Women in the News in 2019 - Content Analysis Emily B. Ndulue & Fernando Bermejo, Media Ecosystems Analysis Group (MEAG) March 2020 - Media ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Women in the News in 2019
Content Analysis
Emily B. Ndulue & Fernando Bermejo, Media Ecosystems Analysis Group (MEAG)
March 2020
Overview
The Media Ecosystems Analysis Group (MEAG), contracted by AKAS in conjunction with the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, conducted content analysis using computational
methods in support of three of the four key commitments of the Foundation’s gender
equality in news initiative:
• Commitment 2: Use of Women as Sources of Expertise
• Commitment 3: Stories Leading with Women Protagonists
• Commitment 4: Coverage of Gender Equality Issues
To evaluate the current status of these commitments in global media, MEAG centered
analysis on news coverage in six predetermined countries of focus: India, Kenya, Nigeria,
South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Methodology
Media Cloud, an open source database and analysis platform containing over 60,000 news
media publications and over 1 billion news stories from around the globe, was the core
research tool for this project. The platform allows for large-scale evaluation of news media
coverage and ecosystems. Documentation on the various computational and analytical
models contained within Media Cloud can be found on GitHub. Automated methods
through Media Cloud were the primary data collection and analysis approach,
supplemented with manual coding and researcher insight.
Analytical approaches varied based on commitments:
1. The analysis approach for Commitment 2: Use of Women as Sources of Expertise, was
to evaluate the percentage of times that quoted speech in news articles could be
attributed to a woman; notably, while a quote represents having a voice in a news
story, it may not be the same as being denoted an expert. This commitment
required more significant manual coding than other commitments.
2. To evaluate Commitment 3: Stories Leading with Women Protagonists, researchers
analyzed the percentage of headlines that featured women’s names.
3. To evaluate Commitment 4: Coverage of Gender Equality Issues, a complex
keyword-based query was developed to capture coverage that touched on
1
gender equality issues. Various descriptive analyses were then run on the resulting
coverage corpus.
Analysis of all commitments took into consideration the themes of coverage. The Media
Cloud system processes all English-language stories using a set of trained models to predict
what themes the stories focus on; these machine learning modules were built based on the
New York Times annotated corpus. In order to compare these findings with previous work on
this subject, the themes used by the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) were
selected. Researchers then determined which themes from the New York Times corpus (NYT)
best corresponded to the GMMP themes.
Table 1. GMMP Themes and Corresponding NYT Themes Selected for Analysis
GMMP Theme NYT Theme(s)
Politics and Government “politics and government"
Economy "economic conditions and trends"
Social and Legal "law and legislation”
Crime and Violence "crime and criminals", "violence"
Arts and Media "media" , “music” , “motion pictures” , “theater” , “books and
literature” , “television” , “culture"
Science and Health "science and technology" , “medicine and health" (Note:
“medicine and health” was present far more often in the
corpus than “science and technology.”)
Sports1 “athletics and sports”
Celebrity Omitted, no corresponding NYT theme
The corpus of analysis for Commitments 2 and 3 was comprised of 80 total key publications
from the six countries of focus (see Appendix 1: Key Publications). These publications were
selected based prominence in the media ecosystem, web traffic to publication homepage
per SimilarWeb data, and number of stories in the Media Cloud system.
Table 2. Key Publication Count Per Country
Country Number of Key Publications
India 16
Kenya 10
Nigeria 10
South Africa 10
United Kingdom 14
United States 20
Total 80
1
The GMMP had grouped “Arts and Media” with “Sports,” which researchers separated for this
analysis.
2
The corpus of analysis for Commitment 4 was comprised of all news publications contained
in Media Cloud for each of the six countries of focus; this totaled to 350 publications from
India, 69 publications from Kenya, 246 publications from Nigeria, 136 publications from South
Africa, 444 publications from the United Kingdom, and 10,668 publications from the United
States. The 2019 calendar year was the timeframe of analysis across all commitments.
Greater detail on methodology for each commitment can be found later in this report.
Results
Findings from these commitments indicate that there is much room for improvement to
achieve gender equality in news media globally. Overall, women are quoted and featured
in headlines less than 30% of the time. Further, coverage of issues related to women’s
equality accounted for less than 1% of news stories in 2019.
However, stories in the theme of Science and Health and the theme of Art and Media were
more likely to have quotes attributed to women and headlines featuring women. The main
driver of news coverage to the issue globally was International Women’s Day,
demonstrating the importance of such commemorative events as press drivers. National
policy changes, such as the ban on “Triple Talaq” (Islamic instant divorce) in India also
drove coverage to the issue of gender equality.
In general, the United Kingdom performed better on the commitments than the other
nations studied, ranking first in two of the three commitments studied. Conversely, India
ranked last among all nations in two of the three commitments.
Table 3. Rankings by Country and Commitment
India Kenya Nigeria South UK US
Africa
Commitment 2: Percent of
6th 4th 5th 2nd/3rd 1st 2nd/3rd
Quotes Attributed to (14%) (20%) (16%) (29%)
(25%) (25%)
Women
Commitment 3: Percent of 3rd/4th 3rd/4th
2nd 6th 5th 1st
Headlines with a Woman’s (23%) (15%) (20%) (30%)
(21%) (21%)
Name
Commitment 4: Percent of
6th 1st 4th 2nd 3rd 5th
News Stories on Women’s (0.18%) (0.68%) (0.46%) (0.65%) (0.48%) (0.37%)
Equality Issues
3
Commitment 2: Use of Women as Sources of
Expertise
Methodology
To evaluate this commitment, an individual being quoted in a story—i.e., being given voice
in a news media article—was used as a proxy for the individual being a source of expertise.
This approach allowed for digital computation at scale across countries. Drawing from all
2019 stories from the 80 key publications, a random sample of 1,000 quotes was taken from
each country to analyze data at the country level; with a confidence level of 95%, this
sample size produced a margin of error of 1% overall and of 3% at the country level.
One quote was extracted from each story sampled using Stanford CoreNLP (see
documentation). This human language technology tool then made an attempt to name
the speaker of the quote based on sentence syntax heuristics. Human coders then
reviewed the quote in context and corrected the speaker information when needed
(approximately 65% of the time). Attributions that were not to an individual speaker name,
such as an organization, corporation, or written document, were set aside and not
processed further.
Country Quotes Sampled and Coded Quotes Attributed to a Speaker
India 1,000 775
Kenya 1,000 732
Nigeria 1,000 666
South Africa 1,000 772
United Kingdom 1,000 745
United States 1,000 810
Total 6,000 4,500
Speaker names were processed through Genderize.io, an open source gender
identification tool that uses census data and other name-based data sets from multiple
countries to label gender based on first names (see Genderize.io documentation at:
https://genderize.io/). Notably, Genderize.io only accounts for gender in a binary. When
Genderize.io was unable to determine a gender, it was labeled as “Unknown.” Finally, the
data was processed through theme classification to produce findings at the country and
thematic level. Limitations of this methodology include the use of quotes as a proxy for
being an expert source, and the possible errors introduced through sampling, manual
coding of speaker attribution, and Genderize.io automated name gender attribution.
