need to ensure gender equality;

Communication officers from public institutions must receive additional training on how to furnish information promoting examples of good practices in the field, as well as submit gender-disaggregated data to mass-media institutions;

Public institutions responsible for promoting gender policies, together with media non-governmental organizations and foreign donors, should identify modalities of constantly stimulating journalists and mass-media institutions to self-assess the editorial content and reduce the gender discrepancies in journalistic materials.