Amman- 7 July 2021
The 6th webinar of the “100 Watts” project addressed the importance of using gender sensitive language in media reporting, including in podcast production.
“100 Watts” is a three-year project launched by ARIJ and supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Jordan. The project aims at training more than 100 journalists, content creators, journalism and media students, and professors in Jordan on digital storytelling with a focus on audio storytelling that addresses vital societal issues in Jordan, to promote accountability and reform.
The session, held on 7 July 2021, hosted Dr. Rouba El Helou, political communication and gender lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Notre Dame University-Louaize in Lebanon, and was moderated by Mira Yassin, “100 Watts” project manager.
El Helou started the session with images of pioneering Arab women who broke stereotypes. She talked about gender stereotyping and stressed the necessity of reformulating gender roles through the media. El Helou presented the definitions of sex and gender and explained the difference between them. She pointed out that gender-based roles are social constructs that adopt unequal divisions between women and men, hinder development, and stand as an obstacle to building relationships on the basis of equality and justice.
She highlighted the role media play in starting conversations about social justice issues, and how news stories about gender-based violence affect the way individuals perceive the violence, in addition to the media’s ability to frame facts through the choice of discourse.
El Helou also touched on the difference between “sex “ that refers to biological and physical differences, and gender, which refers to the roles and responsibilities expected of women and men in society, noting that some stereotypes of women and men are similar across cultures, where women are associated with care, affection, weakness, and sex, and men are portrayed as rational, courageous, protective, and self-reliant.
The gender and political communication lecturer emphasized that for the media to produce gender sensitive content, it is crucial to balance the presence of women and men when selecting sources and stories, in addition to respecting diversity in society and providing a voice for vulnerable or invisible groups.
El Helou also enumerated the different forms in which gender inequality manifests itself, such as: violence against women, division of labor, participation in leadership and public decision-making, and access to education resources. By the end of the session El Helou provided some tips on producing gender sensitive reporting.