4
Results
Overall
• Women were not quoted at an equal rate to men in any country or thematic area.
In fact, it was rare for the percentage of quotes attributed to women to be above
30% in any subset of the data.
• News media in the United Kingdom performed the best of all countries examined on
this commitment. The country had the highest percent of quotes attributed to
women, at 29%.
• Indian news media performed the worst of all countries on this commitment. It had
the lowest percent of quotes attributed to women, at just 14%.
• Across all countries, there were no themes in which 50% or more of the quotes were
attributed to women. In general, stories in the theme of Science and Health and the
theme of Art and Media were more likely to have quotes attributed to women.
Stories in the themes of Economy and Sports were less likely to have quotes
attributed to women.
Figure 1. Overall Gender Breakdown in Quoted Speakers2
India 80% 14% 6%
Kenya 74% 20% 6%
Nigeria 81% 16% 3%
South Africa 70% 25% 5%
UK 69% 29% 2%
US 71% 25% 4%
Men Women Unknown
2
The “Unknown” category represents when the Genderize.io tool cannot determine a gender.
5
Table 4. Themes Ranked by Percent of Quotes Attributed to Women
Overall
South
Average India Kenya Nigeria UK US
Africa
Rank
Science and 3rd 1st 2nd 2nd 1st/2nd 1st
Health
1st (17%) (40%) (19%) (40%) (38%)
(46%)
Arts and 1st 3rd 1st 4th 1st/2nd 2nd
Media
2nd (27%) (29%) (25%) (36%) (34%)
(46%)
Social and
3rd/4th 2nd 4th 5th 1st 4th 4th/5th
Legal (18%) (17%) (6%) (41%) (23%) (27%)
Crime and
3rd/4th 4th/5th 2nd 3rd 3rd 5th 3rd
Violence (13%) (33%) (16%) (39%) (19%) (29%)
Politics and 4th/5th 7th 4th 6th 3rd 6th
Government
5th (11%) (12%) (26%) (26%) (22%)
(13%)
6th 6th 7th 7th 6th/7th 4th/5th
Sports 6th/7th (12%) (14%) (0%) (16%)
(14%) (27%)
7th 5th 6th 5th 6th/7th 7th
Economy 6th/7th (6%) (15%) (3%) (28%) (15%)
(14%)
6
Table 5. Thematic Areas with the Greatest Proportion of Quotes from Women
Rank Country Theme % of Quotes Attributed to Women
1/2 United Kingdom Science and Health 46%
1/2 United Kingdom Arts and Media 46%
3 South Africa Social and Legal 41%
4/5 South Africa Science and Health 40%
4/5 Kenya Science and Health 40%
Table 6. Thematic Areas with the Lowest Proportion of Quotes from Women
Rank Country Theme % of Quotes Attributed to Women
38 Kenya Politics and Government 11%
39/40 India Economy 6%
39/40 Nigeria Social and Legal 6%
41 Nigeria Economy 3%
42 Nigeria Sports 0%
7
India
Of the 1000 quotes sampled from Indian news, 765 (77%) could be attributed to an
individual speaker. 3 Only 14% of those quotes were attributed to a woman; in contrast, 80%
of quotes were attributed to a man.
Figure 2. Gender Breakdown for Quoted Speakers (India)
6%
14%
80%
Unknown Women Men
Looking at the data thematically, quotes from women were most likely to be found in Arts
and Media, in which 27% of quotes were attributed to women. Just 6% of quotes were
attributed to women in the Economy theme.
Figure 3. Gender Breakdown in Quotes by Theme (India)
Arts and Media 67% 27% 6%
Social and Legal 77% 18% 5%
Science and Health 72% 17% 11%
Politics and Government 82% 13% 5%
Crime and Violence 85% 13% 2%
Sports 88% 12%
Economy 90% 6% 4%
Men Women Unknown
3
The remaining quotes were attributed to an institution, group of people, a report, or otherwise
could not be identified. This is true for all countries in this commitment analysis.
8
Kenya
Of the 1000 quotes sampled from Kenyan news, 732 (73%) could be attributed to an
individual speaker. Only 20% of those quotes were attributed to a woman; in contrast, 74%
of those quotes were attributed to a man.
Figure 4. Gender Breakdown for Quoted Speakers (Kenya)
6%
20%
74%
Unknown Women Men
Women were most represented in the Science and Health theme (made up entirely of
Medicine and Health stories in this sample) with 40% of quote attribution. Politics and
Government ranked at the bottom, with just 11% of quotes attributed to women.
Figure 5. Gender Breakdown in Quotes by Theme (Kenya)
Science and Health 52% 40% 8%
Crime and Violence 62% 33% 6%
Arts and Media 71% 29%
Social and Legal 82% 18%
Economy 70% 15% 15%
Sports 86% 14%
Politics and Government 83% 11% 6%
Men Women Unknown
9
Nigeria
Of the 1000 quotes sampled from Nigerian news, 666 (67%) could be attributed to an
individual speaker. (This figure was lower for Nigeria than other countries due to an
observed stylistic convention in Nigerian news coverage wherein not all quotation-marked
sentences were followed by an attribution.) Only 16% of those quotes were attributed to a
woman; in contrast, 81% of those quotes were attributed to a man.
Figure 6. Gender Breakdown for Quoted Speakers (Nigeria)
3%
16%
81%
Unknown Women Men
Thematically, Arts and Media had the greatest proportion of women quoted, at 25%. Sports
had no quotes attributed to women, but as there was only one quote from a sports-themed
story in the sample set, this sample size is too small for strong conclusions. Economy had the
second-to-least percentage of women quoted, at just 3%.
Figure 7. Gender Breakdown in Quotes by Theme (Nigeria)
Arts and Media 75% 25%
Science and Health 77% 19% 4%
Crime and Violence 84% 16%
Politics and Government 86% 12% 2%
Social and Legal 94% 6%
Economy 94% 3% 3%
Sports 100%
Men Women Unknown
10South Africa
Of the 1000 quotes sampled, 772 (77%) could be attributed to an individual speaker. (The
remaining quotes were attributed to an institution, group of people, a report, or otherwise
could not be identified.) Only 25% of those quotes were attributed to a woman; in contrast,
70% of those quotes were attributed to a man.
Figure 8. Gender Breakdown for Quoted Speakers (South Africa)
5%
25%
70%
Unknown Women Men
Stories in the theme of Social and Legal were most likely to have a quote attributed to a
woman; 41% of quotes in this theme were attributed to a woman. Science and Health was
a close second, at 40% of quotes attributed to women. 16% of quotes were attributed to
women in the Sports theme, which was the lowest ranked thematic category for this
country.
