Celebrating Women in Community Media – CMFE – March 2021
View in browser March 2021Celebrating Womenin Community Media  Why is it that community media is such a powerful platform for women – our community, our stories, our development challenges and our celebrations? And why is it that women still – in most places – need to struggle to be well represented on air, in management and in the board rooms? And when successful: what is it having a voice generates of opportunities and change?These are some of the questions that we and the many women from community media all over Europe explore in this issue of the CMFE newsletter, celebrating women – womens struggles and women’s many victories. We can promise you that you will leave the reading feeling encouraged, stirred, upset and hopeful based on the stories from around Europe: Poland, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, UK, Spain, Luxembourg and France/Syria,. We in CMFE look forward to receive your story of change, cooperation, and about how you make community media visible and struggle for legal recognition. In solidarity, Birgitte Jallov CMFE President CMFE NewslettersPast newslettersStrengthening an enabling environmentWomen creating safe space for womenNyimas Bantaba – a safe place for migrants and refugees  (Photo: ALEX Berlin)In her programme at ALEX Berlin, Nyima Jadama wants to give migrants and refugees a safe place where they can voice their problems and get involved in society. But who is Nyima, and how was her show created?“Nyimas Bantaba” is a place for migration and women’s power: Nyima Jadama comes from the Gambia. She had only been in Germany for two and a half years when she applied for an integration traineeship at ALEX Berlin. At first, Niyma did not dare to take this step: “There were so many requirements,” she says. These included a residence permit, which she did not have at that time. That’s why Nyima was initially very worried about whether she would have a chance at all to get the training place. But she had one decisive advantage: Niyma had already worked in journalism before her traineeship, as she worked as a media educator and presenter in Freiburg at Radio Dreyeckland.It all started with the traineeshipIn the end, Nyima was able to prevail over the other applicants and complete her 18-month integration traineeship at ALEX Berlin. During this time, she learned a lot about the media sector, she says: “The traineeship helped me a lot.” Nyima went through many different departments in the TV and radio sector and was even able to complete several internships in external media houses. During her traineeship, she also attended the Berlin School of Journalism, where she took German courses, among other things. Overall, Nyima was able to learn a lot about working in the media as well as develop her competencies and skills in these areas. Read more!Most recent showGMMP Results: Glacial progress towards media gender equality 25 years on  New data from global research with additional analysis of Covid-19 newsTwenty-five years after the Fourth UN World Conference on Women (Beijing), the news media remain far from being inclusive spaces for women, vulnerable women, and historically marginalized groups, according to preliminary results released by the 2020 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). [See Preliminary Results Data and Infographics.]The results suggest that “glass ceilings are setting in on certain important news media gender equality indicators, while others are edging upwards,” says Sarah Macharia, global co-ordinator of the GMMP, which has been studying women’s presence in relation to men, gender bias and stereotyping in news media content every five years since 1995.The results from 80 of the 120 participating countries indicate that while there is some progress on some indicators, women’s invisibility as subjects and sources in the news is still the norm especially for marginalized women.In Latin America, for example, Indigenous people make up only 1% of subjects and sources (persons seen, heard or spoken about) in television news stories despite being 8% of the population in the region. Out of this meagre proportion, only 3 out of 10 are womenRead more here: https://whomakesthenews.org/gm…Hillary Nicholson, GMMP Caribbean region co-ordinatorVisibility ofWomen in Community MediaWomen in CM in EuropeOn the occasion of the international Women’s Day on March 8, no less than nine women returned our call for stories about the role of community media in the lives of women in Europe. They came from Poland, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Austria, France/Syria and Sweden.We are very happy to share them hereunder. With a warm thank you for the stories, the photos and all the experiences and life represented, we will let you get on with it!Women at the microphone in Poland  (Photo: Private Archive of Karolina Rogóz-Namiotko)”Lejdi Gada – women at the microphone”, is a program broadcast on student radio UWM FM in Olsztyn (Poland) about women who fulfill themselves in life through passion and work.The guests of Karolina Rogóz-Namiotko are female soldiers, psychologists, cooks, dressmakers, entrepreneurs, presidents, mothers, etc. The host of the show believes that the woman who acts with passion and commitment is able to inspire more women to change for the better. It is a program about self-development, self-acceptance and self-esteem.Karolina Rogóz-Namiotko explains how important this program is for her ”meeting other women gives me a lot of energy and great sisterly love. I’ve always dreamed of traveling, but somewhere along the way, life met me: home, work, a child. My daily duties fully absorbed me and these interviews and conversations, both on air and off air, became for me journeys to another world, full of passion, commitment, female sensitivity and strength”. The Power of Engaging Women as Community BroadcastersAll voices matter, but some are sometimes too loud and some others are told to be quiet.  (Photo: Veta Vlasova)By: Gohar SharoyanPodcasting and creating any other radio content as a woman on a community radio such as Radio ARA is about taking up a space where you can sound like yourself, and the more yourself you sound, the better it is. In the physical realm struggling to be heard can be a daily practice for many women, however, the immaterial element of the material body, the voice, creates a whole new dimension of self-positioning and expression in the context of podcasting.Through resisting and redefining norms of sonic space, the female voices speak about themselves and the world they live in, creating a sincere, intimate and empathic environment between themselves and the listeners. We hear and we “feel” feminine voices on the frequencies of radio ARA, and these voices are sharing personal stories, experiences, these voices are vibrant, deviant, these voices talk about the society, politics, culture, sex, life and these voices are heard.A personal experienceMy journey through the world of radio and podcasting, which remains a territory yet to be discovered on even deeper levels, has enriched my personality to a large extent. Through my experience at Radio ARA over the past 5 years, I have had the greatest pleasure to explore and play with sound and silence, with my own voice, my thinking, as well as to connect to the audience and create a shared and dynamic presence independent of space and time. I was given all the tools and the freedom to experiment, to learn how to make shows, podcasts, jingles and to navigate through radio as a digital storytelling tool.My journey thus expanded into incorporating radio production and podcasting into my university research as well as getting involved in podcast initiatives on a professional basis. Additionally, my studies gave me a new vision of radio production and podcasting as forms of experiential and artistic learning. Importantly, I have been part of the campus radio over the last three years through which I have been able to connect to a wider student community, to welcome some students in our studios and co-create podcasts together.On a final note, even though there still are entities disparaging the sound of feminine/feminist voices, podcast-space on a community radio gives the potentiality for all these voices to travel through waves and frequencies and reach not only ears but also hearts.Global Dialogues (Photo: Women on air)Through our community broadcast „Women on air” based in Vienna we speak up for women, who do not often get their stories to be told.Through their personal life stories and expertise, we get to know “other” point of views, through which we can change each other’s perceptions and perspectives. We address each woman, who we interview with respect and dignity, so that they feel comfortable enough to open up, talk about their incredible knowledge and make them heard by a large audience. In this way, at the end of the day, there is a win-win-situation between the interviewee and the interviewer, who is in the responsibility of the audio production, and both feel empowered. She Talks on BCB Radio!  (Photo: BCB)For the last 25 years BCB, the community radio station for Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK, has been celebrating International Women’s Day 8 March. Originally this meant applying for a special licence to run a dedicated women’s radio station, called Radio Venus, for several days – or even a week! Since BCB started broadcasting fulltime, BCB women have continued to take over the airwaves on this day, celebrating and showcasing women in Bradford. This year, as well as 8 March, we are focusing on the whole of March, broadcasting a series of programmes and features produced by women under the banner of’She Talks’.The events of the last 12 months – i.e. the issues amplified by the Black Lives Matters Movement, the stark inequalities that the Covid pandemic has highlighted, against the backdrop of climate change, has focused our minds – yet again – on those voices that don’t get heard. So, this March our focus has very much been on putting Black Women and Women of Colour at the heart of our broadcasting. We can’t underestimate the empowering role that community radio can play in women’s lives, especially for those broadcasting for the first time. We’ve actively sought out women from our diverse grass-roots communities, training and supporting women to make radio, sharing their passions, aspirations and have their lived experiences recognised. Bringing women together and creating