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BBC Media Action’s work for gender equality
Speaker: Sonia Whitehead and Namrata Sharma, BBC Media Action
Series: MCCI Research Talks
Abstract: In this session, Sonia Whitehead and Namrata Sharma will share insights from BBC Media Action’s work to advance gender equality through media. BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international charity, working in over 25 countries and reaching 120m people each year with local, trustworthy media under the most difficult circumstances. Sonia and Namrata will share how BBC Media Action’s work is rooted in behavioural science and local audience insights, how these shape media productions and how the charity rigorously assesses its impact.
Sonia and Namrata will share examples work in a range of contexts including Afghanistan, where, amid draconian restrictions on the rights of women and girls, we still work to support women and through surveys and focus groups conducted across the country are understanding their views. The radio stations we work with operate under tough restrictions and are at constant risk of closure as restrictions tighten. But these brave women are bringing critical information on health, nutrition and gender-based violence to some of the farthest corners of the country, reaching their listeners where they are – at home, listening to radios that have become essential lifelines of information and connections to the outside world.
Biography:
Sonia Whitehead is BBC Media Action’s Head of Research, overseeing research across Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Over the last twenty years, she has overseen a range of research looking at the role of women, their media usage, their values, attitudes and behaviour and using this data to identify how their needs can be more supported through improved communication. This includes most recently, understanding the social norms that are inhibiting women to access digital tools (India) and evaluating the role that radio programming can play to encourage girls attending school (South Sudan).
Namrata Sharma, Senior Advisor, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion: Namrata is an intersectional researcher-practitioner who provides strategic input to enhance gender-transformative and inclusive programming across BBC Media Action projects. For over 12 years, she has worked at the cusp of gender, education, and media for social impact with communities from Asia and Africa. Her work leverages feminist methodologies and has been focussed on prevention of gender-based violence, women’s representation in media, social inclusion, and equality in public participation. Most recently, she investigated the role of online social movements in fostering empowerment amongst women (India) and supported two radio programmes aimed at gender-based violence prevention (South Sudan).
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