Figure 9. Gender Breakdown in Quotes by Theme (South Africa)
Social and Legal 59% 41%
Science and Health 49% 40% 11%
Crime and Violence 49% 39% 12%
Arts and Media 57% 36% 7%
Economy 67% 28% 5%
Politics and Government 70% 26% 4%
Sports 84% 16%
Men Women Unknown
11United Kingdom
Of the 1000 quotes sampled, 745 (75%) could be attributed to an individual speaker. (The
remaining quotes were attributed to an institution, group of people, a report, or otherwise
could not be identified.) Only 29% of those quotes were attributed to a woman; in contrast,
69% of those quotes were attributed to a man.
Figure 10. Gender Breakdown for Quoted Speakers (United Kingdom)
2%
29%
69%
Unknown Women Men
The themes of Science and Health and Arts and Media were tied for the best
representation of women; 46% of quotes were attributed to women in both themes. Sports
and Economy were tied for the lowest percentage of quotes attributed to women, at 14%
each.
Figure 11. Gender Breakdown in Quotes by Theme (United Kingdom)
Science and Health 50% 46% 4%
Arts and Media 54% 46%
Politics and Government 72% 26% 2%
Social and Legal 77% 23%
Crime and Violence 80% 19% 2%
Sports 86% 14%
Economy 86% 14%
Men Women Unknown
12United States
Of the 1000 quotes sampled, 810 (81%) could be attributed to an individual speaker. (The
remaining quotes were attributed to an institution, group of people, a report, or otherwise
could not be identified.) Only 25% of those quotes were attributed to a woman; in contrast,
71% of those quotes were attributed to a man.
Figure 12. Gender Breakdown for Quoted Speakers (United States)
4%
25%
71%
Unknown Women Men
The greatest percentage of women were quoted in the Science and Health theme, at 38%
attribution. Stories in the Economy theme were the least likely to have quotes attributed to a
woman, at just 15%.
Figure 13. Gender Breakdown in Quotes by Theme (United States)
Science and Health 58% 38% 4%
Arts and Media 60% 34% 6%
Crime and Violence 68% 29% 3%
Sports 73% 27%
Social and Legal 71% 27% 2%
Politics and Government 75% 22% 3%
Economy 78% 15% 7%
Men Women Unknown
13Commitment 3: Stories leading with women
protagonists
Methodology
To evaluate this commitment, an individual being named in a headline was used as a proxy
for the individual being a protagonist of the story. This allowed for digital computation at
scale across countries. Drawing from all 2019 stories from the 80 key publications, a sample
size was calculated for each publication to produce a confidence level of 95% and a
margin of error of 2%4. A random sample of stories was then taken from each publication
per the calculations.
Table 7. Publications and Stories Analyzed Per Country
Country Number of Publications Total Stories Sampled
India 16 36,256
Kenya 10 18,789
Nigeria 10 21,495
South Africa 10 18,353
United Kingdom 14 27,076
United States 20 42,933
Total 80 164,902
Headlines were extracted from each story sampled, then processed through CLIFF-CLAVEN,
a named entity recognizing machine learning module (see CLIFF-CLAVEN documentation).
When a headline was found to contain one or more names, the name(s) were extracted
and processed through Genderize.io. In order to account for cases in which headlines only
contained an individual’s last name, researchers manually coded the full name and gender
of all individuals only referred to by a last name who were mentioned 25 times or more
(approximately 175 people). Unless otherwise noted, percentage findings are based on the
percent of headlines that contain one or more names, i.e. “named headlines,” not on the
total number of headlines. Finally, the data was processed through theme classification to
produce additional findings at the thematic level. Limitations of this methodology include
the use of headline as a proxy for being a protagonist, and the possible errors introduced
through sampling, automated entity detection with Cliff-Claven, and Genderize.io
automated name gender attribution.
4This created a margin of error at the country-level of less than 1% for each country when using
a 95% confidence level.
14Results
Overall
• Women were not included in headlines at an equal rate to men in any country,
publication or thematic area. In fact, it was rare for the percentage of women in
named headlines to be above 30% in any subset of the data.
• The United Kingdom performed the best of all countries examined on this
commitment. The country had the highest aggregate percent of named headlines
containing women, at 30%, and was home to six of the ten top-performing
publications.
• Nigeria performed the worst of all countries on this commitment. It had the lowest
aggregate percent of named headlines containing women, at just 15%. Six of the
bottom ten performing publications overall were from Nigeria.
• At the publication level, the percent of named headlines containing women ranged
from 46% in Buzzfeed, a US-based publication, to just 6% in This Day, a Nigeria-based
publication.
• Across all countries, stories in the themes of Arts and Media and Science and Health
had higher rates of women in the headline than the other themes examined. Stories
in the theme of Economy had the lowest rate of women in the headline.
• Across all countries, the top-mentioned women still received fewer headlines than
the top-mentioned men. In the US, Donald Trump received more headlines than the
combined total of all headlines mentioning any woman.
Figure 14. Overall Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines5
11% 3% 4%
13% 6% 7%
21% 15% 30% 21%
23% 20%
79% 83% 78% 76% 82%
73%
India Kenya Nigeria South UK US
Africa
Men Women Unknown
5 The percentages do not add to 100%, as some headlines contained more than one named
individual. I.e., if a headline stated “Trump and May to meet in London,” the headline would be
counted towards the men’s percent and the women’s percent.
15Table 8. Top Publications by Percent of Named Headlines that include Women
Publication Country % of Named Headlines with Women
1 Buzzfeed United States 46%
2 Mpasho News6 Kenya 44%
3 The Sun7 United Kingdom 40%
4 Daily Mail United Kingdom 38%
5 Daily Express United Kingdom 35%
6 The Guardian United Kingdom 35%
7 The Standard United Kingdom 34%
8 Information Nigeria Nigeria 33%
9 The Times United Kingdom 31%
10 The Times of India India 30%
Table 9. Bottom Publications by Percent of Named Headlines that include Women
Publication Country % of Named Headlines with Women
71 Business Daily Kenya 11%
72 The Wall Street Journal United States 11%
73 Capital News Kenya 10%
74 Leadership Nigeria 9%
75 Vanguard Nigeria 9%
76 The Nation Online Nigeria 8%
77 Today Nigeria 8%
78 The East African Kenya 8%
79 All Africa News: Nigeria Nigeria 7%
80 This Day Nigeria 6%
Table 10. Themes Ranked by Percent of Named Headlines that include Women
Overall
South
Average India Kenya Nigeria UK US
Africa
Rank
Arts and 1st 1st/2nd 1st 1st 2nd 1st
Media
1st (36%) (32%) (37%) (43%) (32%)
(35%)
6 Mpasho News is a celebrity news site; the subject matter of the publication is likely to contain
more women.