community over the airwaves has never been more important than it is right now.She Talks – and She will continue to talk!Jingle * She TalksEmpowerment of young women through Community TV in Sweden  (Photo: Bosse Burgren)My name is Karin Schill and I’m a journalist. I have been involved with community television in Sweden since 2004. I first came in contact with community broadcasting when I was in college since the student TV organization I was involved with broadcast their programs on the local TV channel Öppna Kanalen Närke.I joined the organization and after I had graduated from college I got a job there in 2008 managing a new youth project called Ung Arena. I have since then been the driving force behind three more youth projects for the local community broadcaster. An important part of my job is to teach young people how to work with television productions. They get to learn how to film, how to conduct interviews, how to act in front of a camera and take up sound. These are some of my experiences from working with young women in the local community. For my first project I was working with a 24 year old woman who was so camera shy that she didn’t want to be shown on television. After a lot of coaching I managed to convince her to interview the musical guest for one of the episodes of our talk show.  (Photo: Matilda) After this she realized that she actually enjoyed being on camera and later went on getting a job at the public service channel in another part of Sweden. For my second project I was working with two 23 year old women who have a learning disability that has separated them from their peers at school from an early age. It has made them feel excluded.By becoming involved with community TV these women were able to participate together with their peers without anyone even noticing that they had a disability. They made new friends. It made them realize that they could fit in and manage more things than they had thought. For my third project I was working with two sisters who were 17 and 19 years old. They had difficulties at school and didn’t feel like anyone listened to them. By being a part of the script writing team for a mini TV-series that we were producing these women found a way to express themselves and realized that they did have a voice. By being a part of community television these women have been empowered and their lives have changed for the better.  (Photo: Elin Aslaksen)RADIA – the feminist mobile studio bus (Photos: Sabine Rock)The Women’s Strike in Switzerland on June 14, 2019 was the biggest mobilization in Switzerland since the General Strike 1918. More than half a million women took to the street. That is one out of eight women in Switzerland. In the big cities traffic was shut down for several hours but also in small villages in the country side, local strike committees organized activities. The demands of the women were diverse and made obvious that despite many years of feminist struggles there is still a long way to gender equality. During the first Women’s Strike in Switzerland in 1991 for equal pay for equal work for women and men, the feminist broadcasting team along with many women in media decided to to go on strike and we closed the radio station because without the important contribution women the radio would not exist. Afterwards we realized this was a mistake, because as a result of the media women striking, there was very little coverage on the success of the strike back in 1991. Therefore women in media decided this time, we need to work even more on this day, as male colleagues will not do the job for us. As feminist broadcasters of Radio LoRa we initiated ”Radia – your strike radio”. We decided to report right from the center of the mobilizations. We converted a camping car into a mobile studio that reported straight from the streets. Radia on Radio LoRa became the strike radio in Zurich, where all the information about the activities came together and were broadcasted, where the striking women had a voice and were the broadcasters of their own stories and demands. With direct links to other community radio station. Our listeners learned from the activities other parts of Switzerland their listeners heard what was going on in Zurich.  ”Radia” was such a success that we decided to rename the feminist broadcasting team ”Radia – your feminist radio”. And our mobile studio bus became so popular that it is present every March 8 and June 14 since 2019.This March 8 the feminist movement in Zurich organized decentralized activities and a short mobilization at the end on a big square, in line with corona security measures. But the police reacted with repression right from the start. They dispersed the decentralized activities despite the fact that the activists did not violate any corona-rules.The police in full gear harassed our mobile studio bus by stopping and checking us every corner and prevented us to go close to the activities. In other words they prevented us from doing our job as journalists, to report about the protest activities on International Women’s Day and about the repression by the police. Luckily our flying reporters were able to call to our mobile studio bus and we could still broadcast of what was going on. And thanks to the persistence of the young