End to Sexism in Media

The Research on the Forms of Representation of Women in Media by MEDIZ - Women's Media Watch Group - has indicated the following: Media is male-dominated. While news, headlines, and contents are determined, women are either presented as mothers and wives with no specific individual identities, materials for magazine news, lay figures, sexual objects, or they are totally ignored!

We began our campaign, "End to Sexism in Media," with the following statement: We are fed up with being "Page three girl" in papers, "Victim" or "Monster" in women's talk shows, "Selfless Mother", "Good girl" or "Femme-fatale" in TV serials, Wrapped in "Flag" or "Veil" on politics pages, and generally "Backstage" and "Invisible." Enough is enough! Indeed, there was no need for a research to reveal the sexist attitude in media. We watched 10 newspapers, 5 radio channels, 5 Web sites, and 5 TV channels for two weeks to be able to expose the sexism. The research was carried out by Assistant Prof. Dr. Hülya Uğur Tanrıöver and her team.

The newspapers we watched: Akşam, Birgün, Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet, Posta, Radikal, Sabah, Vakit, Yeni Şafak, Zaman.
Radio Channels: Açık Radyo, Burç FM, NTV Radyo, Radyo D, TRT- FM
Web Sites: Gazeteport, Habertürk, Haber 7, İnternethaber, NTVMSNBC
TV channels: Kanal D, Kanal 7, NTV, SHOW TV, TRT 1

Below are some of the findings of our research:

- Media is male-dominated. Women employees are not given places in decision mechanisms, in reviews supporting the country politics, in serious programs or in texts that determine the agenda. For example, the executive editors of popular daily newspapers in Turkey are almost all men.
- While news, headlines, and contents are determined, women are either presented as mothers and wives with no specific individual identities, as materials for magazine news, lay figures, sexual objects, or they are totally ignored!
- Only 21% of headline news include women.
- 52% of women related news are on ‘life-magazine'.
- Only 18% of news resources are women.
- Only 12% of columnists are women.
- 0% of political debate programs broadcasted on popular and known TV channels is women.
- Only 16% of the main news bulletin staff are women.
- 0% of main news presenters (anchor ‘men') are women.
- Only 25% of voice-overs are women.
- The overall appearance of news on women's rights and movements is only 3% in media.

The picture, along with the one of male executive editors that was taken only a few months ago, should not be pride-inspiring! In order to see the thousands of mistakes in this picture and correct them, we invite all the addressees of this issue fight against sexism, and take steps forward to rid media of sexism both in the representation of women and the act of reproduction.

WE WILL BE WATCHING YOU until this picture changes!

MEDİZ - Women's Media Watch Group