Re-booting gender in communication research and practice: a translational approach. ECREA 2018 special panel report

Abstract

The special panel “Re-booting gender in communication research and practice: a translational approach” comprised a group of colleagues who are working together on two different projects around gender equality in the media, along with a contributor from the European Institute for Gender Equality. The panel responded to the conference theme in several ways, not least by placing gender equality front and centre as an important but often neglected element of media policy and practice. We argue that issues of gender are located at both the centre and the periphery of media and communication research in terms of content (representation), production (employment), policy (structure) and ownership (political economy). While all these aspects have been topics of significant research interest over the past few decades, a consideration of the ways in which gender is a differentiating feature of media content and media practice has often been a glaring omission in research design.