feminist protesters, the pressure became to strong and the police had to withdraw. Finally a small rally was possible and as soon as the police withdraw our mobile studio bus was able to join the protesters and could once again report from the center of the activities. We received lots of positive feedback from the listeners and the protesters.Radio plays a very special role in the lives of many women in Syria  (Photos: Radio Rozana)We are here sharing three stories with Syrian women using radio to get the needed power in different situations – with different perspectives: one who is engaged in the media, one who got impacted by the media and one who finds her way thorough media.Nour, a radio presenter under pressureNour is getting a lot of pressure from her husband and her close circle because she works in a radio station as presenter where she hosts a programme in support women in the society.The more Nour’s programme breaks taboos, the more harassing messages and direct talks have been sent to her husband.“You’re not a real man “, “You let your wife talk about virginity”,” You don’t have any kind of honor”. Those are the kind of the messages that are sent to the husband.Nour is a woman with a scarf, she lives a very traditional life and is not acting as a rebel.Still, she gets a lot of pressure from the society and from her family based on the concept and problems raised in her programme on the radio.  Rim, using media to break the silence after being rapedRim is a young woman who got raped in her early teenager. First of all she decided to shut up because she was afraid of society’s judgment of her. Maybe she will never get engaged or be able to marry if somebody knows about her story?Later she changed her mind and talked on social media about it, and then in the media.She found out that she can’t be with a partner and hide an accident like this. She thinks “It’s a fake life then and I can’t accept to live like this”.A part of her community tried to convince her to keep silent and make an operation to hide the harm done, re-creating her hymen.Rim refused and started to reveal it openly, and to advise women faced by the same situation, to talk about it – also to change the conservative Syrian society.  Hiba, finding her way through the mediaHiba is young mother with two kids. She is from an educated segment in society but still, she wasn’t able to decide what to do, when her husband got physically violent. She was listening to a program on Syrian media talking about violence against women. She contacted the host of the programme and asked for legal help in a diaspora country.The radio host kept following her situation and put her in contact with a lawyer to advise her what to do, to get her rights especially to her children. She talked on the programme, took the advice, asked for a divorce and kept her children with her.Hiba now is a trainee in that same media house, and she wants to improve herself to be able to ensure that other women also get their voices heard in the media. Women who are lost, and don’t know what to do, can get their way through the media. This is why we in Radio Rozana keep going. Women are one of the very vulnerable groups, whether in Syria or living outside. Playing this important role in the lives of our women listeners motivates us and gives us direction. Radio Rozana is a Syrian exile community radio station based in Paris, France and Gaziantep, Turkey listened by 9 million persons.Community media are wonderful, experimenting learning communities …but we need more women involved to be really egalitarian, diverse and plural alternative media!(Photos: CUAC-FM)By: Isabel Lema Blanco CUAC-FM, AMARC-EuropeMy beginnings in Community media are linked to CUAC FM, the Community Radio placed in A Coruña (Galicia, Spain). According to my experience, running a radio show allows young women to have a voice in the issues that matter. But Community Media is much more than radio, it is also an opportunity to be involved in social innovation processes that, in Spain, aim to challenge and democratize the current media ecosystem, contributing to build a more plural and diversity media ecosystem. The women’s movement and community media have always walked together. Our discourses are aligned, and Spanish community radios have coordinated relevant projects in the past to disseminate and visualize the important role of women in media.In my personal experience I have never noticed any difficulties or barriers for participating and taking a leadership role in our movement.  But I realize that as any media, community radio are neither free of gender discrimination nor paternalism, and we still see a majority of males as leaders or spokespersons of the community projects.I was the president of CUAC FM when I was 22 years old. It was a pleasant and unforgettable experience I feel very proud of. Community radios are spaces in which we build meaningful relations, make many friends and voluntary work is aligned with social and political goals, which is highly fulfilling. However, in my experience, institutional interaction is difficult sometimes, especially when you are a young woman. I felt that male sometimes patronized me or treated me with a certain paternalism, and I had to fight double to be taken into consideration.I believe that things have changed in the last decade.However, there are still challenges facing related to gender issues in community media. Community radio stations make a particularly important effort so that women can construct their discourse and spread it through the media. I think community media are very accessible, but we must do even more to understand why there are groups of women who do not participate in community media.  