7 The Sun, along with following publications Daily Mail and Daily Express, has more coverage in
the theme Arts & Media (which contains celebrity coverage); this is likely a driver of the higher
percentage of women.
16Overall
South
Average India Kenya Nigeria UK US
Africa
Rank
Science and 2nd 1st/2nd 2nd 2nd 1st 2nd
Health
2nd (30%) (35%) (26%) (30%) (45%) (28%)
Politics and 3rd 4th 5th 5th/6th 4th 5th
Government
3rd (17%) (13%) (6%) (14%) (25%) (18%)
Crime and 6th/7th 3rd 3rd 4th 3rd 6th
Violence
4th (10%) (25%) (21%) (19%) (30%) (16%)
6th/7th 7th 4th 3rd 7th 3rd
Sports 5th (10%) (5%) (13%) (22%) (14%) (24%)
Social and 5th 5th 7th 5th/6th 5th/6th 4th
Legal
6th (14%) (10%) (3%) (19%)
(14%) (20%)
4th 6th 6th 7th 5th/6th 7th
Economy 7th (15%) (9%) (4%) (7%) (20%) (10%)
Table 11. Thematic Areas with the Greatest Proportion of Women in Named Headlines
Country Theme % of Named Headlines with Women
1 United Kingdom Science and Health 45%
2 United Kingdom Arts and Media 43%
3 South Africa Arts and Media 37%
4 India Arts and Media 36%
5 Kenya Science and Health 35%
Table 12. Thematic Areas with the Lowest Proportion of Women in Named Headlines
Country Theme % of Named Headlines with Women
38 South Africa Economy 7%
39 Nigeria Politics and Government 6%
40 Kenya Sports 5%
41 Nigeria Economy 4%
42 Nigeria Social and Legal 3%
17India
Of the 36,256 stories sampled, 11,825 headlines (33%) had one or more individuals named in
the headline. Only 21% of the headlines with named individuals included a woman; in
contrast, 79% of named headlines contained the name of a man.
Figure 15. Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines (India)
Men 79%
Women 21%
Unknown 11%
At the publication level, the percent of named headlines that included at least one
woman’s name ranged from 30% (The Times of India), to just 13% (both Economic Times and
Mint).
Figure 16. Percent of Named Headlines that include Women, by Publication (India)
35%
30% 29%
30% 27%
25%
25% 22% 22%
21%
20% 19% 18%
17% 17% 16%
15% 14%
15% 13% 13%
10%
5%
0%
es
s
k
TV
ss
ge
d
a
A
le
s
st
es
y
t
u
in
es
es
Bu cia oo
da
om nd
di
ar
Po
N
re
ic
Tim
Tim
D
M
di n A
pr
pr
D
In
d
on
xp
l
N
To
Hi
ut
t
ca an
Ex
Ex
Th Firs
of
n
lE
ic
ia
O
hr
Ec The
a
ta
ec s St
an
an
ew As
C
es
di
us
In
Tim
n
di
es
e
on
an
nd
In
In
sin
Fin
Hi
e
e
Th
Th
D
N
e
Th
Looking at headlines by theme, women were more likely to be included in headlines for
stories about Arts and Media or Science and Health. Arts and Media was the only theme
18where women were mentioned in headlines more than one-third of the time. Conversely,
women were only included in 10% of named headlines for stories about Sports or about
Crime and Violence.
Figure 17. Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines by Theme (India)
Arts and Media 72% 36% 15%
Science and Health 69% 30% 8%
Politics and Government 84% 17% 7%
Economy 82% 15% 8%
Social and Legal 80% 14% 12%
Sports 82% 10% 11%
Crime and Violence 86% 10% 9%
Men Women Unknown
For context, the number of named headlines for each theme is listed below. (Note: Stories
may be tagged with multiple themes.)
• Arts and Media: Books and Literature (119), Culture (24), Media (61), Motion Pictures
(1,164), Music (215), Television (227), Theater (31)
• Science and Health: Science and Technology (2), Medicine and Health (318)
• Politics and Government: 5,347
• Crime and Violence: Crime and Criminals (738), Violence (5)
• Sports: 89
• Social and Legal: 199
• Economy: 469
Politicians and actresses are the most-frequently mentioned women across all individuals
mentioned in sampled headlines. These top-mentioned women still receive less headlines
than the top-mentioned men.
Table 13. Top-Mentioned Women in Headlines (India)
Name Headline % Description
Count
1 Mamata Banerjee 218 2% Politician
2 Mayawati 93 1% Politician
3 Sonia Gandhi 76 1% Politician
4 Priyanka Gandhi 71 1% Politician
5 Nirmala Sitharaman 70 1% Politician
6 Sushma Swaraj 48Name Headline % Description
Count
9 Alia Bhatt 39Figure 19. Percent of Named Headlines that include Women, by Publication (Kenya)
50%
44%
45%
40%
35%
30% 26%
24%
25% 21%
20% 17%
15% 15%
15% 11%
10% 8%
10%
5%
0% d
n
s
n
ya
st
s
ly
s
u
ew
ew
ew
ca
io
ng
ar
Po
ai
en
at
sD
nd
N
N
lN
Tu
fri
an
N
:K
A
o
bi
a
es
ita
a
ly
sh
ny
ca
St
st
ro
w
sin
ai
ap
Ea
pa
Ke
ha
e
ai
fri
D
Bu
Th
N
C
ll A
M
e
Ka
e
Th
Th
A
The greatest representation of women in named headlines was found in the Science and
Health and Arts and Media themes; for both themes 35% of named headlines include
women. Sports ranks at the bottom, with just 5% of named headlines including women.
Figure 20. Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines by Theme (Kenya)
Science and Health 61% 35% 10%
Arts and Media 61% 35% 15%
Crime and Violence 72% 25% 13%
Politics and Government 86% 13% 8%
Social and Legal 72% 10% 27%
Economy 87% 9% 6%
Sports 91% 5% 9%
Men Women Unknown
For context, the number of named headlines for each theme is listed below. (Note: Stories
may be tagged with multiple themes.)
• Arts and Media: Books and Literature (40), Culture (0), Media (83), Motion Pictures
(40), Music (259), Television (127), Theater (3)
• Science and Health: Science and Technology (0), Medicine and Health (306)
21• Politics and Government: 1,953
• Crime and Violence: Crime and Criminals (334), Violence (4)
• Sports: 22
• Social and Legal: 93
• Economy: 126
The women who are mentioned most frequently in headlines in Kenya are primarily news
anchors who have become celebrity personalities in their own right. Also included on the list
are several politicians and two prominent women who died in 2019. Top-mentioned women
still received less coverage than top-mentioned men.
Table 15. Top-Mentioned Women in Headlines in Kenya
Name Headline % Description
Count
1 Aisha Jumwa 33 1% Politician
2 Betty Kyallo 12Nigeria
In Nigeria, of the 21,495 stories sampled, 6,162 headlines (29%) had one or more individuals
named. Only 15% of named headlines included a woman, which is the lowest of any
country; in comparison, 83% included a man.
