From newsrooms to films and everything in between, there's an obvious component missing in nearly every media industry: Women aren't being equally represented in comparison to their male counterparts.
According to a new report from the Women's Media Center, women are both under- and misrepresented in the media. Unsurprisingly, white men still dominate fields such as sports journalism, op-ed sections, and Sunday talk shows. The findings in the WMC's "Status of Women in U.S. Media 2014" report shows that the U.S. media clearly has a long way to go in fairly and accurately representing women.
"The media is failing women across the board," Julie Burton, president of the Women's Media Center, said in a press release. "The Women's Media Center produces the annual Status of Women in U.S. Media Report to provide an overview of the role of women in media and thereby in society. It is a roadmap for where we are as a society and where we need to go for women to achieve an equal voice and equal participation. The numbers tell a clear story for the need for change on every media platform."
Not much has changed from last year's report; if anything, some areas have seemingly gotten worse. Here are some of the noteworthy findings from the 2014 "Status of Women in U.S. Media" report:
1. Newsroom staffing decreased by 6.4% from 2011 to 2012, and female staffers remained at 36%.
2. Men were used more often as sources in stories than women.
3. The vast majority of op-ed writers and columnists are white men.
4. White men also overwhelm Sunday morning news talk show guests.
5. Only two women out of 183 sports talk radio hosts were featured on Talkers magazine’s “Heavy Hundred” list.
6. One hundred and fifty print publications and websites that cover sports (90% of which were edited by white males) were given an “F” in an Associated Press sports editors-commissioned study.
7. A tiny number of female characters had speaking roles in popular movies.
8. Women are also a small percentage of those involved behind the scenes of movies.
9. More white women but fewer women of color direct primetime TV shows.
10. There’s a focus on extreme characterizations of black women.
11. In 2013, women were a small number of the video game industry’s developers...