What can be the causes?Maybe it is a matter of lack of media competence or maybe there are other perceived bias, such as spaces “dominated” by other social groups in which they perceive not to be welcome. In my experience, Community media are learning communities where to experiment, develop new abilities and feel empowered. Women must have more presence in the alternative media system in order to be more egalitarian, diverse and plural.10 years on air, for the love of community radio  (Photo: private archive)Since 2010, Gloria has been producing and presenting a weekly radio show Suhaana Safar (meaning a beautiful journey) every Saturday since August 2010 on Unity 101FM. For this year’s World Radio Day she said :“When you are talking on radio, it feels like you are directly talking to someone.. so close.. still far away. This is why it is an intimate invisible medium. I love community radio!”Gloria has also worked as a freelance radio journalist for American Public radio programmes: FSRN, AARP Radio, Sound Medicine, UnFictional.As Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Bournemouth University, UK, Gloria has published important research about the history of radio. Gloria holds a PhD on ‘The Evolution of British Asian Radio in England: 1960 – 2004’, completed at Bournemouth University, UK. This research was funded under the Bournemouth University Vice-Chancellor PhD Scholarship Scheme.(https://emhis.blogg.lu.se/emhis-member-gloria-khamkars…/)She has also run civic journalism courses for Social Works in India https://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/…/fmc-academic…/She is an elected member of the Board of Directors, Community Media Association, UK and Associate Editor, Journal of Radio & Audio Media.Gloria was a Research Member of a European Research Project – Entangled Media History (EMHIS) during 2013-19. Funded by Swedish Government, this research project established collaborations between Bournemouth University, UK, Lund University, Sweden and the Research Centre for the Hans-Bredow Institute for Media Research at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Gloria participated and presented in the EMHIS workshops in Bournemouth (UK), Hamburg (Germany), Lund (Sweden) and Lisbon (Portugal) since 2013. https://emhis.blogg.lu.se/All that you did not know you might be missing…C L A S S I F I E D SEventsNECS Online Lecture Series 2021 on Media and MigrationNECS – the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies – is co-hosting its first Online Lecture Series in 2021, on the topic of Media and Migration. The Online Lecture Series is open to all. A specific focus on methodology will be common to all lectures and will be articulated in connection to fields as varied as ethnic media, diaspora, migrant audiences, digital technologies and border regimes, as well as postcolonialism and gender.The confirmed speakers and dates for the series are:— 28 January 2021 – Radha Sarma Hegde (Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University)— 25 February 2021 – Sandra Ponzanesi (Professor of Media, Gender and Postcolonial Studies, Utrecht University)— 25 March 2021 – Martina Tazzioli (Lecturer in Politics and Technology, Goldsmith University)— 29 April 2021 – Kevin Smets (Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel)— 27 May 2021 – Myria Georgiou (Professor of Media and Communications, London School of Economics)EFJ Online seminars on “Improving media reporting on Muslims and Islam”The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is organising a series of three online seminars (around 2.5 hours per section) on “Improving media reporting on Muslims and Islam” in cooperation with DG Justice.They have 30 spots for journalists from EU and candidate countries.The seminars are expected to take place from the end of March or beginning of April 2021.If anyone is interested, please email the EFJ at laura@europeanjournalists.org About the online seminars: The seminars will address the current state of Islamophobia in the media, including unintentional discrimination and the role of images in misrepresentation. Also, the role of self-regulation and ethical standards in journalism shall be discussed. Existing good practices and tools will be examined and an exchange among participants facilitated. Journalism experts and representatives of Muslims and Islam will be invited to the seminars to exchange views and foster understanding. The ultimate goals are to gather a group of committed journalists who will act as influencers among their peers by sharing their gained experience and to promote ethical journalism to avoid uninvited political influence and bad media regulation.Migration and Media Awareness 2021  CMMA2020 has been postponed from its original 2020 programme plan due to Corona.In 2021 the conference