Q: Why do you believe The Global Report on Women in the News Media is needed?
BB: I think there are several reasons. One is that people often talk about mainstream media as “male-stream” media. That there is a dominant view – almost invisible – that the voice of media is white and male and older. I think that since women make up half the population, it is really good to understand how they influence news. Since news is kind of an essential thing for democracy, for day-to-day living, for information about health, it would be good to know if women play a role in news making. For so long we’ve assumed they haven’t, or they haven’t played a very big role, but now we have an opportunity to learn if they do.
Q: What impact do you think this project will have?
BB: What I hope the study will do is be able to shed some light on the roles that women play in the newsroom in terms of covering stories, writing stories, editing stories. I also hope it will be able to shed some light on how women are viewed as policy makers, or are they? How they determine editorial content and how they determine the direction that the news organization itself takes. There tends to be a disconnect between what happens in academics and what happens in the profession, and maybe this will be one way that we can help people working in the news industry see that academic stuff has some relevance to their lives and also “here is what you should know about women’s roles.”
Q: What prepared you to oversee the research for your area of the world?
BB: I was a reporter for about 11 years – a reporter and an editorial writer. I did not know what sexism was until I entered the newsroom. I grew up in a family and a town where you were kind of encouraged to be the best you could be. Then I went to a newsroom where people got raises because they were men, where men were hired at higher salaries than women, where people really sexually harassed you and it was just looked at like “Hey, that’s part of the job if you’re a reporter, you can take it.” And I thought “There is a better way, I’m sure, to run a news organization.” I got to see the sexism firsthand and experience it. You almost feel isolated like “Well, this is just happening to me,” and then you start talking to other women and it was like “No, there’s a pattern here,” at least in our office. I don’t think that’s as true now. There are laws now. But at that time there weren’t. … One of the things I do as a teacher is teach people who want to be journalists. What I do as a researcher is look at how the media cover issues. I think that gives me a little bit of perspective. I’ve got the theoretical as well as the practical. I did see as a reporter how news can make a big difference in people’s lives. I take journalism very seriously.