Have you noticed that only 13% of the expert commentary on the three major US networks is provided by women? Ever watch the Sunday news talk shows? On those broadcasts, men outnumber women nine to one. Thankfully, SheSource.org is working to change that.
SheSource.org, which launches in Fall 2005, is "an online resource of expert women ready and available to enrich the public debate. SheSource is designed to include spokeswomen from a variety of backgrounds, representing demographic and ethnic diversity as well as work in a variety of issue areas – particularly ones that are traditionally male-dominated."
There are at least three ways you can help SheSource meet their goal "to ensure that women are recognized as stakeholders and called upon as experts in all fields:"
* Recommend a spokesperson. Submit the names of credible, dynamic, well-spoken women who are experts in their fields (see comments) to SheSource so that media sources can contact them for commentary.
* Reference women in your reporting. If you are a reporter, journalist, or writer, in print, broadcast or online media, sign-up with SheSource to receive the names of expert spokeswomen in your area.
* Spread the word about SheSource. Tell your friends and colleagues, and make sure your local media know about and use SheSource.
Who knows what the news would look like and sound like if more women participated? I'm sure it would be a change for the better!
"The greatest privilege in our society is to be a purveyor of news." - Franklin Bliss Snyder (1949), President, Northwestern University, in his commencement address at Medill School of Journalism
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3 comments:
This just in from SheSource:
Karama--
Thank you so much for your support! It would be super-helpful though if you could amend two things on your site.
We are actually not accepting nominations for experts at the moment because we are trying to load the information of the experts we already have into the database. Unfortunately, this was not conveyed in the e-mail sent out to WFN supporters so I was
inundated with e-mails for nominations which I am filing for next year.
Additionally, SheSource has expert spokespeople in very specific subject areas (Health, Military, Foreign Affairs, National Security, Education, Crime (Law), Economy & Budget, Philanthropy and U.S. Politics & Elections). Therefore, if someone would like to suggest an expert, they really need to
be knowledgable about one of these categories. We are considering adding a Religion category as well.
I just want to clarify so people are not disappointed once they contact me.
Thanks so much for your support.
Best,
Keli Goff
FENTON Communications
You're right, Steve. As always, thanks for stopping by!
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