NEWS
Sexism rife in media Hannah Thompson
Photographs: Guardian; Georgie Bradley; Jack Rivlin; AP
Sexism is still blocking women from reaching the top jobs in journalism despite the high numbers of women studying the subject at university, an unpublished report by the head of City’s undergraduate programme has concluded. In a new report called Women in Journalism, for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Professor Suzanne Franks explores why women are still being held back from the industry’s most senior jobs despite their early success. Franks cites newsroom sexism, a still-male-oriented culture, women’s tendency to go freelance once they’ve had children, and a damaging assumption that the industry does not need to do anything more to change as the key factors that contribute to limiting women’s progress. She said: “I talk in my report about ‘news hounds’ and ‘feature bunnies’. There are still these huge stereotypes. People have got to be aware of them all the time
Suzanne Franks: Sexism has “got
if we want to change.” This imbalance remains despite the fact that while at university and at the beginning of their careers, female journalists often outstrip men both in numbers and pay. City University’s journalism department is a case in point with many more women than men studying the subject at both postgraduate and undergraduate level. In 2011, 186 men and 376 women studied journalism at City. In 2012, an even higher gender imbalance emerged, with 146 men and 370 women studying at City. This year was only marginally more balanced, with 170 men and 369 women. “We have an overwhelmingly female cohort,” said Franks. “It worries me.” And yet women are still said to face problems when progressing through the ranks, as many feel forced to go freelance once they have children, leaving mainstream, ‘hard-core’ staff jobs. “There is only one woman editor of a national newspaper now, whereas in the nineties there were three at the same time,” said Franks. “People were saying then that by 2010 it would be 50/50 men to women, but it’s got worse. I’ve talked to very senior women who say that there are still ingrained assumptions about what a ‘normal woman’ does. In 2013, that’s pretty odd. “Everyone thinks that it’s all fine now because we know about sexism and harassment and stereotyping, but no matter how many times you say that, things go backwards sometimes.” The report is due for worse” publication this summer.
Tab goes national Isobel Finbow A tabloid-style website set up by a former Newspaper MA postgraduate has hit 400,000 unique users in the last month. Jack Rivlin’s The Tab began at Cambridge University and now has branches in 12 other universities, including Exeter, Liverpool and Bristol. Teams of up to 20 students work on each site, edited and managed by Rivlin and a small team based in Clerkenwell, east London. The project, which Rivlin developed through City’s Entrepreneurial Journalism module in 2012, received backing from Cambridge investors Downing Enterprises. Director of Entrepreneurial Journalism at City, Barbara Rowlands, said: “It’s absolutely terrific that he got funding
Jack Rivilin: Put it on The Tab
for The Tab. A start-up needs someone with energy like Jack.” Rivlin said: “If you’ve got an idea and you want to do it there are some seriously useful lessons in there.” While the brand specialises in student news and gossip, the Oxford branch broke the story of George Galloway walking out of a debate on Israel, after discovering his opponent was Israeli. The incident was picked up by the mainstream press.
Colvin honoured at City University Alice Hancock A special posthumous award was presented at City’s annual James Cameron lecture in October to The Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin. Killed in February 2012 while covering the siege of Homs in Syria, Colvin had worked as a foreign correspondent for the paper since 1985. The late Marie Colvin James Witherow, editor of by the Colvin family to support The Sunday Times, received the work in humanitarian aid and award on Colvin’s behalf. He journalism. described renowned journalist The official annual James James Cameron as “brave, Cameron Memorial Award was shrewd, charismatic and given to Martin Wolf of the irrepressible” before applying Financial Times for his coverage the same words to Colvin: of the financial crisis. “Nothing could better describe The 2012 lecture was given Marie Colvin.” The £1000 prize money from by prominent Indian journalist and former editor-in-chief of the award will go to the Marie The Hindu, Narasimhan Ram. Colvin Memorial Fund, set up
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