Leading in a Different Language: Will Women Change the News Media?
The Future of Women in Media Leadership

The majority of respondents -- 84 percent -- to the IWMF survey in March 2000 say that their opportunities for advancement have improved in the last five years. And despite the challenges women journalists around the world face each day, they are optimistic about women's contributions to the future of the media and the resulting positive changes that women in the media will bring to all of society.

IWMF board member Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association in the United States, predicts that the new era of technology and globalization will throw professional doors wide open for women. Tara Sonenshine, president of WomensNewsLink.com, told the IWMF conference in May 2000, "There is power where women, news and the Internet come together." Without doubt, many women journalists are looking to the Internet as a new professional outlet and as another opportunity to establish professional credibility.

For example, Peruvian Cecilia Valenzuela has been fired from several publications because her investigative reports cast a negative light on her government. Earlier this year, Valenzuela, a 1993 winner of the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award, found a new means to publish critical stories on political events in her country: The World Wide Web. Her Internet news service -- www.imediaperu.com -- helps her maintain her independence -- and her journalistic integrity.

But if women want to take advantage of opportunities offered by the new technology, they must act quickly. Already in many areas of the world, men control the content on the web. Speaking at the U.N. Beijing Plus 5 Conference in New York in June 2000, Wenke Eriksen of the Norwegian Broadcasting Company, warned that even in her country, where more than half of the journalists are women, men dominate the Internet. "Young guys produce all the websites of Norway's major newspapers," she said.

Still, there may be changes in store for how journalists cover the news. At the IWMF gathering of women media leaders in May, Rosie Boycott, editor-in-chief of The Express in London, said, "More and more breaking news is going to go on the Internet" rather than appearing as front page headlines in a newspaper's morning edition.

"Building confidence in professional women is a part of mentoring. Often when women are tapped for a position they ask if they can do it, not because they lack the skills but becuase thus far they have not received encouragement and there is no one pushing them forward."
Emily Nwankwo, General Manager, The Nation Media Group, Kenya

This will not spell the demise of daily newspapers, argued Karen Elliott House, president of Dow Jones International. She said newspapers will continue to provide in-depth analysis of issues, an important role in helping readers sort out the often complex facts.

The rise in new technology means that journalists should broaden their skills and develop expertise in several different types of media, advised Michael Bloomberg, founder and CEO of Bloomberg Financial Markets, speaking to the IWMF conference in May. "Technology and economics are not going to allow you to specialize in one thing," he said.

With media globalization, collaborative partnerships between international and local media companies will be the norm, predicted Karen Elliott House. Working with global companies will require good communication skills, flexibility and team work, skills which women already bring to management.

Growth opportunities for women in the media are available. Women who have already achieved top positions are generally bringing others along and encouraging a new generation of women media leaders. The road to the top is still not a smooth one, but the barriers and obstacles to success women face each day can be met with a wide range of strategies for surmounting them.

Will women change the news media of the future? The debate is still open, but most women journalists feel that they can and will influence the industry once women reach a critical mass in decision-making positions. In her response to the 2000 IWMF survey, a U.S. journalist summed up: women working together and supporting one another to reach the highest levels in the media, "will have great impact in making their publications more useful, relevant, and accessible" to society as a whole, she said.