The Gender News Gap

Man Bites Dog has partnered with Women in Journalism to conduct a major new study on gender inequality in UK journalism and media. Our research examines the opinions of 1,200 UK journalists on gender diversity in journalism and its impact on female journalists, the media and society more broadly. The gender imbalance in media has a significant impact on business, editorial and content decisions, influencing which stories are told and who tells them.

The Gender News Gap: The Impact of Inequality in Journalism & Media explores the challenges of career progression for women in journalism, the lack of action on gender diversity in the media, the compounding effect of Covid-19 and the impact of the Gender News Gap on female representation and the use of female subject matter experts.

Although 96% of journalists in the UK believe the media has a duty to reflect the diversity of the society it serves, our research reveals that fewer than one in five (19%) female journalists believe that there is adequate gender diversity in journalism.

We would like to thank our partners Cision, Coleman Parkes and Big Helping for their support on this campaign. For more details, read the Gender News Gap press release.

You can also watch the recording of our online panel event, moderated by Claire Mason and featuring:

• Professor Lis Howell: Emeritus professor of Journalism, City University London, and founder of the Expert Women Project.
• Polly Curtis: Newsroom leader and media strategist. Previously digital editor at The Guardian, editor-in-chief at HuffPost UK and editor and partner at Tortoise Media.
• Dominic Ponsford: Editor-in-chief of Press Gazette and editor of media vertical at New Statesman Media Group.
• Tarah Welsh: Senior BBC TV reporter and film maker and winner of multiple awards. Tarah focuses on investigations and has an interest in stories affecting communities other journalists sometimes struggle to reach or engage with.

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Claire was delighted to speak about The Gender News Gap at thenetworkone’s Indie Forum in London, highlighting what clients and agencies in marketing, PR, adveristing and media can do to close diversity gaps in information and representation. Watch the speech below.

The Gender Say Gap

The Gender News Gap is the latest chapter in Man Bites Dog’s ongoing campaign to close the Gender Say Gap, a term we coined to highlight the invisibility of women and diverse leaders as expert authorities in business and public life.

Man Bites Dog is campaigning to increase the representation of women and diverse experts by asking leaders in business and the public sector, the marketing and communications professions and the media to measure the diversity of the expert authorities they elevate as thought leaders and set targets for change.

Learn more about our work on the Gender Say Gap.