Jordan Media Institute concludes project on Awareness and Capacity Building for Gender-Sensitive Reporting

The Jordan Media Institute (JMI) concluded a project aimed at raising awareness and promote joint advocacy on gender-sensitive reporting on women in the workforce with the goal to foster an enabling narrative in the media for women in the labor market, shedding light on their expertise and vital contribution to Jordan’s economy.

Implemented in partnership with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), the project focused on strengthening media and information literacy through gender-sensitive lens, while building the capacities of journalists and media professionals to produce gender-sensitive media content and to report on gender-based violence cases.

“The media plays a critical role in addressing and guiding the public perception on supportive workplaces that nurtures professionalism in lieu of traditional stereotypical gendering of qualifications,” said Dr. Mustafa Hamarneh, Chief Executive Officer of JMI. 

“The training was critical in promoting a greater sense of awareness in the narratives that foster an environment conducive to the empowerment of women as productive members of Jordan’s labor market” he added.

Through a comprehensive five-day training workshops on “Capacity Building for Gender Equality in the Media”, 65 journalists and media professionals, who were selected from a pool of applicants, were trained on how to apply gender-sensitive reporting tools and techniques to create media content that empowers women and promotes gender-equality in the workplace, with a particular focus on mainstreaming gender-responsive language.

"The partnership between the JMI and UN Women is fundamental to promote more gender responsive reporting on the role and impact of women in the public discourse. In this sense, the workshops organized by the Jordan Media Institute and UN Women are remarkable. They are taking into account the importance of the journalist role when report news regarding women and how it needs to be reported in a gender-sensitive way to create a new narrative. We are sure that the guidebook for journalists that launched by the JMI will have a relevant impact on the topic.” said Eleonora Banfi on behalf of AICS.

The trainings were followed by online conversations delivered by four guest speakers who shared their experiences and recommendations on gender-sensitive reporting in their professional experiences. The speakers included the Director-General of the Jordan News Agency (Petra), Faiq Al-Hijazin; former Amnesty International Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), former Agence France Presse (AFP) bureau Chief for MENA, and JMI board member, Randa Habib; former minister of state for media affairs and communication, Dr. Mohammad Al Momani; and Jordanian journalist and human rights activist, Rana Husseini. To further create awareness, recordings of the presentations and discussions were shared on JMI’s YouTube channel and social media platforms.

“UN Women recognizes the significant role media plays in advancing women’s economic empowerment. Through their work, they can shed light on women’s equal contribution to Jordan’s labor market and economic growth” said Hazar Asfoura on behalf of UN Women.

During the event partners launched a digital guidebook to support journalists and media professionals in covering gender-sensitive issues and gender-based violence, which is going to be available on JMI’s platforms. The guidebook includes tutorial videos, case study clippings, useful social and legislative information pertaining to gender sensitive reporting, and guidelines on covering related issues, such as the empowerment of women in the workplace through media coverage.