GENDER EQUALITY IN THE COVERAGE OF ELECTIONS BY TV MEDIA

The monitoring was focused on main evening news releases and political talk shows broadcasted in prime time on five national and three regional channels. These channels are: Channel One of the Public Broadcaster, Adjara, Rustavi 2, Imedi, Maestro, Trialeti, Gurjaani and Odishi. The monitoring period was September 11-November 12 2017. The monitoring consisted of quantitative and qualitative components. 

For the quantitative component, the project was using the data collected within the frameworks of the ongoing media monitoring project implemented by the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, which has been commissioned by the UNDP. The quantitative component monitored the time allocated to female respondents in main evening news releases, their direct and indirect speech. 

The qualitative component was based on the guidelines on covering gender issues, which the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics had developed for media outlets. The qualitative component monitored the topics for which the news was made and if there was a gender-based segregation in this respect, i.e. if there was any particular topic more associated with women or men. Special emphasis was laid on the coverage of gender equality and the issues raised by journalists / talk show hosts, which were pertinent to the equality between men and women, especially putting this issue on the agenda during the pre-election period. The monitoring observed the usage of terms and the coverage which strengthens or defies gender stereotypes rooted within the Georgian community. Monitoring of talk shows observed whether the guests were talking in a language which emphasized that women are unequal to men and how the host reacted to these cases.