Women feature in fewer than 20% of headline stories and just 10% of total news output according to the most recent survey by the Global Media Monitoring Project. Of course, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise, merely reflecting female under-representation in public life.
Women’s Views on News seeks to redress this imbalance, sourcing and aggregating stories that the mainstream press neglects, or at least relegates to the inner recesses of the paper. Challenging existing media biases, the website brings women’s experiences and perspectives to the fore, defining them as newsworthy. Though an ambitious aspiration, the collectively-run site does an admirable job, publishing 10-15 stories a day on a vast range of subjects: recent entries, for example, range from a report on the influence of female tea party supporters to a story on the fatal consequences of poor access to contraception in Indonesia.
With its refreshingly different take on current affairs, Women’s Views on News will definitely be making an appearance on my favourites list.
