Christiane Amanpour, Lisa Ling, Tamron Hall: These are just a few of the women who have made significant contributions to the field of modern journalism. It’s been a tough road for women who want to investigate stories and share them. Way back when women wore petticoats, female journalists were restricted to reporting on society news, and art and theater. Women who wanted to report more had to go undercover. Today, we’re grateful for all those gutsy, newsy gals who dutifully scoured the streets to report on the most important happenings, despite the repercussions.
WOMEN IN NUMBERS: 32 Percent
If you watch many news programs, you’ve probably already caught on to an infuriating trend: There are a lot of dudes who get camera time. From one guy to the next, news anchors are more often than not men. The Women’s Media Center, which commissioned a study on the news industry, found that in evening broadcast news, women are on camera only 32 percent of the time, often because female reporters are assigned stories significantly less often than men. And it’s not much better in the world of print journalism, with women reporting only 37 percent of news stories.
WOMAN TO WATCH: Cristi Hegranes, Founder and Executive Director of Global Press Institute
Today’s Woman to Watch is a thoughtful, experienced and unwavering authority doing her part to ensure more women the world over get the education and support they need to break into and become successful in the journalism realm. Cristi Hegranes is the founder of and head boss lady at Global Press Institute, which works to create a more just and informed world by employing local female journalists to produce ethical and accurate news stories from the world’s least-covered locales.
Cristi, a longtime working journalist, founded Global Press Institute in 2006 in response to the dismal fact that women journalists still don’t get a fair shot. Along with holding a master’s degree in journalism, Cristi worked as a journalist for a variety of lauded news outlets in New York and San Francisco before serving as a foreign correspondent in Nepal, where she gained firsthand knowledge of what it’s like to be a female journalist in a place where the gender disparity in media is unmistakable.
During the course of Cristi’s career, she’s received oodles of awards, including the acclaimed Clarion Award for Investigative Journalism. And in response to her steadfast work, Cristi was named a 2013 Ashoka Fellow, an esteemed distinction for social entrepreneurs who are deemed real changemakers. In fact, her penchant for creating lasting change helped mold Global Press Institute into the pioneering organization it has become.
Global Press Institute hires and trains female journalists to report in areas that are the least covered by traditional media. With its award-winning publication, Global Press Journal, and a syndicated division called Global Press News Service, the institute has definitely made an impact, and has trained and employed nearly 200 female journalists from 26 developing countries to make their mark on the industry and in the lives of their readers.
Cristi’s mission isn’t only to better inform global citizens and give women an opportunity to find their journalistic footing. It’s also to connect each and every person. For instance, Global Press Institute offers U.S. newspapers free access to its reporting in Mexico as a way for Americans to get a real sense of their Southern sister.
Cristi is truly changing the face and future of journalism, carving out a spot for women to make an impact. And that’s the best news we can imagine!
QUITE THE QUOTE
Never one to pull her punches, New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd offers this advice for all career women:
“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.”
This is Melinda Garvey signing off until next time. Remember, ladies, empowered women empower other women. Share On the Dot so more women can have a voice. Thanks for getting ready with us.
To learn more about our conversation, check us out at OnTheDotWoman.com and talk to us @OnTheDotWoman on Twitter and Instagram. We’d love to hear your voice.