The Gender Report

Dear readers, visitors, and faithful supporters –

When we started talking about this idea of gender representation in a digital media world, we thought maybe we’d find some interesting articles here or there. But as we’ve found time and time again, the lights are still off for the majority of women in both bylines and media representation.

While we remain committed to this mission, we have recognized that some portions of the site have been lacking in recent weeks, and others could use revision. In light of this, we are excited to announce a re-commitment to our work, as well as some changes to our posts and focus:

• Gender Checks – After careful consideration, we’ve decided to bring our Gender Check project to a close. While this project was helpful in providing us with a glimpse of gender in online news (see results from year one of that project here), we feel the need to introduce more systematic and nuanced studies of women’s representation. Watch for posts in the next week wrapping up that project and sharing our data from the four months of that study in 2012.
• Byline Report – One of the new projects we are undertaking as a result is a weekly byline report from a number of online news sites. Data collection will begin July 1. Those reports will monitor bylines for a Sunday through Saturday week and be released the following Wednesday.
• Week in Review – We will continue our Saturday posts, looking at trending gender topics. Look for tomorrow’s post in honor of Nora Ephron.
• Women in Journalism: Reading Lists – This popular feature highlighting interesting reads on women and journalism will still be released each Sunday.

And, look forward to some new additions to our work, including continuing looks at the presidential election and its involvement with gender issues. We will start this work next week with a breakdown of what each candidate has said so far and where they stand on specific issues like women’s health.

As always, we are open to your thoughts and suggestions. Have a study you’d like to see us tackle or a question you’d like answered related to gender representations in online news? Feel free to get in touch with us via email (genderreport[@]gmail.com), social media or in the comment section below. We appreciate your continued readership and support.