TV news has significant gender imbalance

International TV news, September 1, 2013 – August 31, 2014

New York. September 30, 2014 – Women are severely underrepresented on international TV news and are frequently framed as victims as opposed to political leaders, business people, and other high-achieving public figures, according to new research from Media Tenor International.

“Not only do women represent only 11 out of the 100 most visible people on international TV news,” says Racheline Maltese, a researcher at Media Tenor, “these women only get 3% of the news coverage, highlighting the gender imbalance on TV.”

Media Tenor also found that women as a group were visible on international TV news with less frequency than athletes, soldiers, and criminals, groups the media often frame as male.  Additionally, the research highlights that women are often only visible on TV news in regard to “women’s issues” or when a target of discrimination or sexual violence. Women are rarely visible on more general topics.

This research examined all 110,245 reports on individuals and all 498,655 reports on groups of people on international TV news from September 1, 2013 – August 31, 2014.

For over 20 years Media Tenor’s mission has been to contribute to objective, diverse and newsworthy media content by bringing together the diverse parties. Media Tenor’s global research projects include analyses of election campaigns, investor relations, public diplomacy, corporate communications and other topics critical to news makers and news audiences.

For more information, please contact Racheline Maltese at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 212-935-0210.