Figure 21. Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines (Nigeria)
Men 83%
Women 15%
Unknown 6%
At the publication level, the percent of named headlines that included women ranged
from 33% (Information Nigeria), to just 6% (This Day). The overall average is skewed by
Information Nigeria, a general news site; without this publication the average would be
below 15%. Only four of the ten publications had headline attribution levels above 10%.
Figure 22. Percent of Named Headlines that include Women, by Publication (Nigeria)
40%
35% 33%
30%
25% 22%
20% 16% 15%
15%
9% 9% 8%
10% 8%
7% 6%
5%
0%
ip
lse
ay
rd
ia
s
y
ia
e
s
ew
ew
da
in
sh
er
er
ua
D
Pu
nl
ig
ig
N
N
er
To
is
O
ng
N
:N
ad
Th
PM
n
n
ia
Va
n
ca
io
Le
io
er
at
at
ig
fri
N
ll A
N
rm
e
t
fo
es
A
Th
In
t
La
Arts and Media and Science and Health are the themes with the greatest proportion of
women mentioned in headlines, at 32% and 26% respectively. Women account for less than
2310% of named headlines in three thematic areas: Politics and Government (6%), Economy
(4%), and Sports (3%).
Figure 23. Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines by Theme (Nigeria)
Arts and Media 69% 32% 9%
Science and Health 68% 26% 7%
Crime and Violence 77% 21% 7%
Sports 81% 13% 11%
Politics and Government 93% 6% 3%
Economy 95% 4%2%
Social and Legal 95% 3% 3%
Men Women Unknown
For context, the number of named headlines for each theme is listed below. (Note: Stories
may be tagged with multiple themes.)
• Arts and Media: Books and Literature (37), Culture (0), Media (80), Motion Pictures
(159), Music (257), Television (92), Theater (14)
• Science and Health: Science and Technology (0), Medicine and Health (175)
• Politics and Government: 3,497
• Crime and Violence: Crime and Criminals (254), Violence (3)
• Sports: 48
• Social and Legal: 142
• Economy: 248
Actresses, musicians and politicians are the most frequently mentioned women in Nigerian
headlines. There are also two women who are connected with gender issues: a woman
filing a high-profile rape case, and a teen captured by Boko Haram. The top-mentioned
women receive less headlines than the top-mentioned men.
Table 17. Top-Mentioned Women in Headlines in Nigeria
Name Headline % Description
Count
1 Aisha Buhari 43 1% First Lady
2 Tacha 24Name Headline % Description
Count
7 Tiwa Savage 12Figure 25. Percent of Named Headlines that include Women, by Publication (South Africa)
30%
25%
25% 23% 22% 22%
20%
20% 18% 18%
16% 16%
15% 13%
10%
5%
0%
e
n
BC
n
ca
s
A
L
es
k
ew
IO
ic
ia
ze
Liv
C
im
fri
SA
er
rd
eN
iti
sN
an
A
sT
av
C
ua
th
es
es
et
e
M
G
ou
Th
itn
sin
w
ly
l&
So
sS
ew
ai
Bu
ai
D
ew
Ey
M
N
Arts and Media stories were most likely to have a woman in the headline, with 37% of
named headlines in this theme containing the name of a woman. Conversely, only 7% of
named headlines include women in the Economy theme, while 92% of named headlines
include men.
Figure 26. Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines by Theme (South Africa)
Arts and Media 65% 37% 7%
Science and Health 60% 30% 11%
Sports 81% 22% 2%
Crime and Violence 72% 19% 12%
Politics and Government 85% 14% 4%
Social and Legal 87% 14% 5%
Economy 92% 7% 4%
Men Women Unknown
For context, the number of named headlines for each theme is listed below. (Note: Stories
may be tagged with multiple themes.)
26• Arts and Media: Books and Literature (77), Culture (1), Media (76), Motion Pictures
(84), Music (145), Television (76), Theater (20)
• Science and Health: Science and Technology (0), Medicine and Health (126)
• Politics and Government: 1,676
• Crime and Violence: Crime and Criminals (337), Violence (11)
• Sports: 63
• Social and Legal: 83
• Economy: 212
Women politicians are the most frequently mentioned women in South Africa. However,
they received less headlines than the leading men mentioned, also politicians.
Table 19. Top-Mentioned Women in Headlines in South Africa
Name Headline % Description
Count
1 Helen Zille 44 1% Politician
2 Zandile Gumede 32 1% Politician
3 Busisiwe Mkhwebane 31 1% Politician and advocate
4 Nancy Pelosi 13United Kingdom
In the UK, of the 27,076 stories sampled, 9,259 headlines (34%) had one or more individuals
named. 30% of the named headlines included a woman, which is the highest level for any
country. In contrast, 76% of named headlines included a man.
Figure 27. Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines (United Kingdom)
Men 76%
Women 30%
Unknown 3%
At the publication level, the percent of named headlines including women ranged from
40% (The Sun), to 15% (The Economist).
Figure 28. Percent of Named Headlines that include Women, by Publication (UK)
45%
40%
40% 38%
35% 35% 34%
35% 31%
29%
30% 28%
25% 24%
25% 23% 22%
20%
20%
15%
15%
10%
5%
0%
h
an
es
C
e
s
l
s
rd
es
nt
n
ist
s
ai
ew
es
ew
ap
Su
ur
BB
om
de
da
Tim
Tim
M
di
pr
at
N
N
gr
e
ar
ly
en
an
Ex
on
N
Th
e
4
al
ITV
le
ai
u
Th
p
St
ly
el
G
ci
Te
Ec
D
de
ai
nn
an
g
e
e
e
e
D
in
Th
Th
In
ha
Th
Th
Fin
en
e
C
Th
e
Ev
Th
e
Th
Across the countries studied, UK-based stories covering the themes of Science and Health
and Arts and Media had the highest rates of women in headlines, at 45% and 43%
28respectively. In themes specific to the UK, Sports had the lowest percent of named
headlines containing women, at 14%.
Figure 29. Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines by Theme (United Kingdom)
Science and Health 61% 45% 4%
Arts and Media 65% 43% 3%
Crime and Violence 74% 30% 4%
Politics and Government 82% 25% 2%
Social and Legal 79% 20% 3%
Economy 83% 20% 3%
Sports 89% 14% 5%
Men Women Unknown
For context, the number of named headlines for each theme is listed below. (Note: Stories
may be tagged with multiple themes.)
• Arts and Media: Books and Literature (456), Culture (0), Media (102), Motion Pictures
(402), Music (337), Television (549), Theater (92)
• Science and Health: Science and Technology (2), Medicine and Health (318)
• Politics and Government: 5,347
• Crime and Violence: Crime and Criminals (738), Violence (5)
• Sports: 89
• Social and Legal: 199
• Economy: 469
Foreign and domestic politicians are the most frequently mentioned women in headlines. A
young woman who left the UK to join ISIS in Syria also made the list, given extensive
coverage and debate about whether she should be allowed to return to the UK. The top-
mentioned women still receive less headlines than the top-mentioned men.
