Media monitor reports continued underrepresentation of women, highlights potential of digital platforms

A report by the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) released on Thursday found that women in Pakistan continued to be underrepresented in the media, although digital platforms offered greater space for their participation and visibility.

The Pakistan National Report 2025 was released by the GMMP’s Pakistan partner, Uks Research Centre. It was based on the monitoring of the news landscape on May 6 last year — a day “marked by severe military and political tensions along the Line of Control with India” — which shaped the news content and the visibility of women across different platforms.

“The data captures not just a single day’s news, but the outcome of decades of institutional and societal factors that shape women’s visibility in Pakistani media,” the report said, adding, “On a day that was dominated by overwhelming national security coverage, these findings show broader systemic trends.”

According to the report, the monitoring was based on nine print newspapers, six television channels, the state-owned Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation radio channel, and four news-based websites. Thirteen volunteers participated in the monitoring, including Uks staff and students from various universities.

It found that women constituted only 11 per cent of news subjects across traditional media (print, television and radio), reflecting “their marginalisation in the coverage of politics, economy, crime, and sports”.

Across these platforms, they appeared most frequently in arts, culture, and celebrity reporting (60pc) and science and health (28pc), but were nearly absent in the hard-news areas highlighted above, ranging from 0-10pc in each area as well as in Gender-Based Violence (GBV) coverage.

However, digital media platforms highlighted greater inclusivity, as women made up 26pc of subjects in internet news. They were also visible in politics (23pc), science and health (33pc), social and legal issues (33pc), and were “central” to all monitored GBV stories (100pc).

“These findings illustrate a consistent platform-based gap, with online news offering women a higher likelihood of visibility,” the report stated.

It further said that the role of women in news production remained “extremely limited”, with men dominating reporting roles across all media.

Notably, in print, bylines by women comprised 5pc of the total, while radio showed 100pc female reporting on the monitoring day — although the report warned against generalisation due to a small sample size.

The report added that of the 29pc of news reported or presented by women, 96pc of them served as anchors or presenters and only 4pc were field reporters.

“Women reporters were largely absent from producing stories about men as subjects. On the other hand, men reported almost all the stories that featured women subjects,” it added.

GBV coverage on the monitoring day was limited, with only a single story recorded in traditional media. Online outlets, however, addressed sexual harassment and technology-facilitated violence and often also talked about broader gender inequality and rights-based perspectives, it said.

Meanwhile, women’s visibility as central subjects was limited, with only 15pc of news stories featuring women as the main focus, according to the report. Women’s news subjects primarily represented government officials or politicians and were rarely in roles providing personal experience or as experts.

In addition, the report highlighted that women were identified by their family roles or status in 15pc of cases compared to only 2pc for men.

A greater percentage of men were reported as victims, while photographs “disproportionately showed men” over women, and direct quotes were overwhelmingly given by men, with only 10.5pc of quotes attributed to women.

“Overall, only 1pc of the news content challenged gender stereotypes, and only 1pc of stories highlighted issues of gender equality or inequality between women and men,” it said.

According to the report’s executive summary, the findings “confirm patterns that have continued to endure in Pakistani news”.

However, they also highlighted the potential of digital media platforms to “create professional opportunities for women in journalism and to frame issues through a gendered and rights-based lens”, which in turn would improve their visibility and representation in media.

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