theme remains: “Looking Back, Thinking Ahead” and will focus on the importance of inclusion, diversity, and participation.CMFE is happy to be a core partner of CMMA 2021.Save the date!!!Read More!AwardsCoronavirus news for children eligible for global award Producers of news for children who have excelled in explaining important pandemic issues will be honored by this year’s Global Youth & News Media Prize.The Journalism Award of the Prize this year will recognize innovation in coverage on any platform about the COVID-19 pandemic for children. The award will recognize breakthrough reporting with, about and/or for this young audience that produces a clear, important impact, especially through a solutions journalism approach and will be judged by an international jury of experts in science, journalism and childhood education.Registration for the award opens 1 March with a deadline for entries of 16 April. Laureates will take part in an international ceremony and webinar designed to spread the word about their outstanding contributions to journalism and education and encourage emulation of them.Further details and registration information can be found here.Global Youth & News Media is a French nonprofit committed to linking young people and news media in ways that reinforce youth citizenship and journalism in society. In addition to its global awards program, the organization amplifies youth journalism through its World Teenage Reporting Projects.For more information: info@youthandnewsmedia.netwww.globalyouthandnewsmediaprize.netNews organizations can nominate teachers of press freedom for global awardTeachers who help students learn about press freedom will be honored by a special award in the 2021 edition of the Global Youth & News Media Prize. The Press Freedom Teacher Award will recognize excellence in assuring that students develop a thorough understanding of the crucial role of journalism in society, and of the sometimes deadly risks for people who do this work. It will serve as the news/literacy category for this year’s prize.Details are here about this prize category and how to nominate yourself or someone else. Educators teaching any kind of course at any level — primary, secondary or university — can nominate themselves or be nominated by someone else: colleagues, students, news organizations or NGOs.Registration opens 1 March with a deadline for entries of 16 April. Laureates will take part in an international ceremony and webinar designed to spread the word about their outstanding contributions to journalism and education and encourage emulation of them.Global Youth & News Media is a French nonprofit committed to linking young people and news media in ways that reinforce youth citizenship and journalism in society. In addition to its global awards program, the organization amplifies youth journalism through its World Teenage Reporting Projects.For more information: info@youthandnewsmedia.netwww.globalyouthandnewsmediaprize.netPublicationsGIJN Marks International Women’s Day with Updated Resources for Women JournalistsThe figures still paint a depressing picture, whether it’s about who is in the news or who is making it. According to Media4Women, a campaign from the nonprofit Free Press Unlimited, just 24% of people featured in newspapers, television, and radio news are women; a full 81% of experts interviewed are male. Of the newspapers, television, and radio newscasts featured in its study, just 37% of stories were reported by women, a figure that has remained unchanged in the last ten years.The data from Women Photograph, an organization campaigning to increase the representation of female photographers in the news, is equally bleak. Last year, 11% of front page photographs in The Wall Street Journal were taken by women; at the UK’s Guardian, the figure was 8%; in France, at Le Monde, 10%. Even the outlets with the best figures are far short of parity: 29% at The New York Times and 43% at the San Francisco Chronicle.More here!Seven tips from EJN for journalists covering pandemics  The Ethical Journalism Network has compiled a list of seven tips for journalists covering pandemics. The Covid-19 crisis has underscored how essential accurate and factual news is, and conversely the damage that can be done by the spread of unethical and inaccurate information. These points are offered by the Ethical Journalism Network, in a similar format to previous infographics to support journalists faced with reporting on hate speech or covering migration issues, here:7 pointsThe Journal of Journalism Education: Gender focusThis special edition of Journalism Education examines the issues of gender and the media from the recruitment of students to journalism programmes to the gendered choice of news in our media.The editors are extremely grateful for the hard work and energy of our guest editors, Elisabeth Eide and Gita Bamezai and their contributors for producing an absorbing and timely edition of Journalism Education.Free for download: HERE!Other ’Women and Community Media’ resources – here from 2020Community Media Forum Europe – cmfe.euRue de la Linière 11, Bruxelles BelgiumYou received this email because you signed up on our website or have been in touch with CMFE through recent projects and eventsUnsubscribe |