Table 21. Top-Mentioned Women in Headlines in the United Kingdom
Name Headline % Description
Count
1 Theresa May 254 3% Politician
2 Meghan Markle 65 1% Former Royal/Celebrity8
3 Angela Merkel 32Name Headline % Description
Count
6 Lady Gaga 17Figure 31. Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines by Theme (United States)
50% 46%
45%
40%
35%
29%
30% 27%
23% 23% 22%
25% 21% 21% 21% 21% 21% 20%
19% 19% 18%
20% 17% 16%
14%
15% 12% 11%
10%
5%
0%
es
Jo C
N FO eed
Fo st
ly es
Br BS
t
To s
x
ll
N
ay
Th st
tre C c
PR
A co
s
es BC
to C
l
na
ar
e
ew
Hi
Vo
i
a
Po
N
B
ng NB
nt
Tim
US rb
D Tim
C
N
d
tb
ti
N
A
Be
C
ur
e
tl a
Th oli
N
f
n
zz
ei
k
ew X
P
Bu
A
Th or
ai
et
el
e
Y
ng
hi
e
as
sA
lS
W
al
Lo
W
e
Th
e
Th
As in several other countries, the greatest percentage of women named in headlines came
from Arts and Media, at 32%. Also similar to other countries, stories in the Economy theme
were the least likely to have a woman in the headline.
Figure 32. Gender Breakdown in Named Headlines by Theme (United States)
Arts and Media 70% 32% 7%
Science and Health 74% 28% 4%
Sports 78% 24% 6%
Social and Legal 82% 19% 2%
Politics and Government 88% 18% 2%
Crime and Violence 79% 16% 12%
Economy 90% 10% 3%
Men Women Unknown
For context, the number of named headlines for each theme is listed below. (Note: Stories
may be tagged with multiple themes.)
• Arts and Media: Books and Literature (408), Culture (8), Media (415), Motion Pictures
(475), Music (438), Television (568), Theater (103)
31• Science and Health: Science and Technology (0), Medicine and Health (587)
• Politics and Government: 6,762
• Crime and Violence: Crime and Criminals (995), Violence (6)
• Sports: 67
• Social and Legal: 610
• Economy: 469
Politicians are almost exclusively the most frequently mentioned women in the US-based
headlines. The top-mentioned women still receive less headlines than the top-mentioned
men. In fact, in the US, Trump received more headlines than all headline mentions of
women combined.
Table 23. Top-Mentioned Women in Headlines in the United States
Name Headline % Description
Count
1 Elizabeth Warren 238 2% Politician
2 Nancy Pelosi 236 2% Politician
3 Kamala Harris 183 1% Politician
4 Hillary Clinton 78 1% Politician
5 Kristen Gillibrand 56Commitment 4: Coverage of Gender Equality
Issues
Methodology
MEAG researchers analyzed all 2019 stories in Media Cloud’s database from all available
media publications in the six focus countries: India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the United
Kingdom, and the United States. The full list of publications for each country can be
accessed using Media Cloud’s Source Manager tool at www.sources.mediacloud.org.
Table 25. Publications and Stories Analyzed
Country Number of Publications Number of Stories (2019)
India 350 8,347,385
Kenya 69 364,513
Nigeria 246 2,374,457
South Africa 136 1,597,193
United Kingdom 444 3,386,701
United States 10,668 40,812,709
Total 11,913 56,882,958
The Media Cloud system scanned the stories for matches to a complex keyword query
designed to capture content related to gender equality issues. The query was developed
and validated by MEAG, with input from other researchers working on gender issues in the
media and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation staff.
Stories that matched the query were analyzed on dimensions including volume over time,
top words and keywords in context, and top entities mentioned in coverage. Additionally,
for each country, a random sample of 100 featured images was taken; these images were
then ordered laterally (in rows) by similarity according to computer vision, which evaluates
pixel similarity (see documentation at: https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.02534), to form visual
mosaics that give a quick look at the images associated with news stories on gender
equality.
Results
Overall
• Gender equality received less than 1% of news coverage in 2019 across all countries
examined. Further, coverage never rose to even 5% of news stories during the year.
• Kenya and South Africa performed better than the other four countries, while India
performed the lowest on both measures of attention to the issue: overall percent of
coverage devoted to the issue, and coverage percent on the day of the year with
the highest coverage (peak coverage).
33• International Women’s Day was the main driver of news coverage to the issue
globally, demonstrating the importance of such commemorative events as press
drivers. National policy changes, such as the ban on “Triple Talaq” (Islamic instant
divorce) in India also drive coverage.
• In all countries, men comprised the majority of the top-mentioned individuals in
gender equality news coverage. Most of these individuals were political and
governmental leaders.
Figure 33. Gender Equality Coverage as Percent of Overall Stories, 2019 Overall
0.68% 0.65%
0.46% 0.48%
0.37%
0.18%
0.00%
Percent of all 2019 stories
India Kenya Nigeria South Africa United Kingdom United States
Figure 34. Gender Equality Coverage as Percent of Overall Stories, Peak Date in 2019
4.33%
3.35%
2.81%
1.94%
1.19%
0.84%
0.00%
Percent at peak coverage day
India Kenya Nigeria South Africa United Kingdom United States
34India
Only 0.18% of all stories in the Indian media in 2019 were about gender equality. 15,050
stories matched the query. Gender equality is covered less than half as much as climate
change and is also covered less than poverty.
Figure 34. Comparative Levels of Coverage Across Issues in India
Key events that caused notable peaks in coverage were:
• March 8, International Women’s Day. Coverage rose to 0.84% (212 stories), the
highest of any point in the year.
• July 5, national budget for 2019-2020 presented. Coverage rose to 0.54% (152 stories).
• July 25, bill to make “Triple Talaq” (Islamic form of instant divorce) illegal was moved
into consideration. Coverage rose to 0.41% (103 stories).
Figure 35. Top 100 Most Frequently Used Words in Gender Equality Coverage in India9
9 Word clouds were generated through a count of the top words used in a sample of 1,000
stories (or all stories, if less than 1,000). Words are sized by prevalence and ordered descending
in display.
35The top words found in coverage are shown above. Examination of these keywords in
context yields interesting subtopics within the coverage:
• Women - women’s day, women’s football, women’s representation
• Sector - healthcare sector, handloom sector, unorganized sector, informal sector
• Violence - domestic violence, sexual violence, gender-based violence, violence
against women
• Child - girl child, child rights, child rape, child marriage
• Sustainable - sustainable development goals
• Inclusion - social inclusion, financial inclusion, female inclusion
• Climate - climate change
• Caste - caste and gender inequality, caste hierarchy and inequality
• Toilets - building toilets, toilets for girls in schools, lack of separate toilets
Machine learning-derived theme detection finds the top five themes of this coverage to be:
Women (33%), Politics and Government (32%), Finances (23%), Labor (20%), and Economic
Conditions and Trends (18%).
