Editors: Francisco-José García-Ramos (Complutense University of Madrid), María-Soledad Vargas-Carrillo (Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso) and Alexandra Wake (University in Melbourne).
In 1979, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted “The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women”, which recognizes that “the full and complete development of a country, the welfare of the world and the cause of peace require the maximum participation of women on equal terms with men in all fields”. Today, on the 40th anniversary of this Convention, the steps proposed in its Art. 10, relative to the role of education, says goals are still a pending subject for the education systems of even the most advanced countries. This problem becomes more poignant if we consider the new contexts of inequality arising from the media and technology revolutions as an obstacle to implementing effective strategies and policies in educommunication, strategies which endeavour to fight discrimination and violence against women, educating in the principles of equality and diversity from a gender perspective.
Despite the “Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action” of 1995, the existing regional, national, and international policies, and the recommendations provided by UNESCO through The Global Alliance for Media and Gender (GAMAG), the last results of the “Global Monitoring Media Project (GMMP)” (2010) and the “Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media” (2011) still confirm the urgent need to continue creating global policies regarding gender equality in the field of educommunication.
In 2012 UNESCO developed the “Gender-Sensitive Indicators for Media (GSIM)” in order to provide an effective framework for analysis to be implemented on a global scale. In addition, a network of universities integrated with “The International UNESCO UniTWIN Network on Gender, Media, and ICTs” was created to foster the goals as mentioned above. Amongst the specific actions proposed in 2018 to promote gender equality practices in the field of educommunication, UNESCO-UniTWIN also developed the model curricula: “Gender, Media, and ICTs. New Syllabi for Media, Communication, and Journalism”.
Taking the proposals by UNESCO and UNESCO-UniTWIN as a reference point, this special issue endeavours to deepen the analysis and discussion of the theoretical and practical aspects of the introduction -total or partial- of said recommendations, tools for assessment, model curricula, and methodologies. A space for critical analysis based on empirical contributions and specific experiences of implementation in different geographical contexts within the fields of gender training media and ICTs in education and teacher training in these areas.
Descriptors
- Gender perspectives in the different levels of education.
- Gender perspectives in Communication and ICTs Studies.
- Teacher training regarding equality, diversity, and gender identity in higher education
- Innovative and transversal educational projects in gender, media, and ICTs.
- Gender-sensitive indicators for media and educommunication contexts.
- Experiences of implementation of the “Gender, Media, and ICTs New Syllabi”.
- Gender and educommunication within the UNESCO framework.
- Educational policies in equality and sexual diversity regarding media and ICTs.
- International collaborative networks in gender, media, and ICTs.
- Relationships between the university and the corporate world regarding gender equality and educommunication.
- The treatment of gender equality in digital media.
Questions
Some of the questions and considerations raised by the topics addressed in this special issue include the following:
- To which extent have educational institutions integrated a gender perspective in their communication and ITC curricula?
- What are the criteria and standards implemented in the design of specific curricula in gender, media, and ITCs?
- Following the introduction of the model curricula proposed in the UNESCO-UniTWIN “Gender, Media, and ICTs New Syllabi”, what results, conclusions, and evaluations (both theoretical and practical) have been reached?
- What is the level of education and training in gender equality and diversity amongst the teaching staff in the fields of communication and ITCs?
- To which extent are women present in educational institutions and other educational structures in the fields of communication and ITCs?
- What is the specific training in gender for communication and ITCs students at different levels of education?
- What are the theoretical and practical applications for formal and informal education derived from the Gender-Sensitive Indications for Media recommended by UNESCO? What results, conclusions, and recommendations can be drawn after its introduction?
- What are the difficulties in specific contexts for the correct implementation of UNESCO recommendations regarding gender, media, and ICTs in the fields of education and teacher training?
- What networks, research groups, and cooperative actions operate at an international level to generate knowledge regarding the global situation of inequalities regarding gender, media, and ICTs? What is their scope of action and their main achievements and contributions for a necessary global alliance?
About the thematic editors
PhD Francisco-José García-Ramos
Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), where he teaches in the degrees and Master’s Degree in Advertising and Audiovisual Communication. He graduated in Information Sciences and also in Art History (Complutense University), and has a PhD in Art History. He is currently researching the presence of women in the History of photojournalism. Widely expertised in the fields of creativity and audiovisual culture, both within advertising and film and TV. He has undertaken research in gender within the framework of various I+D+I projects by the History Institute-CSIC, in his research stays at King’s College London (United Kingdom), as well as within the Complutense Research Group GECA (Gender, Aesthetics and Audiovisual Culture). He has published numerous articles on gender issues, and he is a member of the editorial boards of several journals. In addition, he is a researcher of the International UNESCO UniTWIN Network on Gender, Media, and ICTs and co-author of the “Gender, Media, and ICTs. New Syllabi for Media, Communication, and Journalism”.
PhD María-Soledad Vargas-Carrillo
Director of the Master’s in Communication and the Postgraduate in Communication and Journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso (Chile), she combines her role as director with her teaching at the School of Journalism. She graduated in Social Communication at the Playa Ancha University of Educational Sciences (Chile), and in Hispanic Philology and Literature at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso (Chile), and completed a Master’s in Journalism and Communicational Sciences at the Autonoma University of Barcelona (Spain), where she also finished her PhD in the same field. She is part of the editorial board of several journals, as well as a peer reviewer. Her publications focus on radio, press, and the History of Journalism from a gender perspective. She is one of the researchers integrated with the International UNESCO UniTWIN Network on Gender, Media, and ICTs, and co-author of the “Gender, Media, and ICTs. New Syllabi for Media, Communication, and Journalism”.
PhD Alexandra Wake
Senior Lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne (Australia), Alexandra Wake completed her PhD in Media and Communication at Deakin University (Victoria, Australia), and her Master of Arts at Queensland University of Technology (Australia). Her career as researcher and professor runs parallel to her extensive experience as a journalist in the Middle East and the Pacific Areas. Her main research interest focuses on training new journalists in emerging democracies and the coverage of traumatic conflicts and indigenous and multicultural groups, a task she has also undertaken within the South African Broadcasting Corporation (South Africa) and, the Dubai Women’s College (United Arab Emirates). She is part of the editorial board of several journals, where she is also a peer reviewer and has published numerous articles and chapters regarding the quality of the training in the field of educommunication. She has been awarded grants by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and the Ian Potter Foundation. As a researcher in the International UNESCO UniTWIN Network on Gender, Media, and ICTs she develops several international cooperative projects in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
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Contributions to the Special Issue should be submitted through the OJS platform
Deadline for submissions: 30 September 2019