Gender in the 2020 Election Campaign in the Spotlight of AAAVMS’ First Public Meeting in 2021
Skopje, 25 March 2021 – The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services held a public meeting today. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the meeting was held using video conference connection. At the meeting, the Director of the Agency, Dr. Zoran Trajchevski, presented a summary of the activities implemented in the past three months in line with the Agency’s Annual Work Programme.
Those attending had an opportunity to hear about the conducted supervising activities over the broadcasters, operators of public electronic communication networks, the print media publishers, as well as about the imposed public warning measures, conducted research activities and activities in the field of international cooperation.
Also presented at the meeting were the findings of the analysis of gender issues and the manner of depicting and presenting women and men in the news aired by the national television services – MRT1, MRT2, Alsat-M TV, Alfa TV, Kanal 5 TV, Sitel TV and Telma TV, during the election campaign for the 2020 Early Parliamentary Elections. The analysis was conducted for the needs of the Agency by the “Societas Civilis” Institute for Democracy from Skopje.
The findings of the analysis showed that the media coverage of the election campaign was remarkably prone towards promoting the male MP candidates and the male perspective and expertise on the developments relating to the elections. The female candidates were overshadowed by their male counterparts, had less access to the various forms of promotion for their platforms, and their profiles and messages remained anonymous, i.e. unheard and unseen by the public. In the items reporting on the election campaign, out of a total of 134 political party representatives 128 were men, as opposed to 6 women. In the daily news programmes dedicated to election topics, of those who appeared as primary subjects 86% were men, as opposed to 14% of women.
The qualitative analysis of the content of the daily news programmes, among other things, showed that in a total of 9 news items the representation of women was sexually objectified, while 6 reports involved stereotyping based on the gender roles presumed by the society.
The presentations are available at the following links:
Activities conducted in tune with the AAAVMS Annual Work Plan
Zoran Trajchevski, PhD, AAAVMS Director
Alysis of gender during the election campaign for the 2020 Early Parliamentary Elections
Aleksandra Jovevska Gjorgjevic – “Societas Civilis” Institute for Democracy
– The Agenda of the Public Meeting of the Agency can be downloaded here
– The Registration Form for participation in the Public Meeting of the Agency can be downloaded here