The individuals who are mentioned most frequently in coverage of this topic are primarily
politicians. Only five of the top 25 mentioned people, or 20%, are women.
Table 26. Top-Mentioned People in Gender Equality Coverage in India
Name M/ Story Coverage Context
W %
1 Narendra Modi M 13% Prime Minister; various contexts
2 Rahul Gandhi M 4% Previous president of Indian National Congress and
challenger to Modi for PM; various contexts
3 Donald Trump M 3% US President; Indian press published the text of the
State of the Union which included query terms
4 Nirmala W 3% Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs;
Sitharaman India’s first full time woman Finance Minister
5 Amit Shah M 2% Minister of Home Affairs; various contexts
6 Mahatma Gandhi M 2% Various references
7 Pinarayi Vijayan M 2% Chief Minister of Kerala; commented favorably on
women’s equality demonstration in the state
8 Ravi Shankar M 1% Union Minister overseeing Law and Justice,
Prasad Communications and Electronics, and Information
Technology; supported Triple Talaq ban
9 Arun Jaitley M 1% Former Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs;
various contexts
10 Rajiv Ghandi M 1% Former Prime Minister; various contexts
11 Anil Ambani M 1% Businessman; rhetorical reference point used by Modi
opposition as an oligarch that Modi gives wealth to
instead of common people/women
12 Piyush Goyal M 1% Minister of Railways; supported women’s financial
empowerment when he was Finance Minister
36Name M/ Story Coverage Context
W %
13 Mamata W 1% Chief Minister of West Bengal, first woman to hold the
Banerjee office; supported welfare scheme for girls
14 Manmohan Singh M 1% Former Prime Minister; various contexts
15 Arvind Kejriwal M 1% Chief Minister of Delhi; granted women free bus rides
16 Ram Nath Kovind M 1% President; various contexts
17 Naveen Patnaik M 1% Chief Minister of Odisha; declared a 33% quota for
women in allocation of parliament seats
18 Indira Gandhi W 1% Former Prime Minister; various contexts
19 Nirav Modi M 1% Businessman; rhetorical reference point used by Modi
opposition as an oligarch that Modi gives wealth to
instead of common people/women
20 Yogi Adityanath M 1% Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh; commented on girls’
security
21 Sonia Gandhi W 1% President of the Indian National Congress political
party; advocate for women in Congress
22 Rajnath Singh M 1% Minister of Defense; will admit women to military
schools in 2021
23 Priyanka Gandhi W 1% General Secretary of All India Congress Committee in
Vadra charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh; various contexts
24 Imran Khan M 1% Prime Minister of Pakistan; various contexts
25 Barack Obama M 1% Former US president; various contexts
The image mosaic for India (see Appendix 2) has 45 images where at least one man is
visible, and only 27 images where at least one woman is visible. Further, while there are
several headshot images of a single man featured, there are few corresponding images of
women. Crowds and law and order images (e.g., handcuffs, the army) are also featured.
Kenya
In Kenya, 0.68% of all stories in 2019 were about gender equality. 2,475 stories matched the
query. Gender equality is covered less than half as often as poverty, and also less often
than climate change.
Figure 36. Comparative Levels of Coverage Across Issues in Kenya
37Key events that caused notable peaks in coverage were:
• March 8, International Women’s Day. Coverage rose significantly to 3.35% (41
stories), the highest of any point in the year.
• June 5, President Uhuru Kenyatta spoke at the international Women Deliver 2019
Conference in Canada and pledged to actualize the Two-Third Gender Principle, a
new constitutional requirement that neither gender should hold more than two-thirds
of elected positions. Coverage rose to 2.5% (27 stories).
Figure 37. Top 100 Most Frequently Used Words in Gender Equality Coverage in Kenya
The top words in coverage are shown above. Examination of these keywords in context
reveals the following subtopics within the coverage:
• Gender – two-thirds gender rule, gender equality, gender inequality, gender equity,
gender gap
• Women’s – women’s world cup, women’s rights, women’s day, women’s
empowerment, women’s football
• Digital – digital skills, digital credit, digital literacy, digital identity
• Youth – youth empowerment, youth unemployment
• Violence – gender-based violence, violence against women, domestic violence,
sexual violence
• Education – higher education, girls’ education, sex education
• Sustainable – sustainable development goals, sustainable digital economy
• Sector – private sector, informal sector, manufacturing sector
• Inclusion – financial inclusion, diversity and inclusion
• Child – girl child, child marriage, child protection, child mortality
• Partnership – public-private partnerships, g20 global partnership
• Media – social media
38• Genital – female genital mutilation
• Unemployment – youth unemployment
• Corporate – corporate governance, corporate social responsibility
• Winner – sole bread winner
Machine learning-derived theme detection finds the top five themes of this coverage to be:
Women (33%), Politics and Government (28%), Finances (23%), Labor (15%), and Economic
Conditions and Trends (15%).
The individuals who are mentioned most frequently in coverage of this topic in Kenya are
members of government, including close to half women (44%). However, six of the top 10
people are women.
Table 27. Top-Mentioned People in Gender Equality Coverage in Kenya
Name M/ Story Coverage Context
W %
1 Uhuru Kenyatta M 6% President; various contexts
2 Raila Odinga M 4% Former Prime Minister, leader of the opposition; political
contexts especially regarding election
3 William Ruto M 3% Deputy President; various contexts
4 Cyril M 2% South African president; Kenyan coverage on
Ramaphosa happenings in South Africa related to women
5 Donald Trump M 2% US president; reactions to Trump’s Global Gag Rule
banning aid to NGOs that provide abortion services
6 Margaret W 2% Secretary of Public Service, Youth and Gender; various
Kobia contexts, including her call for supporting women in the
energy sector
7 Margaret W 1% First Lady; participation in Organization of African First
Kenyatta Ladies for Development, call to improve women’s
welfare
8 Anne Waiguru W 1% Governor of Kirinyaga County; comments on election
9 Lillian Omolio W 1% Former politician; involved in a scandal
10 Mumbi Ngugi W 1% High Court judge; ruled in landmark case on women’s
inheritance
11 Esther Passaris W 1% Nairobi County Women Representative; represented
Kenya in G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion
12 Monica Juma W 1% Secretary of Foreign Affairs; various contexts
13 Mike Sonko M 1% Governor of Nairobi; various contexts
14 Eliud Kipchoge M 1% Kenyan long-distance runner; noted as inspiring to boys
and girls
15 Justin Trudeau M 1% Canadian prime minister; hosted President Uhuru for the
2019 Women Deliver Conference in Canada
16 Wangari W 1% Activist, first African woman to win Nobel Prize; cited for
Maathai her leadership posthumously
17 Kiraitu Murungi M 1% Governor of Meru County; various contexts
39Name M/ Story Coverage Context
W %
18 David Maraga M 1% Chief Justice of Supreme Court; noted government’s
failure to enforce gender quota in representation
19 George Kinoti M 1% Director of Criminal Investigations; criticism of DCI for lack
of response to femicide
20 Ferdinand M 1% Previous governor of Kiambu County; offered money for
Waititu women willing to start small businesses
21 Mishi Mboko W 1% Mombasa Women Representative; noted leader
22 Tiger Woods M 1% American golfer; his niece played at the Kenya Open
23 Fred Matiang M 1% Politician; various contexts
24 Katja Iversen W 1% CEO of Women Deliver advocacy group; hosted Women
Deliver Conference where Uhuru spoke
25 Bob Collymore M 1% Previous CEO of Kenyan telecom company; obituaries
mentioned his efforts to close gender gap in business
The image mosaic for Kenya (see Appendix 3) shows has 36 images where at least one man
is visible, and exactly the same number of images (36) where at least one woman is visible.
