By Megan Anderson

Dr. Glory Dharmaraj began the session by presenting glaring statistics about women in the reporting field. They can all be found on the Who Makes the News website. Her main message was that gender and religion are not monolithic categories that can be essentialized and that the framing of gender, race, and religion do not occur in a vacuum. The language of “family values” is often used as a reason to keep women from advancing in the field. They are also influenced by fear and the emergence of nascent nationalist ideology.

Next, the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), presented on news accessibility, equality of access, and the representation of people and issues. Who is visible/invisible? Is more than one side of the story presented?