A New Gender Deal for Media and Digital Communications: Rethinking Governance and Narratives

This chapter is a multi-vocal reflection on the main challenges to gender equality and women’s empowerment in media and communication and their implications for policies and governance. The aim is twofold: to interpret instances of contemporary global communication governance from a feminist critical standpoint; and to make visible an action-oriented proposal that the Global Alliance for Media and Gender (GAMAG) has elaborated in the context of initiatives promoted by the United Nations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action adopted in 1995: that of a New Gender Deal for Media and Digital Communications. By discussing depoliticisation of women’s movement interventions, the cooptation of feminist discourse by private corporations, and the increasing violation of women journalists’ freedom of expression, the chapter offers critical readings of selected issues that characterise the “crossroad” scholars and advocates find themselves at. The authors argue that a new discourse should be articulated in order to foster a holistic approach towards gender-transformative communication governance.