Protest demonstrations are featured, as well as several images of governing bodies and
policymaking. Images of money are also featured.
Nigeria
In Nigeria, 0.46% of all stories in 2019 were about gender equality. 10,819 stories matched
the query. Gender equality is covered almost as often as climate change, but both of those
issues are covered less than a third as often as poverty.
Figure 38. Comparative Levels of Coverage Across Issues in Nigeria
Key events that caused notable peaks in coverage were:
• March 8, International Women’s Day. Coverage rose to 1.94% (143 stories), the
highest of any point in the year.
• October 1, Nigerian Independence Day. Coverage rose to 1.22% (93 stories).
• July 21, reporting that the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project had
petitioned the International Criminal Court two days earlier to address the problem
40of millions of out-of-school children in Nigeria, many of whom are girls. Coverage
rose to 1.18% (60 stories).
Figure 39. Top 100 Most Frequently Used Words in Gender Equality Coverage in Nigeria
The top words in coverage are shown above. Examination of these keywords reveal the
following subtopics within the coverage:
• Gender – gender equality, gender inequality, gender gap, gender commission
• Sector – private sector, power sector, health sector, informal sector, education
sector
• Programme – school feeding programme
• Children – out-of-school children, their children, Nigerian children
• Inclusion – financial inclusion, social inclusion, inclusion strategy
• Economy – digital economy
• Tax – tax evasion, tax credit
• Women’s – women’s rights, women’s day, women’s empowerment, women’s soccer
• Innovation – financial innovation, innovation hub
• Media – social media, the media, media practitioners
• Entrepreneurs – women entrepreneurs, African entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs
• Digital – digital skills, digital economy, digital platform, digital divide
• Violence – gender-based violence, domestic violence, sexual violence, violence
against women
• Unemployment – youth unemployment, unemployment rate
• Child – child marriage, girl child, every child, child labour
• Sustainable – sustainable development goals
• Promoting – promoting gender equality, promoting financial inclusion, promoting
peace
41• Inequality – gender inequality, economic inequality, income inequality
Machine learning-derived theme detection finds the top five themes of this coverage to be:
Politics and Government (38%), Finances (29%), Women (28%), Economic Conditions and
Trends (20%), and Labor (17%).
The individuals who are mentioned most frequently in coverage of this topic in Nigeria are
primarily members of government. Only four of the top 25 people (16%) are women.
Table 28. Top-Mentioned People in Gender Equality Coverage in Nigeria
Name M Story Coverage Context
/W %
1 Muhammadu Buhari M 9% President; various contexts
2 Yemi Osinbajo M 3% Vice President; various contexts
3 Donald Trump M 2% President of the United States; various contexts as
Nigerian media report on US news
4 Kolawole Oluwadare M 2% Director of Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project; SERAP actions on behalf of
out-of-school Nigerian children, Nigerians in South
Africa
5 Olusegun Obasanjo M 1% Former President; various contexts
6 Godwin Emefiele M 1% Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; CBN’s
microfinance efforts to empower micro-
entrepreneurs including women
7 Aisha Buhari W 1% First Lady; various contexts
8 Atiku Abubakar M 1% Previous Vice President and candidate in 2019
presidential election; political contexts especially
regarding election
9 Aliko Dangote M 1% Billionaire businessman; made philanthropic
donations towards this issue
10 Nelson Mandela M 1% Former President of South Africa and civil rights
leader; various references
11 Femi Gbajabiamila M 1% Speaker of the House; various contexts
12 Tony Elumelu M 1% Economist and philanthropist; investments in
growing entrepreneurs
13 Cyril Ramaphosa M 1% South African president; various contexts
14 Babajide Sanwo-Olu M 1% Governor of Lagos; administration takes
economic empowerment of women as a focus
15 Bukola Saraki M 1% Former politician; various contexts
16 Abiola Akiyode- W 1% Director of Women Advocates Research and
Afolabi Documentation Center; party to a lawsuit against
Buhari on federal spending
17 Godwin Obaseki M 1% Governor of Edo; fighting human trafficking,
recognized by UN Women
18 Ahmad Lawan M 1% Senate President; various contexts
19 Mahmood Yakubu M 1% Chairman of National Electoral Commission;
mentioned in reports on women in politics
42Name M Story Coverage Context
/W %
20 Akinwumi Adesina M 1% President of African Development Bank; spoke at
UN event to reduce early marriage and rape
21 Femi Falana M 1% Human rights activist; critiquing Buhari’s
government, including for not having enough
women in cabinet
22 Walter Onnoghen M 1% Former chief justice; removed from position,
coverage cites his replacing a woman justice
23 Aisha Yesufu W 1% Founder of Bring Back Our Girls campaign; party
to a lawsuit against Buhari on federal spending
24 Oby Ezekwesili W 1% Co-founder of Bring Back Our Girls; party to a
lawsuit against Buhari on federal spending
25 Adams Oshiomhole M 1% National Chairman of All Progressive Congress
political party; various contexts
The image mosaic for Nigeria (see Appendix 4) has 38 images where at least one man is
visible, and only 22 images where at least one woman is visible. Further, while the images of
men appear to be of featured individuals, the images of singular women generally appear
to be stock photos and are more casual or glamorous shots. Images of gavels, signifying law
and order, are also featured.
South Africa
In South Africa, 0.65% of all stories in 2019 were about gender equality. 10,437 stories
matched the query. Gender equality is covered less than climate change, and a full
percent less than poverty.
Figure 40. Comparative Levels of Coverage Across Issues in South Africa
Key events that caused notable peaks in coverage were:
• August 9, National Women’s Day in South Africa. Coverage rose to 4.53% (162
stories), the highest of any point in the year.
43You can also read
