Study on “Gender Mainstreaming and Blackout”

The Research and Studies Coordinator at the Media Development Center(MDC) Saleh Masharqa, published an analytical essay on “Gender Mainstreaming and Blackout” tackling the models of media coverage of women’s issues in the Palestinian Press. The study was issued by the MDC as part of the Media Research and Policy Series.

Masharqa’s study examined the mainstreaming of gender in Palestinian media meticulously using discourse analysis as a tool for understanding the role of the Palestinian news media in passing on the “gender messages” as it relates to the institutions in its power relation to the audience.

The researcher identified the discourse grouping (international actors along with local funded institutions) who are responsible for reproducing the international discourse and protect it, and explored the type of power and the muteness of the text, and how the passive recipients (readers) are kicked out using many examples from the language used in the local Palestinian media -even the images attached to news pieces provide a stellar proof. 

Masharqa reached to a number of conclusions including that the Palestinian written media did not support the gender mainstreaming or supporting its means and tools, to keep up with the imposition and blind adoption of this discourse.